24 Beach Cruiser

Bicycle theft on campus more prevalent than students realize

Jennifer Parker loved her bike. It had been given to her as a graduation present and she used her purple beach cruiser to get everywhere — at least until it was stolen when she parked it outside the Richards Building.

“I actually walked home from the University Office crying, just because I was so sad that I was never going to see my bike again,” Parker said. “Whenever I would walk past a bike rack, I would scan it like crazy, because my bike was purple so it was pretty hard to miss, but I would never see it.”

Bicycle theft at BYU is more common than people think, and according to statistics compiled by the BYU Police Department, thefts have been steadily increasing over the past few years.

Lt. Arnold Lemmon, Information Officer for the BYU Police Department, said culprits are sometimes students, but could also be anyone who walks onto campus. Lemmon said thieves typically have three  primary motivations for stealing a bike — to make money, for their own personal use or because it’s more convenient.

“They’ll steal them just to ride from Point A to Point B,” Lemmon said. “So I’m leaving the Wilkinson Center and I want to get to my apartment in downtown Provo, so I jump on the bike and ride it there and then just dump it.”

As it turns out, this is what happened to Parker. Months after her bike had been stolen a friend told her he had seen her bike parked in Helaman Halls. Someone had grabbed her bike, rode it around and then left it at Helaman Halls.

“It was a miracle,” Parker said. “Seriously. I couldn’t have been happier. I ride it every day now. It was a huge deal.”

A similar incident occurred when a student stole a police officer’s bike for personal use, Lemmon said.

“We’ll enter it into a national database with the FBI, so if it’s picked up anywhere in the United States and checked by another officer we’ll get a hit on it,” Lemmon said. “Now, that’s rare because, again, most people you know, they just kind of blow off writing down the serial number and all that business. And so there are just hundreds and hundreds of bikes out there that never get claimed.”

However, using a cheaper bike ensures one is less likely to be targeted by criminals, but if one wants a nicer bike, taking extra precautions will be necessary, Lemmon said.

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