Bicycle Theft Season Commencing
Riskboss™ (www.riskboss.com) often receives alerts from the police services, government authorities and other agencies that may be of interest to residential condominium property managers and boards of directors. Riskboss offers periodic alerts to institutions, organizations, commercial and condominium property managers and board members to assist in identifying risk to the communities and to provide solutions to mitigate that risk. Riskboss hopes the following information assists you. Please feel free to distribute this document to other property managers and community based associations that may benefit from the content. Please contact us any time with any issue that you may want researched regarding crime, disorder and risk.
The month of May brings both warm weather and for a lot of families, the commencement bicycle season. With that unfortunately bicycle theft season also ramps up in May and peaks in July every year. There are very few things that irritate condominium residents more than going down to the bicycle locker and finding that your bike has been stolen.
You attend the security desk to report the incident and the inevitable question is asked, “Do you know the serial number of your bicycle?” Surprisingly people spend a lot of money on bicycles and accessories, yet they fail to plan ahead by registering their bicycles with property management and local police and fail to buy quality-locking mechanisms.
Unlike stolen vehicles that have a very high recovery rate, the lack of registration is the predominant reason why very few bicycles are recovered and returned to their owners. For example, of the approximately 14,000 reported thefts between 2014 and 2017 in Toronto, only around 1.27% of stolen bicycles were recovered and returned. Contrary to popular belief that bike thefts occur in the early morning hours while most people are sleeping, statistics surprisingly prove different in that 6pm is the peak time for such thefts.
Most residential condominiums prohibit bicycles in elevators forcing residents to store their bicycles in designated areas. Condominiums are moving to more robust locking mechanisms for bicycle room doors and are adding CCTV cameras. They are also moving away from bicycle storage in open areas such as underground parking garages and above ground bicycle racks. Riskboss considers these areas as very high risk and an open invitation for would-be criminals to easily take advantage of risk weaknesses.
To reduce your risk you can view great advice through online sources such as your local municipality and local police service. Ideas on how to register your bicycles, how to report apparently abandoned bikes, who needs to wear a helmet, better locks and how to secure your bicycles properly can be found such websites.
Lastly, your bicycles have been in storage for many months collecting dust. Prior to heading out on the bicycle trails and streets consider contacting a local bicycle shop to come out and do an annual bicycle tune up and registration day for your community. At the same time get the local police involved in a community bicycle safety-training day at your condominium community. The peace of mind you will get by riding a recently tuned-up bicycle that has been registered both with your condominium and the local police is well worth the effort and reduces your personal risk substantially.
Contact Riskboss to schedule a free, no obligation risk tour of your condominium community with one of our accredited experts. We will provide advice on industry best practices and high impact, low cost ideas to mitigate your risk.