Big bike theft in Seattle

[WSBA Jr.]

Hi All,

Just received email notification from Cascade Bicycle Studio in Seattle. They were broken into early Tuesday 3/25/14, thirty two(!) bikes stolen including customer bikes. These are great people, with a terrific shop. My family met Bob Parlee there for a presentation, and they are drivers of the MFG cross series. The list of bikes is long (below), I know our Northwest guys will be watching CL, ebay, etc. Not sure what all we can do, but here's a link to the message on their site; http://t.e2ma.net/message/ru6fh/v51qod

I noticed the mods wish to consolidate onto the stolen bike sticky, forgive me if this seemed out of the norm to drop it here first. WSBA Jr.

Parlee Z5i Small/Tall, Shimano 105 kit, black frame with white logo
Parlee Z5SLi Med/Tall, Shimano Ultegra Di2 6870 kit, Hi-Viz orange/white/navy
Parlee Z5 ESX, all black, SRAM Red, Zipp 303’s
Parlee Z-Zero Disc, SRAM Red, Hed Ardennes Disc wheels, Light Blue/Orange
Parlee Z5SLi Large Tall, SRAM Force 22 kit, HED Ardennes, Black w/black logos
Parlee Z5SLi Large Tall, Shimano Dura Ace Di2 9070, Ksryium SLR wheels, blk/blk

Seven Axiom Steel, 56 cm, SRAM Apex, Cyan Blue with purple and Citron paint
Seven Evergreen S Ti, 56 cm with SRAM Force 22, and green housing, saddle, tape
Seven 622, 55.7 top tube, with Shimano Ultegra 6770 Di2, Ksyrium Elite wheels
Seven Axiom SL, 60.1 top tube, with Shimano Dura Ace 9000, Ksyruim SL wheels
Seven Axiom Steel, Giro Bike, 56cm, Campy Athena alloy, Painted Record Hubs, PINK
Seven Axiom Steel Disc, 54 cm, Citron Paint, Shimano Ultegra 6800, HED Disc rims

BMC GF01, Shimano 105, 48cm, 54cm, 56cm, Black/White/Blue
BMC GF02, Shimano 105, 54, 56, 61, Black/Red
BMC AC02, Shimano Alivio, Small, Black
BMC AC01, Shimano Sora, Medium and Large, White
BMC AC01, Shimano Di2 Alfine 11, Medium, Bare Aluminum
BMC TE01, Shimano SLX/XT, Medium, Brown/Orange accents
BMC FS02 Shimano SLX/XT, Medium, Black/Red
BMC FS02, Shimano XT, Large, Black/White
BMC SLR02, Shimano 105, 61, Black/Red

Ibis Ripley, Large, Shimano XT, Blue
Ibis Mojo SLR, Medium, Shimano XTR, Black with Blue accents
Ibis Hakkalugi Disc, SRAM Rival, 55 cm, White

Cervelo R3, Shimano 105, Silver, 61cm
Focus Culebro 2.0, Shimano Ultegra, Black w/blue accents, XXL

[CunegoFan]

That is quite a haul. It makes me wonder why anyone bothers to rob banks.

[tuscanyswe]

That is sad. Hopefully the bikes or atleast some of them are recovered. Wish em good and hope they got means to cover such a big loss at this part of the season.

[Fatty]

That is a lot bikes to haul away. Did they steal a bus to load them up in one trip? Hopefully someones security camera caught something.

[William]

Posted it up on the Paceline FB page as well.






William

[MattTuck]

Transporting that many bikes is not easy. This must have been planned in advance by some pretty sophisticated individuals. This wasn't smashing a window to grab a bike and then fencing it for cheap the next day for drug money.

True Detective Season 2.

[ultraman6970]

Well the frames will be the hardest thing for these morons to get rid off because nobody will have in their house like 5 Parlee's, 7 -7s and like 8 high end BMCs frames for selling and that will be the red light for the cops right away.

