A Star reporter wrote a story today describing how her bike was stolen from in front of police headquarters.
It’s a perfect symbol of how little police in this city care about bike theft, whose ubiquity is probably one of the significant deterrents to cycling in this city.
I suspect that, with even a modest dedicated program, the police could significantly reduce theft in the city, by cracking down on the ways stolen bikes are re-sold. Most of them probably go through a small number of bike shops. Shut down these shops with a few sting operations, and make sure the other shops in the city know the police are watching them, and it would become significantly harder to unload a stolen bike — cutting down on the casual theft that plagues the city. You could never get rid of bike theft completely, of course, especially for high-end bikes, but I suspect bike theft rates could be significantly reduced if the police put some real effort into it.
40 comments
Be sure and check out the new “Lost & Found” section on the Cycling Cog – it lets people list what was stolen and where – a great resource to get people on the lookout.
As a multiple-bike-theft victim, I still suggest setting out a few “honeypots” and getting right to the vigilanteism. 😉
The last time we called the Toronto cops on an obvious bike thief (he was checking which lock was the weakest, then started hacking away with a saw!) the cops came, they called the fire dept. who clipped the lock themselves and gave the guy the bike! WTF!
This is pretty much stating the obvious but… there are two major shops where you might find your stolen bike: one is on Spadina south of College on the East side (as to look in the basement) and the other is on Queen West across from Trinity Bellwoods (ask to look out back).
A (reputable) bike shop owner recently told me that the cops told him that they won’t shut down THOSE shops because they know where to go to retrieve peoples’ stolen bikes for them. Wha??? How the he** does that make any sense!? They get to stay in business because their thievery is predictable?
!!Remember to just say you are looking to buy a bike when you go looking for your stolen bike at these shops.
Thanks for the Lost and Found/Cycling Cog info.
Cops don’t care about cyclists. It’s a farce to think that they care.
Yeah the one on Queen West is sad. Every night around midnight, a pickup with a trailer brings in all sorts of bikes just piled up. I always wonder how the cops never go there.
Yesterday, my garage was broken into and the thief stole the bike that I had just bought my partner as a birthday present. Every single one of my friends has had a bike stolen this year, and sadly, it makes no sense to buy a new bicycle anymore. This is disasterous for bicycle shops that sell new and high end bicycles, and it has truly become an epidemic in the city of Toronto…a city that is wonderful for biking.
I have been reading everyone’s comments, and yes, I agree there needs to be a crackdown. But what would be the concensus on something a little more drastic? In other countries, for example, they have an actualy licensing system for bikes. This means that all bicycles would have to have a small plate located under the seat, and all bikes would have to be registered with the police, and could not be bought or sold without the proper papers. This would put an end to these chop shops such as the one near Trinity Bellwoods and the place on Spadina. Only legitmate dealers could deal in used bicycles, and as a rider you would be a pariah if seen riding a bike without a proper plate. (If possible, once such a system were implemented, the police could have a blitz where you could be stopped on your bike and must produce the proper papers. I know, that seems a little harsh…but humour me!)
I know this might take away some of the anonymity of legitimate riders, and I’m sure there are other disadvantages to such a system, but I am so angry with the situation in our city. I am also angry that people support these chop shops by giving these places (Queen st and the Spadina and others) any business at all.
The guy who runs the place on Queen Street near Trinity Bellwoods is called Igor. I used to live down the street from the ‘store’ and have never seen him steal a bike – but I have seen him intimidate people and have had to call the police to report that he drives his truck drunkenly down the sidewalk. He owns the building and I would be surprised if he was licensed with the city to run a business.
REWARD FOR RETURN OF BIKE – $500 FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO RETURN OF MY STOLEN BIKE
Is Igor’s place the one with the bike parts welded to the outside of the building? Can you just walk in there and buy a “used” bike, hopefully to replace the exact model you recently “lost”?
REWARD! Breezer Uptown 8, Women’s U-Frame, Ruby Red, new – reward of $500 for its return, intact. Serial # MT50900770
linda_wild2rogers.com (replace 2 with @ to email me if you know where this may be.
My bike was stolen today. Igor did it. I recently bought a bike from igor not knowing what a dirty $&##*@ he is. A few weeks later I found him hounding around my bike on the other side of town. It was as if he was taking notes on the location of my bicycle. I approched him to talk about a common interest (bikes) he seemed very shady. I continued to talk to him about purchasing another bike for myself and giving the one we where standing infront of to my girlfriend to pursure futher conversation. I soon realized the the bike I had bought was most likly a stolen one. Later I continued to lock my bike up in the same way I had previously not caring to much about owning a stolen bike. Today when I found that my bike was stolen, I found that the theif had left a girls bike as a replacement in its place (for my girlfriend I guess).
