Have you ever had your bicycle stolen? If you live in an urban area in North America, chances are you have or you know somebody that has. According to the Centre for Problem-Oriented Policing in a report prepared for the U.S. Department for Justice, roughly 2.5 bikes are stolen every minute, and even when bike theft is reported to the police, victims stand a less-than-one-percent-chance of actually recovering their bike. In most cities, increasingly stretched budgets make it difficult for police departments to devote resources or time to combatting the issue.
That’s why Ingo Lou and his team of technology-savvy cyclists have decided to take matters into their own hands. Lou is the producer of To Catch a Bike Thief, a new Vancouver-based web series attended to raise awareness about bike theft, promote, discussion, and explore ways that individuals and communities can protect themselves against theft. Using GPS-enabled “bait bikes” and other tracking technologies, Lou and a group of cyclists try to track and stop the people that steal bikes.
“There’s a lot of perception that people aren’t doing anything about this,” said Lou, speaking at the launch party for the series last week at The Ossington. “We’re casting a really bright spotlight on the issue.” When the producer approached British Columbia authorities about the vigilantes’ project, their response was along the lines of “we’d prefer you didn’t, but we can’t tell you not to”. According to Vancouver police, 117 bicycles have been stolen this year as of February. Closer to home, the fact that infamous bike thief Igor Kenk was arrested in 2008 (he’s since been released), hasn’t stopped bike theft from being an issue in Toronto.
However there’s more to bike theft than simply nabbing people that steal bikes. The ten-minute pilot episode introduces Lou and his team―ordinary cyclists that were fed up with the rash of thefts―and shows them building the first bait bike, mapping out the areas where bikes had been stolen using laptops, and organizing stakeouts. To Catch a Bike Thief manages to be both entertaining and educational at the same. “We think we have a pretty compelling story,” said Lou, who added that they’ve shot hundreds of hours of footage for the series.
“We wanted to avoid a Dog the Bounty Hunter-style show,” said the producer, referring to the popular U.S. reality series where Duane “Dog” Chapman engages in thrilling chases that typically end with some criminal being pinned to the ground and sent away to prison. In some cases, bike theft is a result of individuals not having any other options to make a living, and stolen bikes can be sold for money that might go towards to supporting a drug addiction. One of Lou’s goals for To Catch a Bike Thief is to look at the socio-economic factors that make bike theft possible in Canada. As he likes to point out, “We never talk about bike thieves, we talk about bike theft.”
Besides the screening of the pilot, the party also featured a contest where the public was invited to unlock a bike from a stand using a variety of instruments, for the chance to win a brand new bike. Sounds easy enough right? Except that participants were limited to non-power tools, including hack saws, hammers, and a crowbar. After watching about a dozen people struggled, one woman was handed a power saw, and everybody that had attempted to break the lock was entered in a draw.
Through public events like this one, as well as the group’s online fundraising page, Lou hopes to raise public and media interest and enough money to shoot the first season of To Catch a Bike Thief (he’s been in talks with several networks about turning it into a TV series). The producer says that since he’s started doing interviews, dozens of people have come forward to offer their help and specific skills in areas ranging from computer surveillance to web design. “This is our story,” said Lou, “We have no friggin’ idea what’s going to happen.”
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Max Mertens is a regular contributor to the Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter at @Max_Mertens.
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