KALW: social media helps find stolen bikes

in all the excitement of losing (via theft) and finding joanie, i thought this would be appropriate to share.

KALW is one local SF public radio station. yes, we have more than one. they recently did a story on how social media can help find stolen bikes. listen to the epic (in the true sense of the word, not the recently overused version of the word) story of how one man found his stolen bike SIX YEARS LATER.

take a listen.

finding joanie

well, was pretty devastated to be leaving for work on thursday morning to find my bike wasn't in the apartment entryway as it has been on and off for years. my roommate said he noticed the door was propped open, but no one moving anything in or out. that must have been when it happened.


i wrote this and posted it everywhere i could think of on social media. facebook, twitter, google +, flickr, pinterest, stolen bike registry, craigslist, filed a police report. set up an IFTTT.com account and had 5 recipes "spamming" my inbox and texts. i also went old school and took a picture of her to local bike shops. went to flea markets in sf, friends went to east bay flea markets. i looked around homeless encampments for chop shops and random bikes. and then i got numb and started to plan a life without joanie.

and of course i tagged Jenny Oh, that amazing reuniter of stolen bikes. she's basically the 6 degrees of kevin bacon for bike thievery. we had a few false starts out there, but it was awesome to know that eyes are out there and we're keeping a lookout for bikes to return to their rightful owners.

sure enough...someone saw her post on fb and this is what happened:

Well, basically, I woke up in the morning last Thursday and found a red bike in my front yard with the seat post sawed off and immediately said, "FUCK! Some random bike in my front yard, where the hell is mine?!" And mine was gone. Whoever stole hers, traded it out for mine. I think someone definitely scoped me out and knew that I had a bike. My friend Kelsey Simmen reached out to Jenny Oh to post about my bike and on Jenny's page, I saw a picture of Melyssa's bike and said, holy shit! I have that bike! I hope Karma pays me back.

so in order to pass that karma on forward, i'm posting a pic of Meryl's bike. you can contact us here, leave a comment, and i'll get in touch with her.



joanie did not escape unharmed, but she's back. and i can't believe it. power of social media and taking matters into our own hands is incredible!



it does not fix the inherent real issue of inadequate bike parking in apartment buildings, nor does it solve the issue of bike thieving jackholes, but it's something. it's community. and i'll take it.

thank you so much to everyone who retweeted, reposted, commented or just even thought, "wtf, someone stole joanie?!" a special shout out to those who went flea market and division street hunting with me. also to those two that bought me chocolate, it was much appreciated. as last week in america proved there are bad people in this world doing unheard of things (or just being a bike thief), but there are far more good people to counteract those actions.



also, 1/2 of her namesake is joan jett. don't mess with joanie.

two for tuesday: recovered bikes!

well, well, well. who says the bike fairy godmothers aren't on the lookout for your bikes. ok, most of the time people do not recover stolen bikes (except for ade), but i have two stories for you. and the common thread is community and power of social media when used for good.

story number one...

the first story involves my former roommate, ayuchi. she had the cutest sweetest blue terry bike. notice the front wheel? it will become important later.



so ayuchi is a student, and students get very tired. people make mistakes. she locked up her bike at the 16th street bart station, and then when she returned after a day at school, it was gone. except for the front tire she locked to the pole. she came back with a lock and one tire. and a very sad face.

don't know if those outside of SF heard about a the sf police department discovering a lone bike thief who had stolen over 100 bikes. they posted these bikes on the internet. turns out, one of them looked very similar to ayuchi's. despite the blurry picture, you can see the bike is missing its front wheel. and had other similiarites to ayuchi's beloved terry.

long story short...look at who was reunited recently:

story number two...

this one involves plattyjo. i know her from g+, but other people know her as jenny oh. her beautiful ibis mountain bike got stolen recently as well.



she asked for people to put on social networking blast. i put it a couple of places on FB, including the east bay bike party group. someone from that group, jillian, went to make the flea market rounds looking for her bike before she went to work this past sunday. well, jillian didn't find her bike, but she did see jenny's and said she recognized the bike from an FB posting. not sure if she saw that particular post, but the point is COMMUNITY ROCKS.

read the full story here on jenny's blog.

with all that bikey karma, i think jillian will find her own bike soon. or maybe someone will find it for her and return it to her.

these stories are why i prefer to use the word "bike community" as opposed to bike culture. we look out for each other and take care of our own. here's to our little bay area bike community!