I know the cops will do very little regarding this lowlife. The thing is that everyone in his community knows he’s a scum bag & somthing is bound to catch up with him 😉
Take care Igor, we know where you live!
K, I’m calm now. Its only a bike & I probly should have locked it better. Moral of the story: Don’t by used stuff off of shady people.
So why do we wait for the cops to do something, when we know they never will..
Toronto needs to grow some balls and start acting against those that rob us.
Igor is a scumbag.
He is also a thief.
From what I have heard, alot of bikes stolen in the GTA are then driven to Montreal for resell and vice versa.
It’s a clever racket and nobody is stopping him, so why would he stop?!?!
Bike crime is out of control in this city, but it never seems to unite people because it is an individual crime and people who get theirs knicked, later wind up owning a stolen bike because they feel whats the point.
Something needs doing.
Any thoughts?
Someone just stole my mountain bike today, I live in downtown near queen and Bathurst, I have no clue what to do, should I go and shop for my stolen bike and buy it again, then beat the owner of the store till he remember me for the rest of his life?
In my building at least 5 people got there bike stolen last year.
I still think I just have to go and buy a sheep bike from Wal-Mart, something that thief’s do not like.
For what it’s worth, Igor writes down the description and (where applicable) the “number” of the bikes people try to sell him. I’ve seen him do it, on those double-paged sheets from the TPD (one copy goes to the cops) and have seen him ask the sellers repeatedly and with skepticism where they got the bike. I don’t know, maybe he thinks I’m a narc and was acting the part.
Although I also know that the police hardly follow up and I can’t imagine Igor goes out of his way to hand those sheets back to the police department regularly. So as long as you report your stolen bike to the police (hopefully you’re smart enough to have scratched something unique on the frame – lie “Property of…”) and know the make, the gears, how wide your tires were, you’ll get it back in, oh… a few years, if you’re lucky.
He’s been there since the late 80s, you’d think by his reputation on this post he wouldn’t last a month, no matter how apathetic the Toronto police are.
HOWEVER, this is not to say that if you told me he buys the Montréal bikes (There IS a cross-city ring) I won’t believe it. He’s rude, and that does not help his dubious rep, but talking shit about Igor won’t get your stolen bike back (I’ve learned the hard way) since 1. It’s being sold by his Montréal equivalent and 2. He’s covered his ass enough that simple accusasions won’t stick – and it’s hardly worth your time to prove him wrong.
Fighting against any illegal trade has to happen at the source. Weeds die at the root. Igor and others like him are the stem. In any case, he’s selling his property, so we’ll have to find another straw man to burn.
My bfriend and I had our bikes stolen from the st lawrence market area. Both bikes were only a week old and we had spent in excess of $3500 total on these. Needless to say, we were shocked to see our bikes disappear. When we inquired around to see if anyone had witnessed anyone stealing them, a newspaper vendor told us that bike thefts in the area are very frequent and that most of these bikes are stolen and sold by crackheads at Uncle Jacob’s( the bicycle store on Spadina and college). We decided to drive there and take a look to see if we could find the bike there. We looked around but found nothing. As we were driving away, we saw a guy riding my bfriend’s bike into Uncle Jacob’s to try to sell the bike. We caught him red handed when he was trying to make this transaction. My bfriend confronted him. Needless to say, the guy denied that he stole the bike ; etc etc. I called the cops…the guy tried to flee, my bfriend tried to catch him but lost him eventually. We were not able to recover the second bike. We were able to take a picture of the thief and are going to post it on the web.
We went to Igor’s to see if the second bike was there – he was extremely rude and defensive. We will try to go again tomorrow and see if we can see the bike there.
Does anyone have any suggestions??? I guess we don’t want to give up just as yet…..
It seems like some of the shifty bike stores in Toronto are well-known. Does anyone know of bike shops in Montreal that turn over stolen bikes?
Just had my beautiful bike stolen yesterday – am new to the city so I don’t know how to find out where to go and look.
thank you,
Erica
Bought my wife a $500 bike for her bday Oct. 4 for her to ride to work. Stolen Oct 26. Thanks for the tips-I’ll check out those stores.
I had my bike stolen out of the back of my car the other day, this is bull shit the cops dont do anything so it just keeps on happening to more and more people. If anyone is interested in creating a list of names with the bikes stolen and the total amount of value $$$$ that has been lost I think it would show the police that the issue is something that needs attention.
RE:Comment by Jesse
September 8, 2006
My bike was STOLEN and the thief also left a bike in the place of mine. What was the thief thinking?… that I will take this cheaper bike in return for mine?… not report to the Police because he left me something I could at lease get home with?… and is this bike stolen? Why doesn’t he just take the cheep bike and sell it? All these unanswered questions! Is this the style of one bike thief? Is my bike at Igor’s being chopped up? All I know is that I have been violated and the Police will admit that they don’t have time and manpower to do anything. There is nothing we can do so get over it and run down to Igor’s and PU another bike. P.S. Has anyone had their stolen bike replaced by another one and did u recover it?