[Busstuf]

Terrible news! Zac who co owns CBS is a former employee of Seven Cycles. I hope they find the perpetrators.

[George Ab]

Lets hope his insurance coverage handles the hit.

[redir]

Wow and that's twice in the last month :eek:

They are obviously being targeted and it's a pretty bold move if it's the same thieves. Either that or it's an easy target with no alarm or camera systems?

[ultraman6970]

Like if it was that hard to just move super fast and use masks.

Wow and that's twice in the last month :eek:

They are obviously being targeted and it's a pretty bold move if it's the same thieves. Either that or it's an easy target with no alarm or camera systems?

[Marburg]

Noone would do this without an obvious way to on-sell the stolen goods. I'm always left with the question (as with any high-end bike theft) of how you get rid of the goods without getting caught.

I guess that's why "fence" is a recognized, uh, skilled career.

[tiretrax]

That's awful. I bet they will be on CL and ebay in 2 months. That area seems prone to high end bike thefts. Veloce Velo suffered a few robberies, too.

It would be good to get a list of the serial numbers so people buying used bikes can check against it.

[Waldo]

An inside job?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[11.4]

I had a $20K bike theft last summer. Same town. I was told by the cops that the bikes would be in the bay area within a couple days and sold there, some to people who took them on down to Mexico and some to people who would buy them for $1-2K and just not ask questions. Not this crowd, but people who still know what a good bike is.

I was also told that there wouldn't be any investigation. They had a video security camera showing the person who perpetrated my theft and it was someone who had a key to a secure storage area and had access to a secure building. You would think ....

I don't think there's any deterrent to bike thieves any longer. Even at these price points. If a $20K felony theft with photos and restricted key access wasn't enough to catch someone, what the hell does that tell you? And I was working with a really good, well funded police department with a genuine awareness of cyclists and cycling.

[bewheels]

An inside job?

Very likely. Little know fact - by far the most common form of theft for small business is employee theft. Out of these thefts, the largest perpetrators are family members.

I did a lot of work creating digital systems for smaller companies and this is something we had to take into account.

[ultraman6970]

There's a lot of crimes that dont have a single deterrent. The guys don't care and that takes you to think too "how corrupt the system inside is." In other countries you can't imagine how crime is, thats why crime in general is not caring any more because you can't deter them almost with nothing.

Hope the store finds them, but at the same time the insurance company will pay them anyway, easier for everybody.

At some point "Judge Dreed" justice system (if the human rights guys stop whining) gotta have to show up for real to solve crap like that really quick.


I had a $20K bike theft last summer. Same town. I was told by the cops that the bikes would be in the bay area within a couple days and sold there, some to people who took them on down to Mexico and some to people who would buy them for $1-2K and just not ask questions. Not this crowd, but people who still know what a good bike is.

I was also told that there wouldn't be any investigation. They had a video security camera showing the person who perpetrated my theft and it was someone who had a key to a secure storage area and had access to a secure building. You would think ....

I don't think there's any deterrent to bike thieves any longer. Even at these price points. If a $20K felony theft with photos and restricted key access wasn't enough to catch someone, what the hell does that tell you? And I was working with a really good, well funded police department with a genuine awareness of cyclists and cycling.

[WSBA Jr.]

I can't imagine how they did it, but...
http://t.e2ma.net/message/jw6mh/v51qod

The gist of it at this point:

"In late March, we were robbed and we lost 31 bikes and 2 sets of wheels. After many hours of investigation and work, the Seattle Police Department recovered all but 4 of our bikes! The details are still confidential until the entire investigation is over, but the bikes are now in our possession.
Most of the bikes have seen minor cosmetic paint chips and scratches. Some of the bikes need a few components replaced. All of the bikes cannot be sold as "new" bicycles so we are doing a Recovery Sale to find new homes for these bikes.
The bikes are all 50% off the retail price and can be purchased immediately."

