My Espin e-Bike is stolen.

Bike Stolen—Monday

I was ready for a ride to the park and went to the garage in the evening after the sun was no long scorching as usual. The place where I parked my bike was empty;  my beautiful light green-gray Espin ebike was gone.  Today was August 23, 2021 I had it exactly for three months. It is  May 23, 2021, when I received it and put it together. It was stolen from my garage, gone forever.   

I felt I have deprived a good friend— a friend that takes me to the beautiful forest park and helps me forget all my troubles.  It also takes me to a nearby Aldi weekly to get food to rejuvenate my body.  In the process, I discovered that the city I live in actually has many bike routes.  It is biker-friendly. It also helps me see that the division between the North and South of the city is that between the poor and affluence, as there are people waiting for buses only in the Northern part of the city.

Now it is forever gone.  I called the cop– the police station is only 5 or 6 minutes away.  A black cop showed up, asked me a few words, handed me his card with a hand-written case number, and took off.  For the first time, I was asked about the serial numbers of my bike; and I had no idea that every bike should have serial numbers as its ID in the U.S…   When I grew up, every bike must have a license plate and had no such notion as serials numbers as bike ID to prevent theft or to recover it after being stolen.   But wait,  I lost an expensive bike in 2017 in the same garage; a policeman came to write a report; I did not recall he asked me about serial numbers then.  Are the cops trained differently?  And there are no standard questions for the police to ask when a resident reports a case?  

As before, the police will do nothing; maybe they simply can do nothing. After all, statistically, the recovery rate of stolen bikes is only 1 percent nationwide. I am reporting so that the police department will have a better record of criminal activities in the neighborhood.

The bike is very heavy about 66 pounds.  That’s why I had to leave it in the garage.  I tied it to the porch rail for one and half months, but then it would be exposed to rain and sun, so I left it in the garage without a door.  How stupid I am!  Wait, there is only one week before the Fall semester starts at Washington University St. Louis. Could be a student living nearby?  All kinds of questions race through my brain. I couldn’t sleep.  And of course, I will need to tell the community through social media such as Nextdoor, or even a Facebook account which I deleted but now had to restore in order to post the bike-got-stolen news to a proper group whose members get sth valuable stolen.  I did that with a swoosh!

Venture to the Low-Income Apartment Complex-Tuesday

I could not sleep soundly Monday night. At 5:30 am Tuesday, I woke up and walked along the alleyway, and checked the backyard of the apartment buildings on both sides. Wow, my god. I found some good bikes parked on the balcony of a third-floor apartment; so people know expensive bikes are thieves’ targets.   It is all my own fault. If I only had chained it to the porch rail as  I did when I had it for the first month…

My next-door neighbor, a graduate student at WashU came out to his car; maybe I should talk to him.  He obviously didn’t know what happened in my garage. He politely listened to me,  sympathizing with me with ” I am sorry to hear that”. ; I can’t help sharing my suspect of a WashU student.  He may be offended by me a bit, saying “no, it cannot be WashU students”; I realized my suspect was offensive, replied with a tint of embarrassment, ” I hope not”.    “Maybe he is right”, although the larceny occurred right before the semester started; it could be that as students return to campus, there are more bikes or other valuables for thieves to steal; that’s why bikes are often stolen in August.  Based on a report on bike theft in Seattle downtown, one bike is stolen per day there in August.  Additionally, WashU is so expensive;  most students will come from well-to-do families; so stealing a bike might not be as tempting as those who work for $7.5 an hour, especially stealing a heavy e-bike weighted 60 pounds is not as expedient as stealing a high-end regular bike.   If it is not WashU students, it could be low-income people. Because from my window, I see several people come almost weekly to the alleyway, searching for furniture, small home appliances, or other valuable stuff dumped by students who move out of the apartments along the alleyway. They come with vehicles and sometimes come with one or two aids. They could easily carry my bike out and put it on their pickup truck or van and drove away quickly without causing any attention. Even I cannot see it myself if someone takes sth away from my garage since my view of the garage from the back window in my room is blocked by the wall of the garage.

