Unclaimed bikes head to police auction

If your bike goes missing in Saskatoon, chances are you’ll never see it again.

If you’re lucky, the bike ends up at the Saskatoon police lost and found facility. Many people, however, don’t know about it — and the majority of the 1,000 bikes that end up there every year are eventually sold at a police auction.

"People phone in and say, ‘There’s a bike sitting on my lawn,’ " said Linda Guenther, a civilian who works at the lost and found compound, which receives lost goods from the police, city transit and libraries.

"When we pick up a bike that’s been found, we keep it for three months, we log it into our system, then it goes to auction if it’s not claimed.

"We get everything except pets, people and cars," she said, showing off shelves of tools, cellphones, cameras, computers and toys. Whatever can’t be sold at auction is donated to charity.

The facility, a warehouse on Ontario Avenue, holds row upon row of bikes — more than 300 — running the gamut of brands from Gary Fisher to Walmart. About 200 of the bikes that wind up there each year are completely trashed and unusable.

Most of the decent ones go unclaimed. People either don’t know about the facility, or they don’t find their bike when they come in.

"About 15 per cent of the people who come in to the lost and found find their bike," Guenther said.

Without a serial number, found on the bottom of the bike frame just between the pedals, it’s very difficult to recover a stolen bike, whether it’s from the police lost and found or a pawn shop.

"Finding stolen bikes is not common," said police spokesperson Alyson Edwards. "People often don’t record serial numbers or they don’t keep descriptions of their property. It makes it harder to recover."

Bike theft is actually down so far this year compared to 2008 and 2009, with 191 bikes reported stolen between January and July this year compared to 205 in 2009 and 259 in the first six months of 2008. Nearly 500 bikes in total were reported stolen during the course of 2008 and 365 last year.

With the chances of recovering it so slim, the best bet is to make sure your bike never gets stolen in the first place, says Edwards.

Jenna Besmutko, who works at Bike Doctor on Main Street, says a heavy U-lock is the best protection against theft when leaving your bike locked up.

"Also, if you can, leave it in a more public place where lots of people can see it," she said.

People regularly come into the shop to retrieve the serial number from a recently purchased bike that has been stolen, she says. Mostly, it doesn’t do them much good.

"That does happen quite a bit, actually. We keep all the serial numbers on record."

Besmutko doesn’t trust locks with her own bikes.

"I actually don’t lock up my bike. I won’t leave it anywhere in public where it can be stolen. My bicycles live in the house, but I have lots of space, and luckily at the shop here we can leave our bikes in the back. I have an older bike I leave on Broadway if I have to bike to my other job."

For those who have nearly lost hope in recovering their lost or stolen bike, the police lost and found can be reached at 975-8213. Bikes are auctioned off every three months by McDougall Auction. The next sale, of 125 bikes, is on Saturday at 3 p.m.