| Motorcycles and Twowheelers: Bike insurance and security - "Motorcycle Theft From the Point of View of a Reformed Thief" Wednesday, 20 August, 2008 | Home | Suggest a Link |
Formula 1 Fantasy LeagueInformation gathered from stats and reports on convicted motorcycle thieves. As well as, from the victoms of motorcycle theft.
The market for stolen bikes right now is so big, it is ridiculous!
Most bikes get taken around 2:00-3:30 am when no-one is up looking out the windows. The thieves will first drive around and look for bikes they and/or their customers want. Then they will return with their van and three or four other guys to help throw the bike in the back of van. It is a one, two, three process taking no longer than 5 minutes. Once the thieves have your bike, they take it home, pop the ignition, get a new ignition done, get the bike stamped up through the junk yard, get a new salvage title, new numbers and that's it.
Thieves are looking at: R1S, R6, CBR600 - looking at anything that is fast. Most thieves are into the fast Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha or Kawasaki bike, not the Harley, Buell, Triumph. Why? Because that is the bike scene. The customer will tell the thief what they want. Most will charge $100 per cc of engine the bike has; the Hayabusa is $1500 on top, R6 will cost you $600.
The easiest place to snatch a bike is from an apartment complex. Thieves have cutters for all the high-end cable locks. a screwdriver will pop any Kryptonite lock.
People think that gated communities are safe. They are not. The keypad entry sequence is easy to compromise. A decoy will enter the complex and get the security guard to work with him, and his accomplices take the bikes while the guard is distracted. The bikes and thieves are gone and the guard loses his job the next day.
The next easiest place to steal a bike is at hotels. A lot of people attend bike events and leave their bikes parked in a dark-ass corner. Thieves love this. This is not very smart; this is the first place they are going to look.
The next easiest place is the track. There are about 6000 bikes at these tracks. The bike owners will leave their bike to go watch the events. The thief is watching your bike, and watching where you are at. Their accomplice will make sure you stay at the track while the thief takes your bike. Thieves communicate by Nextel and keep each other informed as to the best opporutnity to steal your bike.
The safest place to put your bike to prevent it from being stolen is inside your house or your garage. Thieves will not waste time trying to break into your house to get your bike. If you have it in a complex or a storage unit, yes, they will get it. If it is in your garage, they will not try to take it - not worth taking the chance to get shot for your bike.
When I lived in Sunnyvale, ca and owned my 1987 Kawasaki EX-500, I lived in an apartment complex. I had a car port, no garage. I had my bike locked to the support pole of the carport with a $80 high-end cable lock. I also had a $2 two-inch masterlock on the front rotor of the bike.
The thieves enter my complex with their pickup truck around 2:00 am. The bastards cut through the expensive cable lock with no problem at all. Do not waste your money on this crap. Next, the thieves try cutting off the 2" Masterlock on the front rotor. The bastards could not get a good angle and made enough noise to wake me.
I look out and yell, "you're busted." They scatter like roaches.
I call Sunnyvale's Finest, they catch the idiots speeding at 2:00 am down the expressway, find bolt cutters in the back. A clean bust.
I go to Court, the punks get sentenced, I get restitution and learn all the personal information on the thieves. Go by where they live. Guess what? They live in a high-security condo complex. Go figure.
What have I learned from this:
| ©2006 Jim Noss. All rights reserved. |
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