San Antonio – A thief took San Antonio Park Police for a ride last week and stole 10 police bicycles from a storage room at Brackenridge Park.
On the morning of Nov. 6, a San Antonio Police officer was doing a routine check of the San Antonio Park Police bike storage by the Brackenridge Park parking garage on Avenue B when he found a three-foot section of fencing by the storage area cut, folded over and tied, according to an SAPD incident report.
A San Antonio Park Police officer later found surveillance footage of the suspected thief going through the cut fence. Police found 10 bikes missing from the storage room, all of which were marked with “Police” emblems.
The stolen bicycles in the report include three Trek Alphas, one Trek Roscoe, a Trek 400, a KHS, and several “police bikes” with no specific make or model listed.
San Antonio Park Police are under the SAPD umbrella, though, as the name suggests, their focus is on city parks. Both the Park Police and regular San Antonio Police have bike patrol units.
The incident report does not mention how the burglar made off with that many bicycles. However, the western edge of the garage, where the cut was found, borders Brackenridge Park and is largely out of view, with the exception of the San Antonio Zoo Train tracks about 10 yards away.
The area would have been more obscured last week because of thick bamboo growth. However, a landscaper from the nearby Witte Museum said they had been told to cut the bamboo down after the theft.
That brush clearing was underway when KSAT visited the scene Monday.
Police did not know who the suspected thief was when the report was filed on Nov. 6. However, they reported a pair of glasses with a black frame and yellow lenses were found on the ground outside the storage area, as was a black flashlight.
San Antonio Police did not make anyone available for an interview Monday, nor did a spokesman respond to most of the detailed questions about the theft KSAT submitted by email, such as whether a suspect had been identified or arrested, when exactly the theft was believed to have happened, the estimated value of the stolen bikes, how investigators believe the thief made off with the bicycles, or what precautions were being taken to prevent another break-in.
In an emailed response, the spokesman said the investigation was ongoing and no arrests have been made. In a prepared statement, he wrote:
“This unfortunate event illustrates the brazenness of thieves. This/these actor(s) cut through a fenced off area, damaging City property during this theft. When found the actor(s) will be arrested and charged with Burglary of a Building with the Intent to Commit Theft, a felony in Texas. Anyone with information on the identity of this/these actor(s) is urged to call police at 210-207-7273.”
Up the road at Trek Alamo Heights, sales manager Steven Amen said he sells bikes to both SAPD and San Antonio Park Police. He estimated the stolen bikes would probably have been in the $800 to $900 range when the city bought them, though the newer models they use are more expensive.
From his experience, Amen said bike thefts are usually crimes of opportunity and guessed that the storage room was seen as a “weak target” that a thief could get in and out of without drawing much attention.
As for the payoff, Amen said a thief could probably get $300 to $400 selling a stolen bike.
“It’s just a real quick sell. You can ‘part it out.’ And then flea markets, a lot of times, (is) where you’ll see a lot of parts being sold,” Amen said.
But if police can’t keep their bikes safe, how should a regular bike owner protect their own?
Amen says no precaution will ever be perfect. The best you can do is force a would-be thief to make more of an effort and be more exposed if they try to steal your bike.
“If you have your bike with a big U-lock where they’ll need power tools, it’s like, ‘OK, why would I steal that bike when I can jump into the next bike that only has a real quick cable lock and then steal that?’” he explained.
Though some bike owners may also try to make their rides look less attractive to thieves by spray painting them, Amen recommends against that. He said that would likely knock off a portion of the bike’s potential resale value, and spray-painting the wrong part could affect performance.
Instead, he recommended “sticker bombing” a bike as a possible solution. He explained that covering a nice bicycle with stickers can still help obscure its value, but it will be easier to get the frame fixed later if you want to sell the bike.