Skip to content

Spacing

Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Bikes

POLL: Will Igor bust result in fewer stolen bikes?

By

Read more articles by

As Spacing’s Dylan Reid wrote the other day, the bust of Igor’s bike shop has sent a sigh of relief through the cycling community. One of the opinions being discussed by the public is whether this will have any effect of bike theft in the city.

photo by Natalie Brahan

Recommended

10 comments

  2. The police can’t just pretend that the bike theft problem is solved. They will have to continue to go after the big names in bike theft to make any lasting difference.

  3. @1

    You know, you don’t have to be a pedant all the time. Readers probably get the point.

  4. A better question might be “what will stop Igor from picking up right where he left off?”

    Almost everyone, police included, knew about his operation for the past decade. He got “caught” by accident because he made a pretty brazen mistake swiping bikes across from his store in broad daylight.
    He won’t be that stupid again.

    All he has to do know is just go back to the old method of buying from druggies and thieves who bring the bikes to him from all over the City. All he has to is pay them $25.00 and pretend to write down their name and contact information in his ratty old notebook and until someone claims the bike this practice is “legal” enough that the cops leave him alone.

    Something really needs to change with the policy that allows “used” bikes to be “sold” in this matter. I think every used bike “sold” by a dealer or a pawnshop should be registered online 1st for 60 days before being sold.

    This way victims of theft can at least check online to see if their bike is available somewhere. If an Igor gets caught selling bikes he did not register online then he gets busted.
    Victims should not be made to look for their property in a “shop” like Igor runs.

  5. Here’s some news, info and a recommendation to help add context to this story.

    What gets me is that there are literally thousands of bikes sitting down on Straughn Ave. 95% or more of them have never been registered. This is one of the key problems and behind one of the main reasons why IGOR got off the first time.

    Licensing and registrating a bike should be manditory. When a shop sells a new bike the shop should be responsible for registering it to the buyer. When someone sells a used bike the buyer should be encouraged through a law that saws all vehicals (bikes are considered such on our roads) need to be registered and licenced. The clincher is that very few want to go to the cop shop to do this. In many parts of the US, registering your bike happens through the local fire department. They are just as frequently located throughout the city as cop shops (many areas more so) and according to one cop I spoke to recently “the firefighters have more time to deal with doing this.” Licencing means two things (1, a central database with the bike’s serial # and 2, a license sticker that is not easy to remove on the bike itself.) This would solve a huge part of the problem the police faced the first time in shutting IGOR down. Back in the early ’90s when he went to court the first time for selling stolen property he got off (good lawyer and bad police work that left a lot of the witnesses hanging in the wind about their stolen bikes. Those folks’ testimonies turned out to be questionable and IGOR got off. Not only did he get off, he turned around and sued the cops and WON. Tornoto needs and effective bike licencing system and it should not rest of someone having to go to the cops to register their bike. That is just too intimidating for many.
    So park your earthpig permanently and ride you bike!

  6. Is it really THAT intimidating to go through five clicks on the Toronto Police Services website? I registered my new bike through there this weekend. Took me about a minute, but I type slow. 🙂

    You don’t have to have any face time with Babylon at all, unless there happens to be a picture of Bill Blair on the homepage.

    Hell, even if you don’t have internet at home, go buy 25 cents worth of time at a cafe or use the library. No muss, no fuss.

  7. Michael: “When a shop sells a new bike the shop should be responsible for registering it to the buyer.”

    That’s a good idea, actually. When I bought my Nikon camera last year, the store recorded all my info for warranty purposes. Why can’t bike stores do the same?

  8. Snippy! I didn’t intend to be pedantic; sorry Paul. I just meant: if Igor was the biggest bike thief in the city, by far (the cops just recovered 700 more bikes), doesn’t his being stopped from stealing or facilitating the stealing of hundreds of bikes a year necessarily mean there will be fewer stolen bikes? Unless he’s part of some bike-stealing hydra I’m not aware of…

  9. I’m sure he’ll be let out in a few months, but the least the city can do is prohibit him from selling bikes for a very long time.

  10. Hey, thanks for linking my Sun stories. I appreciate it. Apologies for some of the dead links.

    In order for Igor to continue what he’s been doing for 16 years, he needs a business license from the City of Toronto. Given his current predicament, that’s not going to be easy for him. Of course, he hasn’t been convicted, so there likely won’t be a decision made until then, but his release from jail will factor in. Kenk’s bail hearing is tomorrow at Old City Hall. If he’s released, there will most certainly be restrictive conditions. Those conditions could include restrictions on where and when he’s allowed to be at any given time. It could also include curfew and/or a house arrest situation. He’s facing serious charges including trafficking, so the courts could come down hard on him when it comes to his bail conditions.