Oh! The Irony. But it is Portland.
PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) – A Portland Bike Theft Task Force officer had his own bicycle stolen.
Officer Dave Sanders is the first to acknowledge the irony. He has been working for years to prevent bike thefts across Portland, but on Thursday, someone took his bike parked in front of the Multnomah County Courthouse.
Sanders said he was running late for grand jury and left his U-lock at the office, so he secured his police bike to the rack with a pair of handcuffs.
When he came back out, the bike was gone and the cuffs were left dangling from the rack.
You have to figure that if PD sucks at gun safety, securing other less lethal devices is not going to have a great track record.
Sanders said only one in 10 stolen bikes are recovered in Portland, but having it registered doubles those chances.
On this one I am going to say it is average pretty much everywhere in the Nation. And 10% seems generous IMHO. On my last Security job, I found out how bad bike theft is in reality. They are not that hard to steal and provide you with a cheap means of transportation if your finances are in the gutter. They do not make noise so attention is not called upon you and even the toughest of cops cannot waste a whole shift going after bikes because the riders are not following the law. And I forgot: parts are not necessarily cheap, so you have ” free” cannibalization. I wonder how many bicycles , whole and in part, are at the bottom of the many South Florida bodies of water.