WATCH: City Councillor takes to twitter to recover stolen bike. Jackson Proskow reports.
TORONTO –Torontonians are taking to twitter to retrieve stolen bikes.
Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon tweeted Wednesday that her cherished yellow bike was stolen from outside city hall.
WHO STOLE MY BIKE???? Right outside City Hall!! @BikingToronto @CycleToronto @Ward32Spokes #bikeTO http://t.co/FcamNP8PEA
— MM McMahon (@mary_margaret32) August 20, 2013
McMahon locked her bike up outside of city hall and underneath a security camera. Despite the illusion of security, her bike was stolen in broad daylight.
“If I don’t feel safe leaving my bike here where else can I leave my bike?” she said in an interview Thursday. “We need more secure bike accommodation.”
And last week, Meg Norton, tweeted a photo of her bike with the hashtag #ReturnMegsBike after it was stolen from outside of her downtown Toronto office. Within a week, she had her bike returned.
Thousands of bikes are reported stolen in Toronto each year. In 2011, the latest year for which statistics are available, 3,139 bikes were stolen. That was down slightly from 3,247 in 2010. Since 2005 the number has risen and fallen with a spike of 4,529 bikes reported stolen in 2007.
Police insist that registering a bicycle with the Toronto Police Service will help a victim of theft retrieve their bike.
“The reason for that is that it helps us recover your bicycle and return it back to you,” Toronto Police Constable Tony Vella said Thursday. “But it also helps with the prosecution of the case.”
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Police also suggest using a high-quality lock and making sure riders lock their bicycle to immovable objects.
Jared Kolb, the executive director of Cycle Toronto is hoping that everyone will heed the warning and register their bike with police.
“It’s a significant problem, we hear about it a lot and its something that hits close to home when it happens,” he said.
While registering bikes may help getting a bike back, Kolb said, Toronto’s cycling infrastructure is in desperate need of an upgrade. They’re simply isn’t enough safe places to lock up your bike.
“They’re always, always full, there’s not enough of them, that means people have to lock up to fences, trees, poles, signposts,” he said. “The problem with those places is they’re often not as secure as the ring and posts that are provided.”
– With files from Jackson Proskow
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