More bikes stolen

[Sun Wukong]

Singapore
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Feb 7, 2010

More bikes stolen

<!-- by line --> By Shuli Sudderuddin

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IT WAS broad daylight at a busy train station in the suburbs. But Mr Joel Chia's foldable mountain bicycle - which he took care to chain to a bike rack - still got stolen, and in under two hours. This happened last July, when the 30-year-old executive, who works in the education industry, returned to Potong Pasir MRT station to find his bike missing and the locks thrown into some bushes nearby. 'My bicycle was worth $700 and was bought online as it can't be found in Singapore. I made a police report and went back to the spot the next day, where I found a man cutting bike locks with a bolt cutter,' he said.

Mr Chia held on to the man until the police arrived. Bicycle theft in Singapore made the headlines last month when English cyclist Greg Browning's bicycle was stolen at Orchard Road. The Briton is cycling nearly 30,000km from London to Sydney on just 4,000 euros (S$7,800). Police statistics show that bicycle theft, along with other petty thefts, is on the rise. There were 536 cases of bicycle theft in the first six months of last year compared with 308 in the same period in 2008.

Read the full story in today's edition of The Sunday Times.

 

[kingrant]

3 comments:

1. Invest in a good lock. The U or D types are best, made from 0.5" dia. toughened steel. The types used on motorbikes. Then lock the bike such that it is raised off the ground. Reason: bolt-cutters for these kinds of locks tend to be hydraulic types and are very very heavy to hold in the hand when operating, so a high locking position prevents the thief from easily placing the cutter.
2. LTA, which is in charge of MRT and LRT stations, shld play a helping hand and cooperate with bike security. For s start, inst of disclaiming liability for bikes parked at its premises, LTA shld include the bike stands and bike racks within their CCTV coverage. Dummy CCTVs also help. Their very presence wld deter would-be petty thieves. Why shld LTA not get involved? After all, the cyclists are a stakeholder in the transport eco-system, since what they are doing is participating in the P&R - park n ride - scheme, so LTA has an obligation to protect them.
3. The Police. The Police seems to have gotten more complacent and useless. we used to have foot patrols and patrol cars that were able to nab criminals including bicycle thieves, back in the 60s and 70s. Now, when you want them, they are not to be seen; but when you don't want them, they are there to fine you for illegal parking. Also, the police must take bicycle thefts more seriously rather than just file away a report, do nothing and then profess a lack of leads.