Student vigilance needed to stop bike theft

With 80 to 90 percent of bike theft on campus going unsolved,

students have reason to worry.

“You’ve got to lock your bike up,” said Ted MacLean, sophomore

engineering major. “It’s just such a huge campus, your bike will

disappear if you don’t watch it.”

With bike riding being the most common form of transportation

among students, according to www.housing.colostate.edu, bike

registration is mandatory for anyone who brings a bike to campus.

However, registration may not be enough to stop these crimes

without some additional student assistance.

“If someone sees something suspicious they should call it in,”

said Capt. Bob Chaffee, press information officer for CSU Police

Department. “We’ll check it out and if it happens that it’s the

bike’s actual owner we will apologize for bothering them.”

Even though sophomore Joe Reid did not consider it stealing when

he was caught by CSUPD lifting bikes at the end of last school

year, he was convicted of misdemeanor bike theft, along with two

other students.

“We thought the bikes were abandoned because school was out and

the kids weren’t there anymore,” Reid said. “All of the sudden we

turned around and cops were walking up to us, we tried to tell them

we didn’t think of it as stealing.”

Reid was granted a deferred judgment for his role in the theft,

but could face up to a year in jail if he violates the conditions

of his probation.

Although no one can be sure of definite reasons for the

prevalence of bike theft, some of its prevention may lie in simple

precautions.

“People definitely need to use the locks that they have,”

Chaffee said. “We catch some of the bad guys but the fact is that

most of these crimes go unsolved.”

All bikes are at risk, no matter what their value, and no time

of day is safe.

“You would think more expensive bikes would be targeted, but

every kind of bike is being taken,” Chaffee said. “And daytime is

no safer than night, which is disturbing because someone should see

what’s going on.”