Bike theft is out of control .......upwards of 30,000 bikes (1 every 20 minutes) are stolen each year in Australia with only a small proportion recovered and returned to their owners.
If only it was that simple! On top of the everyday over-stretched workload of police responding to all manner of crimes (ABS - 1.017 M reported thefts in the 19/20 year) bike theft is a complex crime and is not as simple to solve as you might think.
Bikes are hot property in demand! The buoyant used bike market enables thieves and black market traders to quickly sell stolen bikes to second-hand dealers and online, where they are known to use fake accounts to advertise stolen bikes and parts; usually at cheap prices ensuring a fast sale. In many cases, the stolen bikes are moved to different parts of the city, state, and in some instances across state borders, making it hard for police to identify stolen bikes and catch the perpetrators.
Adding to the complexity is bike identification. Positively identifying a stolen bike can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Even searching a frame serial number is no guarantee that a stolen bike can be identified. Many modern and high-value bikes now have a single frame serial number label, which some of the more cunning thieves exploit by either altering it or removing it altogether. In some cases, they replace it with a totally counterfeit label which can be very hard to detect by an untrained eye.
RELATED: The tools used to reduce car theft by 75% can work to reduce all property crime.
Pixelated photo of counterfeit serial number label on a modern bike.
Strengthening bike identification, widespread community surveillance of online selling platforms, and providing the ability for the public to search and identify stolen bikes is the key to detection and deterrence of the black-market trade that fuels most theft!
RELATED: Why bike identification is key to combat bike theft!
Combined with an expert service to both victims and police, BikeVAULT provides a comprehensive FREE online solution to combat bike theft, before and after a bike is stolen, with:
A secure custom-built portal enabling bike owners to upload photographs and comprehensively record their bike’s details and ownership.
A transferrable online date and time-stamped Log Book with blockchain encryption ensuring the bike’s identification and provenance is secured for life.
A registered bike sales platform that connects with buy and sell platforms and enables potential buyers to conduct a provenance check prior to purchase; potentially adding to a higher resale value when competing against bikes with no recorded history.
In the event of theft BikeVAULT is a powerful recovery tool that provides:
A custom-designed public and police accessible stolen report and search portal ensuring that a suspect bike can be searched and identified; regardless of where and when it was stolen and eventually located.
Tools, know-how and online victim support and advocacy from BikeVAULT’s police trained admins, who are experts in bike identification and asset tracing techniques.
Social media connectivity and support from BikeVAULT’s large online community made up of like-minded stolen bike spotters who match and report advertised bikes with stolen listings on our portal.
Not just bikes ....BikeVAULT part of PropertyVAULT protects all assets including pets vulnerable to theft! Sign up for your FREE account and then click the 'ADD TO VAULT' button to begin.
Go to our news page to read a sampling of the hundreds of stolen bike recoveries that BikeVAULT has aided victims and police with over the past 6 years.