{"id":2062,"date":"2015-11-07T14:24:33","date_gmt":"2015-11-07T22:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=2062"},"modified":"2015-11-07T14:24:33","modified_gmt":"2015-11-07T22:24:33","slug":"a-bike-thiefs-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/a-bike-thiefs-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"A bike thief\u2019s paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Alvin Wilson \r\nStaff Writer<\/pre>\n
In case you haven\u2019t noticed, bikes are everywhere on campus. In front of almost every building, you can find dozens of bicycles awaiting their owner\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
But, for many Western students, the bikes aren\u2019t always there when they get back.<\/p>\n
According to data from the Monmouth Police Department (MPD), about 31 percent of bike thefts that they have responded to this year happened at Western, with even more occurring in the neighborhoods surrounding campus.<\/p>\n
What is the first thing students do when their bikes are stolen?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone has their bike stolen on campus, then they typically will call us first,\u201d said Rebecca Chiles, director of Campus Public Safety.<\/p>\n
But Campus Public Safety responds only to thefts that take place on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to have happened on campus for us to be involved at all, even if it\u2019s a student who lives off campus,\u201d Chiles said.<\/p>\n
Students who report a bike theft on campus can have the MPD make an official report as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ask everyone who reports a crime if they want the MPD involved,\u201d Chiles said. \u201cGenerally, people want an actual police report on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bike theft is a common occurrence on college campuses everywhere. According to the MPD, the average value of a stolen bike in Monmouth is $682. Bike thefts have cost the citizens of Monmouth more than $26,000 so far this year.<\/p>\n
But there are simple ways to help reduce your risk of becoming a victim.<\/p>\n
Buy a good lock<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cTypically what we see is students parking their bikes and using a cable lock,\u201d Chiles said. \u201cThose are really easy to defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cable locks are one of the most popular style of bike locks used. Unfortunately, they are also one of the easiest to cut with a pair of bolt cutters.<\/p>\n
U-locks may be more expensive, but the added cost is definitely worth not having to buy a new bike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe suggest using a u-shaped lock made of hardened steel\u201d Chiles said. \u201cReally, you need to have a four-foot set of bolt cutters to cut those. You can defeat them, but typically people don\u2019t carry that around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lock your bike correctly<\/strong><\/p>\n
Christopher Lynch, Community Service Officer for the Monmouth Police Department, said, \u201cOne thing I\u2019ve noticed around campus is that some people don\u2019t lock their bikes to an object. They only lock the tire to the frame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locking your bike up properly can make it extremely difficult for a thief to succeed in taking your bike.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing a u-lock in combination with a cable lock, or two u-locks to lock the tires and the frame is going to protect your bike the best,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cYou need to lock both tires and the bike to a solid object if you really want it secure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Register your bike with CPS and MPD<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing you can do is register your bike with the campus,\u201d Officer Lynch said. \u201cIn addition to that, you can come to the police department to fill out our bicycle registration form.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students can register their bikes with both Campus Public Safety and the MPD. This helps both agencies find your stolen bicycle more easily and efficiently.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou bring the bike here, we take a picture of it, get the serial number, and fix our own number on the bike,\u201d Chiles said of the campus bicycle registration process. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t keep it from being stolen, but it helps us track it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to these risk-reducing tips, students should also be prepared to report any bike thefts they see or experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people don\u2019t report them stolen, then there\u2019s nothing for us to go on,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t get the reports, it just makes our job that much harder because we can\u2019t catch the people doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next time you lock your bike up on campus, keep these tips in mind and remember: your bike is worth more than that $20 lock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In case you haven\u2019t noticed, bikes are everywhere on campus. In front of almost every building, you can find dozens of bicycles awaiting their owner\u2019s return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":2121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}