The Face of Evil

Ever wonder what bicycle thieves look like? In SF, a couple of them look like the two below.



Please call 911 if you see them. If you have any more info you can contact Police report # 120/171/670 Officer J Lopez #373 Officer J Felix #2027 Mission Station 415-558-5400 415-601-4145 cell

Thanks to MissionMission for the heads up!

video of SF bike thief

people. how many times do we have to say lock up your bike with a ulock?! a few friends of mine had bikes jacked recently. and yes, they used a cable lock.

this video shows a guy cutting through a cable lock fairly quickly.

not long ago i was struck hard by the economy and using my bike was a good way to get around for cheap. i didn't really have $30 to spend on food, much less a bike lock. i justified it this way: buying a ulock is cheaper than getting a new bike.

do you think you are too poor to buy a lock? then check your local craigslist for ulocks. i took that route and ended up paying $20 for a lock i still use. that was 4 years ago. guy was moving out of town, never rode his bike thus didn't need his lock anymore either. i'm sure similar situations are still happening here in SF or wherever you live too.

obviously knowing how to lock up your bike is crucial too, no matter how many ulocks you carry with you. ulocks are not fail proof, but they certainly are great deterrents.

by the way, SF police are still looking for this guy. anyone with information is asked to contact Inspector Pomatto at (415) 558-5400 or by email at steven.pomatto@sfgov.org.

via streetsblog sf

poetry

saw this lovely pairing the other night. i love the juxtaposition of these two objects. joined together in love of stickers via a lock.

in other news, someone stole my free SFMTA lock provided to me by the SFBC as part of their light up the night campaign. i was caught offguard one night when my basket xmas lights were not enough, and they pulled me over to provide a free light.

my rationale for leaving it on my handlebars is that it was free to me, so if someone wants it that bad, they can take it. and that finally happened, about 2 months later. oh well. at least i have more lights where that came from!

lessons learned from bike thieves

'tis that time of year. the air turns chilly, more ugly sweaters surface at parties, and the scramble for presents begins. for some, that means maybe stealing to get what you need to give to others. or maybe they are just an asshole who steals bike parts.

the title of that picture is "what is wrong with this picture?" my response was "nothing, unless that is your bike and you are missing a seat post/saddle."

sigh. our friend to the blog, TDN, had this unfortunate experience the other night on market street. i have mentioned before on the blog how i've outsmarted bike thieves before who coveted my saddle i worked very hard to pay for with my own money. i'll be goddammned if they are going to take that saddle without a fight.

TDN updated his network by saying, "Urban Cyclist Protip: Your local bikeshop has tiny ball bearings and plumbers putty to jam into allens of things you don't want stolen."

agreed. or you can take it a couple of steps further and make sure you also strip the nut that can also be taken off.

there is indeed a ball bearing in the place where the hex/allen wrench goes. we didn't use putty, but rather hot glue. and also notice that the nut is stripped. is it a pain to adjust? it sure is. and you have to make sure you do it in the two places (for saddles at least, but this is applicable to any place where an allen wrench can be used) where it attaches to the bike. for saddles, this is where the saddle attaches to the seat post and where the seat post attaches to the bike in what sheldon brown calls "the seat cluster."

dont have those tools yourself? find someone who does, or go to your local community bike shop with work tables and DIY. or just ask your LBS if they will help you strip the nut. they will think you are a lil nuts, but you say it's for theft prevention, and who knows, they just might say "sure, why not?"

it just takes a little extra and added patience to work on the bike. but you know what? i still have my saddle. that's worth protecting to me.