I just got my bike stolen in front of City Hall this morning (just left it there briefly). I locked the bike with two locks, and even registered with the police online, but the police couldn’t find my registration! I have serious doubt if the online thing works… Maybe I will have my serial number saved in my cell phone next time. I guess I will have to walk myself to Uncle Jacob’s and Igor’s tonight to see if I can buy my baby back…
—-^0^—–
Does the hundred buck lock work for preventing theft? Safety tips anyone? I have on average one bike stolen a year, but this year it is only April…
Caroline, know how you feel. My bike was stolen today from outside a subway station. Must be the weather.
Had my bike stolen on Sunday, April 13, in front of Dufferin Mall, in broad daylight. The thieves left the cut lock. The bike is a Giant with an ATX 890 Aluminum 19.5″ frame and an ATX 870 gearset (Shimano XT), mostly yellow with blue and red in front. It has a red (most paint is chipped off) Rock Shox Judy front suspension.
The bike was stolen between 2:30pm and 5:30pm. If anyone saw anything, please contact police.
I reported the theft to police, who basically then told me that it was very unlikely that I ever saw my bike again. How’s that for encouragement.
I mean, I’m realistic, but still…
This is my only means of transportation and reverting to the TTC just doesn’t cut it.
This is definitely a huge economic issue as I will not consider spending on a new bike the amount of money I spent on this bike. I’d rather get a cheapo import and good lock than risk getting another bike stolen.
I can not believe what I have just read. I bought a friggin bike from Uncle Jacobs….now I feel so bad that for the last two years I have been riding a possibly stolen bike. I went to the store with my father, he was so nice,said my bike was brand new, just got into the store..it was really clean didn’t look used at all…but now the thought that some poor person lost a bike so I can ride it is crazzzzzyyyyy!
I am so sorry to all of you who have had their bikes stolen, it’s not a good feeling and if I knew who the original owner of my bike was I would give it back in a flash!
I want to help put a stop to this. The TTC is raising their prices, it’s expensive to drive a car…so a bike the only source of transportation for many people, not everyone has the money to keep getting new bikes..and why should everyone have to worry about them getting stolen…if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.
I had my bike stolen a couple of years ago at Exhibition Park. I reported the theft at the mini police station on the Exhibition grounds. The officer on duty suggested that I go to Igor’s place on Queen St. West and if it was there and if Igor hadnt had time to dispose of my bike, I might get it back
I thought the likelihood of this was somewhere between slim and none, but I did walk over to Igor’s place and believe it or not, my bike was standing there, outside his store against a post.
I called the office at the Exhibition grounds and told him he was absolutely right. He said stay with your bike and I’ll have two cops on bicycles there in about 3 minutes.
Sure enough, moments later two cops on bikes showed up and asked me if the bike in question was mine. I said it was, Then the cop asked Igor where he got the bike. Igor said he had just bought it for $25.00. The cops asked Igor if he had a bill of sale or ownership papers but Igor said he didn’t. The cops turned to me and simply said “take your bike”.
So I was one of the lucky ones that the police did help.
My bike was stolen today
gorgeous bike a real part of me
stolen from U of T right out from under the nose of two CCTV cameras
i’m angry and just so sad.
i hope i can find it tomorrow… in the two spots listed
if anyone sees a Scott bike around, very rare, fb60 grey/gunmetal lemme know paratrooper69@hotmail.com
I had my bike lifted recently in front of the Toronto Refefence Library. I made the mistake of bringing my Kryptonite cable lock instead of my u-lock…nothing a pair of bolt cutters can’t address. Theft happened in broad daylight, probably some time around noon, so there had to be multiple witnesses given the amount of people that hang out in front of the library (which bugs me almost as much as the fact that my bike was stolen in the first place). I won’t describe the bike just in case Igor and his cronies read these posts and are on the lookout, but I’m gonna check out these stores to see if I can recover my bike. While I’m still not hopeful of it’s recovery, I’m kinda charged up to know I could help take these guys down…aside from the person who found their bike being brought in to the store for sale (great story, btw…congrats!), has anyone ever found a bike they knew was stolen, and if so, what did they do?
Yesterday I locked my bike up outside on King at Spadina in front of the mini dealership. I usually bring it in but yesterday I intended to run some errands at lunch.
Anyway, the day got away from me and I didn’t get out of the office until 5pm, and to my disappointment my bike was stolen! After a brief breakdown in front of a coworker and
phone call to my parents to cry to them I decided what’s the point of being upset…..So I decided to walk down Queen Street W to get home. I figured I should at least
walk by Igor’s (across from Trinity Bellwood’s Park) I know most people know of the place because he’s always blocking the sidewalk fixing bikes.
