Stolen bikes have value in drug trade Guelph Police said
Stolen bicycles becoming the new currency in city's drug trade
Guelph Police Service (GPS) has been dealing with an increase of bike thefts in the city over the past four years and say many of those bikes stolen are being traded for drugs.
Detective sergeant Ben Bair, who is in charge of the drug unit at GPS, said they noticed an increase of bike thefts in 2013 at the same time they saw a major increase of crystal meth distribution and consumption in the city.
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So far this year, 213 bikes have been reported stolen, similar to the number of bikes stolen in the first seven months last year. Over all, 424 bikes were reported stolen in 2016.
"[Bikes] are quite easy to steal, most people leave them outside and the locks they are using are not great," said Bair.
"They are traded in instead of cash. Typically meth is for whatever reason the place they are being used. But they are being traded for drugs."
Tracking stolen bikes
Bair explains that police do surveillance on individuals they know to be street drug traffickers and notice them riding expensive bikes.
"That's not to say that they could have bought it — they absolutely could." he said.
"But once you put that together, them riding different bikes than the ones they regularly would and then you start finding them in search warrants and they turn out to be stolen...it starts to be fairly easy to put together the picture."
Bair adds that drug traffickers will often change the appearance of the bike by switching parts or painting them so that they are more difficult to identify.
But it becomes hard for police to track stolen bikes when owners don't record or report the bike's serial number.
"They often report the make and model and some unique features of the bike but many of those unique features can be changed so it's very difficult to ascertain without a serial number," he said.
Bait bikes
Last year, GPS's high enforcement action team (HEAT) set up a bait bike initiative in different locations to tackle the city's bike theft problem.
Arif Hasham, a sergeant with GPS and supervisor of HEAT said the initiative was successful as they observed numerous individuals trying to steal bait bikes.
"What we found is that if there is something of value to these individuals they are very determined," Hasham said.
"They are out for a purpose, their purpose is to steal a bike and they have the tools and means to accomplish that task."
Hasham said they they will continue with the bait bike initiative in the future to target areas where they are seeing a high increase of bike thefts.
Bair said bike owners should invest in a good lock and, if they can, to store their bikes indoor to minimize the theft risk.