VPD launches registry to help return stolen bikes to owners

Surveillance video captured several pedestrians walking past a pair of thieves using an axe to steal a bike in Vancouver. None call 911. (CTV)

Vancouver police have launched a new registry to help reunite stolen bikes with their rightful owners.

Police said there are currently more than 2,000 bikes reported stolen in Vancouver every year, and only a small portion of victims ever get their property back.

That’s because the bikes ‘serial numbers and descriptions weren’t properly recorded – a problem police hope to solve through the new Vancouver Bike Registry, a program developed with a U.S.-based registration, reporting and recovery network called 529 Garage.

“Our goal is to make Vancouver the most secure city in Canada to ride a bicycle,” Deputy Chief Const. Warren Lemcke said in a statement.

“The 529 Garage registry will allow officers to quickly and efficiently recognize a stolen bike and get that bike back to its owner.”

Police said most of the bikes stolen in Vancouver are eventually recovered and placed in the police property office – but because most weren’t properly registered, just 10 per cent or so are ever returned to their owners.

They’re hoping their partnership with 529 Garage will change that. According to police, a bike registered through the service that was recently stolen in Vancouver was returned to its owner within 36 hours.

Project 529, the Portland company behind 529 Garage, boasts that it’s helped secure more than $15 million worth of bikes since it launched the registry last year.

Vancouver police said they hope to register 10,000 bikes for free in the first three years teamed with the registry. Eventually, authorities hope to have every bike in the U.S. and Canada traceable in a single database.

For more information on registering your bike, visit the Vancouver Police Department website.