Bike trackers

Chuchote

Prosecution isn't up to you; however, if you have a load of people Talking to Joe and saying "I found my bike and gardaí from X Station refused to go and get it with me", I have no doubt that this will change.

At the moment, bike theft is hard to prove and hard to prosecute. If it became easy to prove and easy to prosecute, judges would be angered by the many thieves being brought before them and rear up on the gardaí, gardaí would rear up on the thieves, and thieves would find easier and more profitable targets.

At the moment, unfortunately, kids without career options can see thieving a bike as easy money with little risk. They can sell it easily to a crooked office worker on the street, and the likelihood of their being found and prosecuted is low.

Trackers will change this, when, as Robynmorton says, they become affordable, easy to install, difficult to remove, and inconspicuous.

ted1

Chuchote wrote: »

Prosecution isn't up to you; however, if you have a load of people Talking to Joe and saying "I found my bike and gardaí from X Station refused to go and get it with me", I have no doubt that this will change.

At the moment, bike theft is hard to prove and hard to prosecute. If it became easy to prove and easy to prosecute, judges would be angered by the many thieves being brought before them and rear up on the gardaí, gardaí would rear up on the thieves, and thieves would find easier and more profitable targets.

At the moment, unfortunately, kids without career options can see thieving a bike as easy money with little risk. They can sell it easily to a crooked office worker on the street, and the likelihood of their being found and prosecuted is low.

Trackers will change this, when, as Robynmorton says, they become affordable, easy to install, difficult to remove, and inconspicuous.

Theft and in possession of stolen items are different things. One thing catching them on it a different catching them actually robbing it

magicbastarder

Chuchote wrote: »

At the moment, bike theft is hard to prove and hard to prosecute. If it became easy to prove and easy to prosecute, judges would be angered by the many thieves being brought before them and rear up on the gardaí, gardaí would rear up on the thieves, and thieves would find easier and more profitable targets.

one of the reasons i am sceptical about gardai following these up - and i'll freely admit it's an anecdote several years old - is from a colleague who went to the gardai about the theft of a phone and laptop from his car, plus several other break ins in cars also parked in the same car park.
not only did he have a tracker installed on his phone to tell him where it had been taken, he also had the CCTV footage of the crime being committed. the gardai didn't do anything about it, and told him they had little interest in following it up. it was just property loss was the way they summed it up to him, or words to that affect. if there had been injury to a person, the response would be more robust.

Chuchote

ted1 wrote: »

Theft and in possession of stolen items are different things. One thing catching them on it a different catching them actually robbing it

It doesn't matter. If you're in possession of stolen goods, you've received stolen goods.

In any case, the fact that a tracker is installed means that the bike can be tracked from where it was locked into the ownership of the thief and/or receiver.

magicbastarder wrote: »

one of the reasons i am sceptical about gardai following these up - and i'll freely admit it's an anecdote several years old - is from a colleague who went to the gardaí about the theft of a phone and laptop from his car, plus several other break ins in cars also parked in the same car park.
not only did he have a tracker installed on his phone to tell him where it had been taken, he also had the CCTV footage of the crime being committed. the gardai didn't do anything about it, and told him they had little interest in following it up. it was just property loss was the way they summed it up to him, or words to that affect. if there had been injury to a person, the response would be more robust.

We've all heard these anecdotes. And the opposite. But if your colleague's story is true, and if he had gone further with this, for instance to GSOC, action would have been taken. One lazy garda doesn't mean all gardaí are lazy.

robyntmorton

The main thing RE: Gardai and tracker enabled bikes, is that you are making it as easy as you possibly can for them. You are spoonfeeding EVERYTHING they need. It is not like they have to investigate whether the bike is stolen, where it is and so on, if you are able to say "here are the bike details, here are the tracker details, here's its location, and where it was stolen from"

At that point, if they are not interested, you would be right to take it further.

If you went in, however, with just "a blue road bike", no serials, no tracking, I would more or less agree with them just noting the details, and nearly forgetting about it.

Chuchote

Since we're dealing with some secondhand stories…

I bought (but never used and am about to sell) a SpyBike Tracker more or less purely because of a conversation with a man who had one installed on his bike in London. The bike was stolen, and the tracker showed it being ridden up and down within a kilometre of his house (he showed me the tracking map).

He went and scoped it out, and found his bike locked outside a house. He walked down to the local police station and told the police about it, and (once he produced proof of ownership) they delightedly went back with him, knocked on the door, arrested the thief and got him his bike back.

The tracking was ample proof of theft, showing the bike locked outside a local cafe, then taken and ridden to the thief's home, and taken out for a couple of rides, then reclaimed.

Roger.

Hey guys!

I did check all the options mentioned here, few of them are really interesting like the See.sense and the "others" :rolleyes: discussed:

Chuchote wrote: »

Dublin City Council has offered funding for an Irish anti-theft bike tracker, and five companies are competing for it:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/smart-city-cycling-dublin

Although the See.sense seems to be "good enough" for what a biker needs on the road, also seems to don't be safe enough just to leave it in your bike while you are, lets say having a coffee or if you use the bike to commute, the way you mount it is just to easy, no screws, no security at all, which for me means also really easy to be taken! :eek:

I looked at the Sherlock gps tacker as an option, but then it doesn't fit in my bike, so I had to say no to it, the gps feature is good, although and according to what I researched so far, once the stolen bike is stored inside a building, then the gps feature became obsolete... plus you have to pay monthly subscription to the SIM card service you have to pay in order to track where your bike went without you!

So, for me is not the gps that is really important here, is more the feature that alerts you when our bike is about to be stolen, or if your bike moves without you being who moves it and that can fit in my bike.

Anyway, if you guys know a product that can be used nowadays, not a gps based one, but that can tell you if your bike is being moved, and that have good reviews, please allow me to know about it!

Thanks for your time.

Roger.

johndbee66

Hi, did you ever find a gps tracker for your bike in the end?