BICYCLE THEFTS

Evening Star, Issue 20585, 10 September 1930, Page 3

BICYCLE THEFTS

A COMMON PRACTICE [Special to the ‘Stak.'J CHRISTCHURCH, September 9. Somewhere in Christchurch there is a depot where stolen bicycles are dismantled and disguised. That is the conviction which has been growing in tho minds of tho police officers, who for some time now havo been faced with an ever-increasing number of thefts. It is stated that ou the average forty bicycles a month are stolen. In other terms, bicycles to the value of nearly £4>UOO are being taken by thieves each year. Of this number a percentage is recovered by the police, but tho greater number disappear entirely. If they reappear at ail they do so as parts of other bicycles. Whether tho thefts arc organised or not has not been discovered, but the large number taken indicates that, even if the thefts are not organised, there is some receiving depot where tho stolen bicycles arc dismantled and rebuilt.

Some of the thefts, it is believed, are the work of men and boys whoso own bicycles nro in need of repair, and who steal more to obtain a part of tho stolen bicycle than the lull machine. This theory is borne out by the number of bicycles which nro recovered by the police with some part missing. These are the occasional 1 holts, and as such are hard to trace unless tho stolen part is recognised by the owner on tho street. Ail tho thefts, however, cannot be blamed to this cause. They arc too widespread and too numerous for that. Occasionally the police, as a, result of their investigations, make a capture and cl,car up a, i’ew_ thefts. They recover by the information thus gained some of tho stolon goods, but not yet havo they unearthed a, clue as to the locality of tho receiving depot. Christchurch is tho home of the bicycle in New Zealand, and it is natural that there should be a number of thefts, but owners of bicycles arc themselves largely to blame for the present position. “ A good lock is not expensive,” a. police officer said, “ and it only takes a. minute to lock a bicycle, yet one sees bicycles thrown everywhere without a guard. It is simply inviting theft.”