 Less than an eight-minute walk from where I live, there is a government-subsidized apartment complex. Perhaps I should check there.   It was evening.  The sun just set, but it was still very hot. The apartment builds look new; other than lacking big and mature trees, the neighborhood is quite nice.  Some kids were playing about, but I paid no attention to them; while as I looked around, three or four cute black boys aged around 7-10 started to follow me. “look, she has the same hair as us” one of them yelled to his companion. I have black hair, although I wore a hat, so they can still tell.  I might as well speak to them since they followed me. I took out my phone, showed them the pictures of my bike. “yes, I saw a girl riding a bike like this here and there”, a boy called Travis said.  ” are you sure?” I asked.  “yes, you can check with the leasing office tomorrow; they are closed now.  They have surveillance cameras”. ” Thanks, Travis”. “when did you see her riding the bike”.  ” maybe two days ago”.     En, the time is right,  I left and felt a tint of joy of discovery.   

I got home and called the police; after I told them the case number Office Woodland gave me; they couldn’t find it in the system.   A black female cop ringed my doorbell; she listened to me patiently but did not write anything down.   When she was about to leave, I asked about her name, she refused and only said I could call back so someone can go and check the video footage.  

Wednesday—Leasing Office Saga

The police of course will not go to check the video footage. I will have to go myself.  On Wednesday afternoon, I went to the leasing office on my own; unfortunately, the office ladies–two middle-aged big ladies, one black and the other site, refused to show it to me, telling me they will only permit the police to see it.   I called the police again; they had no information I relayed to the female officer  Tuesday night at all; in fact, they even couldn’t find my case in their system; after repeating the information over ten times, the cop on the other side of the line seemed to pick up what I said, and agreed to send someone over.  I told them I was at home, already left the leasing office.  One hour later, I received a call, saying a police officer was looking for me at the leasing office.  I hang up, rushed to my car, and drove to the leasing office.  The office was closed, police were nowhere to be seen; so I drove back; where a police car parked in front of my house.  After Parking my car, I  talked to the officer who sat in a patrol car. I repeated for the eleventh time to this new officer.     Unfortunately, the leasing office remained closed for the day.

Thursday—A day off Since the police officer I talked to promised to check with the leasing office. Checked with the officer after 5 pm, he said he couldn’t get a hold of the leasing office. This may be the truth or a polite lie. At least, I didn’t have to deal with the receptionists at the police department.

Friday—Today I Found an odd receipt in the garage where my bike was taken

Today, Friday, I found an ice cream receipt from a nearby shop in the garage where I parked my bike; the receipt has a woman’s first name on it; it is paid by a debit card; the transaction time is 1:43 pm August 23, 2021. Since I only found out my bike was missing around 7 pm on August 23. This could be the receipt slipped off the thief’s pocket. I called  UCPD again. Based on my past experience with UCPD and a tip from online, I asked to talk to a detective. Sure enough, the detective was much more intelligent, and communication with him was a breeze.  “sure, bring it within half an hour” he said. It was nearly around 3 pm.  The sun was burning hot, but I didn’t care, I wanted to get my bike even if there was nearly zero chance.   

Luckily, the police station is near, less than a 10-minute walk.  Waited for about 15 minutes, the detective walked out of a door, telling me an officer shall be with me shortly.     Five minutes later, a black officer perhaps in his 60s walked out, it was the same officer I spoke to Wednesday.  I had to relay for the thirteenth time to him all over again plus the rationale for turning in the receipt.  He nayed my conjecture that the bike is more likely stolen by low-income people; said the police already looked at the video footage and found nothing, while in fact, I knew very clearly they had not sent another police to follow up since Wednesday. The black cop seemed too eager to protect their people as the majority of the residents in that apartment complex are black.  How unprofessional! 

Next Monday, I will have to call to ask the UCPD’s help to check the video footage and follow up with the investigation of the receipt in my garage where my beloved bike was stolen from me. I will give it a last try before giving it up. 

Perhaps this is all a big waste of my time. The police wouldn’t care; they just need to appear they care to the public or more precisely to the victims.

Lesson learned:

1. properly lock your bike—lock it to something that is fixed to the ground
2. write down the serial numbers of your bike. Thieves are more likely from the lower strata of the social-economical ladder. Hence, if your bike is valuable, worth at least a couple of hundred dollars, it is likely that the thief will take bikes to pawnshops for quick cash.  I was informed by a more knowledgeable police officer that pawnshops are mandated to keep records of bike sellers’ names and addresses and also bike serial numbers. Once this information is entered, the information system at the police station will receive a notice. That’s how they keep track of stolen bikes.  They do not have the human resources to physically check every pawnshop for lost bikes.