Bikes Being Stolen at McAuliffe

Ben Vincent, writer

A rising number of bikes are being stolen at McAuliffe International School this school year. I have first-hand accounts and spoke with Principal Dennis. The thefts are likely due to careless bike locking, leaving them more vulnerable to thieves. After the bikes are stolen, they are most likely sold for profit or scrapped for parts. Over six bikes have been stolen as of recently, including my (Ben) bike, which was the first bike to be stolen out of the corral this year. When my bike was stolen, I had not locked it well, and three weeks later, we saw my bike being sold online from what may have looked like an underpass or homeless camp. Or so we think. The bike or its location was impossible to identify conclusively since we could not locate the paperwork we had with the serial number and the photo in the online ad. It could be any number of places.

After speaking with Principal Dennis, I found out the school cannot do a lot to find your bike, and the best thing to do is to lock your bike in the corral, which has recently been cleaned and is “locked from 9:15 to 4:10″B. Principal Dennis says that the school is going to address the situation with fake security cameras or a sign that says that there are cameras. “We can’t have real cameras because there is no power source to power them.”

However, a wireless solar security camera can be had on Amazon for $160 (such as the Eufy Security SoloCam S40). It seems like this is more a matter of cooperation and coordination with DOTS (Department of Technology Services) than a technical/power issue. Monitoring footage on such a camera would only require accessing its built-in SD card via an app.  

The best thing to do if you get your bike stolen is to tell the principal, and he will ask you to file a police report. In the report, you want to include your bike’s serial number. In fact, it’s a good idea to note your serial number and register your bike at BikeIndex.org. This way, if the police or a pawn shop gets the bike, they can identify it as yours as the serial number is specific to your bike.  Also, after you file a police report, you can go to the Park Hill or Denver Stolen Bikes Facebook groups that can help with finding the bike (that is how we found my bike).  

The best thing to do to not get your bike stolen is still to lock your bike in the corral; many of the bikes stolen from the corral were not properly locked, and the ones that were not in the corral were either not locked or they just snipped the lock. For people just walking by looking to sell some bikes, McAuliffe is a gold mine. The school should put security cameras near where the bikes are stationed so that if the bike is stolen, they will know who did it.

Although the number of bikes being stolen has slowed since September, it is still important to lock up your bike well.