Sheriff’s Office warns of spike in bike thefts across Summit County

Bicycle thefts are raising countywide, prompting a warning from law enforcement.

Pics of lost bikes have been popping up on regional messaging boards. Bicycles have been taken from bike racks, porches, outside the house of businesses and even garages, police say.

The Summit County Sheriff’s Office environment has witnessed a latest improve in higher-end bicycle thefts countywide, especially in the unincorporated locations and the towns of Silverthorne, Frisco and Breckenridge. Given that June 2022, a full of 8 bikes have been reported stolen, 6 of which had been stolen in July, the business documented.

“I rode it practically every single day,” Lindsay Galbraith said of her gravel bike that was just lately stolen.

Galbraith resides around the west conclusion of Most important Avenue in Frisco. In the last two yrs, two of her bikes, worthy of a overall of about $2,500, have been stolen.

“They ought to know about our setting up,” she stated.

The 1st time all around, intruders lower her Kryptonite lock and got absent with an $800 body fat bike in January 2021. The second time, July 20, intruders snagged her approximately $1,700 gravel bicycle, and all that remained of it was the remnants of the second Kryptonite bicycle lock she purchased soon after shedding her first bicycle. Both equally had been saved in her condo’s shared garage.

Many thanks to technologies, a neighbor with a Ring camera could have caught the robbers driving off with her gravel bicycle. She reported a pickup truck pulled into the garage all over 5 a.m. on July 20. About 4 minutes later on, it left with something metallic in the mattress, she stated.

She described the attainable procedure as “business-like.” They ended up in and out. “They understood particularly what they ended up likely for,” she reported.

She documented her bike stolen, but Frisco police experienced no leads, she explained. She’s also posted the bike’s serial variety on Bicycle Index, a internet site where homeowners can put their bike on file and report it stolen. Group members can then discover a bicycle and get in touch with its owner. 

Galbraith hasn’t fully dropped hope, but supplied her to start with bike had been shed for far more than a calendar year and a 50 %, she now moved on and acquired a new one particular to keep pedaling by means of the summer season. As of Monday, both bikes had been however lacking, so she proceeds to test Craigslist and Pinkbike, just in case, she stated.

Max Laney, of Wildernest, claimed a very similar incident. On July 24, he returned from a a single-evening camping and kayaking trip alongside the Arkansas River to obtain that the two locks wrapped about his bicycle experienced been slice.

His bike experienced been “tucked away” in his unit’s carport together with a handful of his roommates’ bikes. The bikes, about 6 in overall, had been locked to a bicycle rack with a tangle of three locks. All a few were being slash, he explained, like the two attached to his. 

In whole, at least $10,000 really worth of bikes were being strapped to the bike rack, nonetheless Laney’s $4,000 custom made YT Carpa was the only 1 lacking. If the thief understood what they were accomplishing, he reported, they unfortunately created the ideal choice. His roommates somewhat much less high priced downhill bicycle was also let unfastened from its lock, but it was still left on your own.

Laney reported he noted the theft to the Summit County Sheriff’s Business, and all his roommates moved their bikes to their unit’s balcony.

Laney doesn’t have much hope of reuniting with his bike, and — primarily after totalling his automobile the week prior soon after hitting a deer – he doesn’t have the income to replace it.

“I know about the bike condition. I know they disappear fairly quickly,” he said. “I truthfully do not believe it is in the county any more.”

“Unfortunately, Summit County is not immune to these styles of thefts that frequently go away the target sensation violated,” Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons stated. “All of the bicycles that ended up stolen in this modern rash of thefts were being all locked or chained outside which displays the dedication of criminals.

Burglars will occasionally operate alone and other periods as element of prison companies he claimed.

“They can be incredibly difficult investigations,” FitzSimons stated.

Bikes, like cars, can typically be worthy of much more in elements than in total, and burglars will often crack a bicycle down to its person areas, earning recovery nearly unattainable, he reported.

To support protect against bike theft, the Summit County Sheriff’s Business office suggests the pursuing items of suggestions:

• Know and document the bike’s make, model and 12 months. Choose loads of photographs of the bicycle and record its serial range. Serial numbers and a photo can support return a bicycle to its owner, the Sheriff’s Office environment claimed.
• Very good locks go a lengthy way. U-locks are heavier, bulkier and tougher to slice than cable locks, the Sheriff’s Place of work claimed. Bike homeowners should limit the house involving the lock and the bike and must lock the most highly-priced components of the bike — ordinarily the body and rear wheel. Bikers should also make guaranteed the issue they’re securing their bike to is immovable and the lock can not be slipped off.
• Lock the bike in a well-lit spot, ideally below surveillance. Although a garage can be a safe spot, the Sheriff’s Workplace explained entrepreneurs must make positive their bikes are not noticeable from the avenue. Burglars have been recognized to wander into garages, so proprietors must also make positive their garage doorways are closed and secured.

The Sheriff’s Workplace also encourages proprietors acquire bicycle insurance plan and a GPS tracker.