Bicycle Theft

Bicycle theft is the crime of stealing a bicycle, made common by the ease of reselling bikes on a large second-hand market. Between 2.5 and 3 million bicycles are stolen annually across Europe, with England and Wales alone recording 88,307 cases in 2019 and 2020, and in the United States bicycles accounted for 3.1 percent of reported larceny-theft in 2019, ranking second only to motor vehicle theft. Thieves commonly cut locks with bolt cutters, hacksaws or angle grinders, lift bikes from unsecured structures, exploit street furniture known as sucker poles that appear secure but can be easily dismantled, or jam locks to block owners from later retrieving their bikes. Some jurisdictions have made real progress against it: Denmark's reported thefts fell from more than 112,000 in 1995 to about 45,000 by 2025, a sixty one percent reduction.