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Don’t Keep Bikes In Your Condo Garage!

By Matt Goyer November 12, 2011

For those of you with high end bikes, or even low end bikes with sentimental value, don’t keep your bikes in your condo garage. For most high end bike owners, you know this already and don’t, but sometimes a reminder is in order!

My condo garage, secured with gates and secure stair & elevator entry, with video cameras and bike racks, was broken into this summer and I had two very nice bikes stolen. I was broken hearted that the our video cameras didn’t capture the theft or the removal of the bikes and they’ve never turned on Craigslist.

Capitol Hill Seattle also features a lot of posts from stolen bike owners, Man says $10k in bikes stolen from Capitol Hill condo.

Our bike tips:

Be sure to write down your serial numbers
Keep receipts for your bike purchase and upgrades
Never lock your bike in a shared space
Never trust bike locks (watch this documentary)
If stolen, Stolen Bicycle Registry is your friend and put the appeal out on your local ‘hood blog.

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6 responses to “Don’t Keep Bikes In Your Condo Garage!”

Patrick says:

November 12, 2011 at 5:25 pm

Good reminder. However I wouldn’t say never keep bikes in a garage or shared space. Don’t keep bikes over $1000 there perhaps. But a $500 mountain bike with a secure U-lock is perfectly reasonable.
A few points:

– cable locks are worthless, U locks are not. A strong U lock is much harder to cut, and the thief will need heavy duty bolt cutters that are large, bulky, and not easily concealed. They’re also expensive, so the casual thief probably won’t have them, only repeat “professional” bike thieves will. The UK lock cutting video is interesting but some parts are not very realistic – most bike thieves don’t walk around with giant bolt cutters that can cut through a NY Kryptonite lock.

– any half-smart non-casual bike thief (the ones with the bolt cutters) won’t go into a garage with a camera security system. (yes, the ones that aren’t smart at all still will, but camera security definitely reduces the numbers). The risk of getting caught / videotaped is too high, and there are plenty of nice bikes to steal off the street or in non-monitored garages.

– My mtn bike was stolen (cable locked, I use a U-Lock now) from my previous apt’s garage which had a camera security system, and the cameras caught them on tape. One of the 2 bike thieves was later caught by Seattle police, charged/convicted, and paid restitution to me (only recouped about $50 of the $300 value, but it’s something). So camera security systems do work, some of the time. Even if they don’t result in the thieves being caught, they act as a large deterrent (buildings without cameras get far more breakins than ones with cameras).

– One tip for garage bike racks: make sure your bike isn’t the juiciest target on the rack. If your $2000 bike is locked with a cable lock next to some junker bikes with flat tires, it’s the first target. If your $500 bike is locked with a U Lock next to a $500 bike with a cable lock, you’re probably perfectly fine.
phil says:

November 12, 2011 at 9:25 pm

The only time my car has been broken into was in an apartment building’s secure parking garage in Belltown, and I’ve lived all over California – parking outside. Another time somebody broke into the same Belltown garage and stole the security video equipment, from a locked room.
Rhonda Porter says:

November 14, 2011 at 12:33 pm

I feel you pain! I had my bike stolen from my condo garage a few years ago… it wasn’t a nice or expensive bike… to add insult to injury, the punks who stole the bake realized this and returned it to our dumpster!
Paul says:

December 24, 2011 at 5:04 am

This particular example is located at the AutoMotorPlex in Minneapolis.I like this post.This is an amazing.Thanks for this.
kiki says:

February 13, 2015 at 2:30 pm

I just been stolen yesterday~ It’s my second time, totally 3 bikes which i shipping from taiwan including 2 kid seat ,though the theft left our kids trailer in garage but it has been damage~
It’s too cruel for me.I will never ever trust my apartment garage,even it need key to accessible .
Sad Sad Sad T_T
mattgoyer says:

February 13, 2015 at 2:36 pm

That sucks! You might want to check out my blog post on how to recover stolen bikes: http://blog.mattgoyer.com/archives/2013/07/22/how-to-recover-your-stolen-bike/

Don’t Keep Bikes In Your Condo Garage!

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