The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help identifying an alleged bike thief who, on Wednesday, shoplifted bolt cutters to steal a boy’s e-bike.
Install a bike alarm inside the seat tube. They’re hard to defeat without tools. Mine alternately flashes bright blue and red light strips epoxied to the frame. In California, that’s a guaranteed police stop (blue lights are only allowed on law enforcement vehicles), plus it makes everyone look at the thief. There’s also a relay that shorts out the motor, making it a bitch to pedal. If that and the 120 dB alarm doesn’t stop them, 30 seconds later two metal strips under the seat fabric get powered from a 55 kV mosquito zapper circuit.
You seem like the sort of person that would use a Skunklock lol
Btw, we’d love to see your bike and a breakdown of how everything works - that sounds like a badass setup
What triggers these anti-theft measures you have implemented? And how do you make sure that it is not triggered when you go to use it?
The bike alarm is triggered by motion. It’s a standard off-the-shelf seat tube bike alarm, armed/disarmed by a fob. My modification was to beef up the output power to operate the flashing lights, motor shorting relay, sonalert, and the time-delayed electric theft deterrent. I can’t be shocked unless I’m riding around for 30 seconds with lights flashing, alarm blasting, and the motor acting as a regenerative brake. That’s why there’s a time delay.
There’s also an Airtag in the seat, but I’d rather deter the thief than have to track down the bike.
If it’s like a car alarm it does nothing but annoy the people around.
You sir are a monster. Genius but a monster.
And this is why you have to ask a service associate to get bolt cutters from the back storeroom for you at Lowe’s and Home Depot.
More so you don’t use it to break THEIR antitheft inside the store, but yeah.
Or do like what the people are the bike rental company I went to did.
They wore regular clothes and took an angle grinder with them (the key broke in the U-lock).
Kindly ask the nearest shop to plug the angle grinder to cut open the lock on the bike that was in the street, went on with it and left with the bike.
No one bother to ask any question.
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I noticed they now lock up boltcutters in a storage box at many hardware stores, because people had been grabbing them out of the tool aisle and using them to cut other security locks so they could shoplift other higher value items like high-end power tools. If you have a legit need to buy bolt cutters, you have to get a clerk to take them out for you, and they immediately walk you to the register and make sure you leave after purchase.
Use a boltcutter, and you feed yourself for a day
Steal a boltcutter, and you feed yourself for a lifetime.
Physical security is my biggest concern with my ebike. I wish there was a keyed circuit shutoff or that the computer was removable.
That’s the thing… Even a motorcycle is prone to physical theft, regardless of the safety measures. A couple strong people can lift even bigger bikes.
While the lack of functionality will deter a would be theif, the rest of the parts would probably still fetch a handsome sum.
It’s why I hesitate on an e-bike.
Mine needs a key to start but most importantly: Get a quality ulock and use it correctly. Consider a cut resistant chain, alarm, and tracker as well especially if you have a pricey ride.
No chain is sufficient if a thief is set on stealing something. Chains and locks only stop opportunistic theft. You can cut a u lock in 30 seconds with a battery operated angle grinder that fits in a small backpack. EG this 30s video https://youtu.be/RI9SEThrJMY
You can cut 4 cables within a minute with a hand tool https://youtu.be/-rphMwxTr54
You can cut some ulocks in 30 seconds. Try that with a high end ABUS or better yet a Skunk Lock lol
If I had an expensive bike, I would 100% buy a Skunklock Chemical: Bike thieves should suffer.
angle grinder stops
🤮
On the newer Bosch ones, the head unit functions as a remote key/killswitch when removed from the bicycle. They’re pretty $$$ though
Yep. This guy is a moron. The cheap and easy thing to do is just steal the $500-1000 battery that’s held in by a shitty key. My bike low jacks itself.
Okay then, steal the battery 🤷♂️
The owner still has a bicycle to ride home on.
I’ve always thought they should make security cages for ebikes. The one thing I liked about my lectric xp was that the battery seemed hard to steal compared to others.
Especially those stupid triangle bag ones where its just Velcro.
Would to be hard to put a battery kill switch in? Or just unplug it?
The battery is big and heavy, but I think that’s the best option for my bike.
That low-res picture of the suspect is why Walmart has such a problem with theft. Meanwhile, Sam’s Club has 4k cameras on either side of the entrance and the exit. Same parent company.
Walmart doesn’t actually care much about theft. It’s a small percentage of their revenue, despite what they and the media want you to think. An industry lobbying group has recently said shrink is up to 2-3% last year, up from 0.7-1% pre-pandemic. Being a lobbying group, I’m sure those numbers are inflated to further their agenda. Do we really think that an extra 1% shrink is something Walmart is actually going to make massive changes over? No, they’d clearly rather install self checkouts that make it easier to steal so they can fire cashiers instead.
Those cameras are actually to monitor for Union activity.
Retail stores are likely studying the effect that shoplifting has on other customers though. When it’s brazen, it can make people fearful for their own safety, and even less likely to shop at the same place.
You seem to think that Walmart gives a single thought to how their customers feel. Have you ever been to a Walmart? Not exactly the high end of the retail experience.
About the only store lower on the “this place has a nice feeling” is a Dollar Tree, and even then I’ve been in some Dollar Trees that were nicer than the nearby Walmart.
Poor kid :/
I hope that kid gets locked up. That bike is illegal! Illegal I tell you! The guy just wanted to get it off the streets by probably getting drunk first.
AirTags. My bike has one.
This is like one of those one-off scenes from Superstore.
Man is on a quest
I need more photos of the ebike to help identify it.
He chose the quiet instead of loud
This is why you need a beefy u lock for your expensive bikes.
Stay classy merica
Theft occurs everywhere.
No no yurop is paradise, no crime.
You think this only happens in America?
