36 bike, scooter thefts reported for September and October

The Boston University Police Department had 36 reported bike and scooter thefts between Sept. 1 and Sunday — more than the 34 thefts reported in the same period in 2019, but less than the 39 thefts reported in 2018, according to BUPD crime data provided via email by Lt. Dan Healy. 

Bike and scooter thefts generally spike during September and October, Healy wrote.

BUPD tracks reported thefts of any bike or scooter, Healy wrote, and collects information about the stolen property such as identification numbers, markings, how the bike was locked and where the theft occurred. 

Healy wrote BUPD encourages cyclists to register their bike with the University’s Parking and Transportation Services, in case their bike gets stolen. For cyclists who register, PTS supplies permits to place on their bikes that can be used to help recover them if stolen. 

“The only way to locate the owner is to use BU registration data,” Healy wrote.

Permits and bicycle registration also allow cyclists swipe access to nine indoor bike rooms across campus, according to the PTS website.

Registration for scooters is not currently available at BU.

Students’ bikes are not safe from theft simply because they’re locked up, Healy wrote.

“While bikes can still be stolen from indoor parking locations,” Healy wrote, “the vast majority of thefts are bikes that are parked outside and locked to either bike racks or fences etc.”

For cyclists who do park their bike outside, there are certain locations on campus where thefts are more likely to occur — BUPD crime data cites The Towers, Warren Towers and the Questrom School of Business as the top three locations.

To try to combat this issue, BUPD, PTS and the Dean of Students Office compose the Bike Safety Committee, which aims to educate on and bring attention to bike safety, Healy wrote.

Matthew Ramirez, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, had his bike stolen the second week of September in front of 33 Harry Agganis Way. Ramirez said he intentionally parked his bike away from Commonwealth Avenue because he believed it to be safer than bike racks where there is high foot traffic from people within and outside BU.

Ramirez locked his front bike tire and frame to a bike rack with a Kryptonite U-Lock –– considered among the safest locks for bicyclists and a lock style that the Boston Police Department, BUPD and PTS each recommend.

“I was kind of surprised that someone bothered to get through that and take a pretty cheap bike,” Ramirez said. “The strangest part, though, is that they took the lock as well.”

Ramirez estimates he lost $600, which included the bike, saddle and lock. The ordeal, he said, made him “very angry for a while.”

Ramirez filed a police report with BUPD the day after his bike was stolen, hoping they could use his bike’s registration number, which he filed with PTS, to recover his stolen bike.

“They only went off my description of the bike, last time I remember seeing it and a picture,” said Ramirez. “They never actually utilized the serial number.”

Ramirez first heard from the detective working on his case the week after he filed the report, he said, and was asked for images of his bike. A month later, Ramirez said the detective called him back only to provide information on how to keep a bike safe.

“It basically told me stuff I had already done at least a month ago,” Ramirez said, “which was: be aware of leaving it outside; if you’re going to have a bike on campus, bring it inside or leave it in the bike room; if you’re getting a new bike, which I did, have a proper lock, and maybe get two locks.”

For students living off-campus, such as Katia Acierno, a junior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, taking the extra safety measure of keeping her bike inside her apartment building didn’t stop her bike from getting stolen.

Acierno’s building had a package thief on Oct. 5, who she said she believes stole her bike and unopened Amazon-delivered bike pump.

Acierno said she was told to keep her bike inside after her friend told her it was unsafe to leave it on the street. 

Acierno said she also found evidence of an attempted theft on her bike this summer. 

“I left it outside because I didn’t feel like bringing it in,” Acierno said. “I have a chain lock and over it is a cloth material, and someone had tried to cut through it.”

Acierno said Allston residents seem to be experiencing more bike thefts.

“One of my friends was telling me that, since COVID has started, people in her apartment complex … their bikes got stolen all the time,” Acierno said. “She told me to be extra careful.”

While the pandemic has ushered in a new wave of cyclists, according to The NPD Group, Healy wrote that there has been no information to suggest that recent bike thefts are related to the pandemic.

Ameera Iftekhar, a first-year master’s student in the College of Engineering, had her scooter stolen from where she locked it in Lot Q — near BU College of Engineering Product Innovation Center — the first week of October.

She said she “cried and vomited” after finding out during what was already “a bad week,” and decided to file a police report with BUPD for the stolen scooter.

She was told that the return of her scooter didn’t look promising. Iftekhar said she was told there are security cameras around Lot Q, but that there were none by the bike racks where she parked her scooter.

Iftekhar asked BU Risk Management if she could get compensated for the loss of her scooter because the theft occurred on BU property, and was denied. She estimated the cost to be $500.

Healy wrote that while the location of security cameras is not publicized, many bike racks are under security surveillance — either by cameras or on-site BUPD and BU Public Safety officers. 

BUPD crime data estimates that the total value of stolen bikes and scooters between Sept. 1 and Sunday comes out to $16,085. This is lower than the estimates for 2019, at $17,669, and 2018, at $22,806.  

Healy wrote students can report a stolen bike to BUPD anytime if it was taken on or near BU’s campus. For off-campus thefts, Healy encourages students to contact local authorities by calling 911.