Beware: Bike Thiefs Are Savvy in the Square

Patrick G. Hannon '96 locked his bike.

But that didn't stop the relentless thieves of Cambridge, recently dubbed "the bike theft capital of Massachusetts" by The Boston Globe.

Hannon found his bicycle without a seat and since then has been riding "standing up."

And he's lucky--he still has his bike. One of Hannon's friends lost a bike form the football team's locker room twice in one year.

In the Square, bicycles are stolen at an average rate of three per day, according to Harvard Police Lt. John Rooney.

There has been a 26 percent increase in Cambridge bicycle thefts over the last year, from 457 to 575, according to the Cambridge Police Department's 1993 Crime Report.

The report also says bicycle thefts are "very highly concentrated around Harvard Square and its immediate adjacent neighborhoods."

Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson and Rooney say the city provides ripe pickings for those seeking to steal two-wheelers.

"There is an abundance of bikes readily available and randomly stored all over the University," says Rooney." they are so decentralized that they are easy pickings."

Cambridge thieves have refined bike stealing to a science, police officers say.

Supposedly unbreakable locks are no defense for cyclists: thieves use a small metal pipe to break the Kryptonite U-Lock. Robbers also spray locks with Frion to freeze the metal and then smash them with a hammer.

But most bikes are stolen simply because they are not locked up correctly, police officials say.

The thieves are either juveniles or more sophisticated criminals in their late twenties or early thirties who are making a living out of bike theft, Rooney says.

"Arrests have been made of suspects working out of vans stealing four to eight bikes a night," the crime report says.

Rooney sys he sees "townies" riding very expensive bikes which have been painted over several times and have no locks.