>From about a block away I saw my bike, I knew it was mine even from a block away! As I marched up I claimed it was mine and said I could prove it.
He challenged me. So I said, “see that combination lock under the seat that keeps my seat from being stolen for the 3rd time?” guy says “yes” I said
“I know the combo”. I proceeded to unlock it and heard a gasp from the crowd of customers. I then said “now I am taking my bike and want a new lock for the one
that was busted to get it here”. Igor didn’t argue and gave me a new lock. I told him he was lucky I didn’t call the cops.
Things to keep in mind.
1) don’t lock you bike up outside if you can prevent it.
2) check out Igor’s as soon as your bike gets stolen
3) have some way to prove it’s yours. Write down the serial # and keep it in your wallet, it will only take you 5 minutes to do this.
My story had a happy ending, I was lucky. Apparently the bike had been dropped off only 15 minutes before I got there.
“I told him he was lucky I didn’t call the cops.”
and you didn’t because…?
I had to get home quickly due to personal reasons and didn’t have the time. If I had the time I wouldn’t have thought twice about calling, trust me.
Oh damn.. another STOLEN bike, probably on it’s way to Igor or creepy uncle Jacob. It is a pretty unique little Kona Kuku BMX. They will have ripped the telltale, cool rubber padding and chrome skull valve caps off of by now. She’s got an Emily sticker on the top tube and a Playdead Cult sticker on the steer tube. If any one sees her without her real rider ( a petite tatooed chick) clothesline the bastard and beat him up.
Thanks.
And yeah.. Igor and Uncle Jacob suck and the cops don’t give a rats ass about cyclists.
Oh yeah, the above comment.. it was stolen tonight from my porch in my ‘good’ neighborhood, College and Dovercourt, which now feels so shady.. will my mannequin get stolen next? Perhaps a ride to Igors??
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2008/07/17/6182146-sun.html
Take that Igor ya prick!
I can’t help noting that among Toronto headlines today are several mentioning how there is currently a “weird calm” in the city with regard to crime so I’m thinking that’s why this fuckwad was finally arrested.
for all you bicyclette romantics: http://playlistor.com/play.php?pl=Dx3hp9H7wzut9i9
Canadian Tire and similar box stores contribute to these thefts, all the locks sold in their stores are grossly inadequate to secure a bicycle for even 5 seconds, and they know it.
Also why aren’t the stores selling bikes make registration part of the bike sale process, then provide the police with the list weekly or montly.
Where does this Uncle Jacob character conduct his nefarious business? I knew of Igor, but couldn’t recover my beautiful bike. If anyone has found it:
Its a ruby red Breezer Uptown 8, ladies U frame, serial MT50900770
i had two of my bikes stolen… one was in storage and the other got taken from me when i was jumped. the irony being that they were the bikes were the same model and i had to work very hard a youth to save up money to buy each of them.
anyways… i would like to begin a discussion on locking techniques and try to focus solutions.
are there locks / methods out there that can actually stop a bike thief? if so, what are they?
SORRY FOR ANY PERSON LOST IS BIKE. MY SHOP GOT SECOUND HAND . OUR POLICY MADE NOT TO BUY BIKES FROM PUBLIC 2 YEARS AGO .AFTER I FOUND THE BIKE STOLEN PROBLEM IN TORONTO.AS MY EXPIRIENCE I OFFER TO THE CITY HELP TO SOLVE PART OFF THE PROBLEM. WE CANT STOP STOLEN BIKES. BUT THE BY LAW HAS TO BE CHANGE. OUR PROBLEM ITS TO FIND THE STOLEN BIKES AND RTURN THAM TO THE ORIGINAL OWNER.NEED TO GET STORE OWNER TO PUT ANY SECONDHAND BIKE ON THE COMPUTER ON SPECIAL WEBSITE . STORE OWNER WILL BE NEED TO GET PAID IN CASE SOMEONE FIND HIS OWN BIKE THREW THE WEBSITE. OUR PROBLEM IN TORONTO LIKE ANY BIG CITY OVER THE GLOBE ITS HEAVY DRUGS PROBLEM THAT MAKE POEPLE STEEL BIKES. THANKS AND HOPE FOR LESS PROBLEMS JACOB
NEED TO BE NICE TO EACH OTHER HELP AND KIND WISH THE BEST J
I just had mine cut off a fence in the Baldwin St. area – same technique, same neighbourhood as many reported thefts in chat rooms. A crappy bike was left in its place, which I think works like this:
These punks bike around to cover more ground and lessen suspicion – if you are on a bike, you’re less likely to be taken for a bike thief – and then swap out their beaters for an upgrade. They also tend to lock up their beaters, so that they can return to claim them “legitimately” on foot at a later date. If you want to catch the perpetrator and you have time, stake out the beater – someone will come back for it, guaranteed, though it will be hard to actually prove they are the culprit.