If your bike is ever stolen, don’t freak out! There are proactive steps you can follow to ensure your stolen property is reported, and you raise the chances of recovering it. Law enforcement suggests securing bikes with good locks and using tracking devices to prevent theft and aid in recovery. Here’s what bike owners need to be prepared to do if their ride gets stolen. The first step to addressing this incident is learning how to report it correctly.
We recommend that cyclists put their money into at least two good locks, one of which should be a D-lock. In addition to being more difficult and time-consuming to break into, using multiple locks sends thieves a warning sign that this bike would be a bad target. A D-lock in particular is especially good for this, since its robust design resists multiple common tampering techniques. By locking the frame and wheels with high-quality locks, bike owners make their bikes far less attractive to thieves.
Beyond physical locks, many bike owners are looking to technology to secure their rides. Tracking devices like Apple AirTags and Tile Stickers have become wildly popular, especially among cyclists. And these trackers are small enough to attach to your bike undetected. In the unfortunate event that your bike is stolen, you’ll be able to track it down through your smartphone app. Using these devices along with good locks makes for a multi-layered approach to bike security.
If your bike is stolen, the first thing to do is report that theft. In the UK, a victim can walk into their nearest local police service at any time or call service 101 and report there. Provide as much information as possible about the bike, such as make, model, color and unique identifiers. This knowledge would be of tremendous value to law enforcement during the course of their investigation.
In addition to this, we recommend reporting the bike stolen on BikeRegister, a national UK bike database. Regardless of whether the bike was ever registered on this platform before, owners can now report the theft. This step helps to create awareness about the stolen bicycle. Perhaps more importantly, it helps to track it should it reappear on the market. BikeRegister lets you enter your stolen bike’s information to increase the chances of recovery, safeguarding your bicycle investment.
Maintaining a database of your bike’s serial numbers, pictures and receipts is essential. These records can be extremely helpful when filing a police report or dealing with insurance claims.
There are many ways cyclists can increase their bike security, like parking in well-lit locations. They should lock up bikes to designated bike racks or secure facilities when available. Join your locals. Connect with your local cycling communities to build relationships. By publicizing information on patterns of theft, you’ll be able to better educate cyclists on recent cases in your area.