Police handle spare bikes

About 150 stolen bicycles sit unclaimed and forgotten in the Kirksville Police Department's storage building.

They have accumulated over the years as police have recovered stolen bicycles uncollected by the owners.

"What usually happens is the bikes are not reported stolen, so when we recover a bike and we have not located an owner, it ends up out there in the storage shed," said Sgt. Steve Farnsworth of the Kirksville Police Department. "If someone doesn't come in and report it to us, we have no way to find the owner."

The shed contains a variety of bicycles that vary in price and condition.

"These bikes range from the real nice Trek bikes or mountain bikes that are $500 to $600 bikes all the way down to $50 or $60 bikes," Farnsworth said. "Not all are in good condition, and some are beyond repair."

The majority of these bicycles were stolen with the intent of being used for a short time, and the police department recovered them where the thieves dumped them, Farnsworth said.

"Usually somebody who's coming by who doesn't want to walk any further will just jump on a bike, ride it to where they're going and then ditch it," Farnsworth said.

The majority of bikes stolen are left unlocked or have a lock that is easy to break, like the chains that have a combination lock, said Tom Johnson, director of the Department of Public Safety.

"You can break them with a pair of pliers, or even a pair of wire cutters will take care of them," Johnson said. "The best ones are the U-type locks. You can't cut them - not without a blow torch."

Three bicycle thefts have been reported to Public Safety this semester, and seven bicycles were stolen during the 2003 spring semester.

"I knew a couple people who had their bikes stolen, so after that I was more cautious with my bicycle," sophomore Tyler Nobis said. "I keep my front tire low, so it looks like the tire is flat so no one tries to steal it."

Senior Jenna Meyer said she reported her bicycle stolen Oct. 27 after she left it unlocked between Missouri and Brewer halls.

"[The bike] was a piece of crap, that's why I was shocked it was stolen," Meyer said. "It's a rusted, faded, hot pink, old bicycle."

Meyer said she managed to get her bicycle back.

"This girl heard me telling a friend that my bike was stolen, and she said she saw a bike in this yard, so I went back there and stole it back," Meyer said.

Unfortunately, finding stolen bicycles is not always that easy.

"Sometimes there's someone who just wants to steal it for the money or for the parts," Johnson said. "Then the chances of you seeing it again are pretty slim unless you happen to catch them at the time. If somebody's stealing it for the money, they're going to take it out of the city and sell it somewhere else most generally."

Bike owners can help police identify stolen bicycles they recover by registering their bikes at either the police department or Public Safety, who share records of registered bikes.

"It gives us and Kirksville police a record of the bike and a serial number," Johnson said. "When we get a bike reported stolen to us, we use the serial number so we can enter it into a national crime computer."

If students have had their bicycle stolen, they can ask Public Safety to check their records for recovered bicycles.

"We're also on Kirksville's system, so we can check to see if Kirksville happens to have it in their records," Johnson said.

As for the bikes in the storage building, they will continue to collect dust until someone claims them or the police department donates them to local charities.

Nothing has been done with the bicycles for about a year, but in the past, some of the bikes still in good condition were donated to the Salvation Army and the Kirksville Junior High School, Farnsworth said.

"Approxi-mately two years ago, we gave the bikes to the Family Advocacy Center," Farnsworth said. "We gave them the bikes that were in good condition, and they had kids that actually worked on the bikes and then gave them away to people who needed bikes."