[KidWok]

I can't imagine how they did it, but...
http://t.e2ma.net/message/jw6mh/v51qod

The gist of it at this point:

"In late March, we were robbed and we lost 31 bikes and 2 sets of wheels. After many hours of investigation and work, the Seattle Police Department recovered all but 4 of our bikes! The details are still confidential until the entire investigation is over, but the bikes are now in our possession.
Most of the bikes have seen minor cosmetic paint chips and scratches. Some of the bikes need a few components replaced. All of the bikes cannot be sold as "new" bicycles so we are doing a Recovery Sale to find new homes for these bikes.
The bikes are all 50% off the retail price and can be purchased immediately."

Awesome...not much my size thankfully.

Tai

[djg21]

Well the frames will be the hardest thing for these morons to get rid off because nobody will have in their house like 5 Parlee's, 7 -7s and like 8 high end BMCs frames for selling and that will be the red light for the cops right away.

This sounds far too sophisticated of a theft. The bikes probably aren't being sold on Craigslist. More likely, they are in a container on a ship headed overseas. There is always The possibility that the theft was an inside job or insurance scam too.

And IMO, there is no deterrent for most crimes. Criminals commit crimes (at least ones that require a degree of planning) because they don't think they will be caught.

[jlwdm]

... More likely, they are in a container on a ship headed overseas...

...

????
27 of 31 recovered.

Jeff

[oldpotatoe]

????
27 of 31 recovered.

Jeff

small container....sounds like an inside job to me....

[ultraman6970]

The day will come that judge dreed will be real.

[TBDSeattle]

This sounds far too sophisticated of a theft. The bikes probably aren't being sold on Craigslist. More likely, they are in a container on a ship headed overseas. There is always The possibility that the theft was an inside job or insurance scam too.


If anyone knows what they were planning to do, please share.

I always imagined an underground bike thief network that moves stolen bikes across the country. Hard to imagine how they move so many bikes without some organization.

In this case I have to think that they were filling a container and sending overseas.

Then again, I had a friend recover a custom Indy Fab that was stolen in Seattle by finding it on CL in Arizona about 9 months later...

[flyhippy]

When I was in Portland there was a small ring of a couple meth heads stealing bikes from colleges in Idaho and Utah and selling them on PDX craigslist - I recovered six bikes for a couple folks up at Boise State.

Couldn't get the police to do jack. Told them I had a meet with the guy, that he currently had eight bikes listed on craigslist, all confirmed stolen from a break in at Boise State campus. Cops wouldn't send anyone with me, so I took a couple guys with me and we rounded em up. Got the bikes back, but they are probably still stealing more as we speak.

[grailedmund]

Wow, that sucks. hope they get found.

[ultraman6970]

Wow... hope you guys got some freebies too, at that point you can tell the guy to give you everything and they will.

When I was in Portland there was a small ring of a couple meth heads stealing bikes from colleges in Idaho and Utah and selling them on PDX craigslist - I recovered six bikes for a couple folks up at Boise State.

Couldn't get the police to do jack. Told them I had a meet with the guy, that he currently had eight bikes listed on craigslist, all confirmed stolen from a break in at Boise State campus. Cops wouldn't send anyone with me, so I took a couple guys with me and we rounded em up. Got the bikes back, but they are probably still stealing more as we speak.

[velotrack]

Wow, that sucks. hope they get found.

Do people even read anymore? :confused:

[seanile]

I can't imagine how they did it, but...
http://t.e2ma.net/message/jw6mh/v51qod

The gist of it at this point:

"In late March, we were robbed and we lost 31 bikes and 2 sets of wheels. After many hours of investigation and work, the Seattle Police Department recovered all but 4 of our bikes! The details are still confidential until the entire investigation is over, but the bikes are now in our possession.
Most of the bikes have seen minor cosmetic paint chips and scratches. Some of the bikes need a few components replaced. All of the bikes cannot be sold as "new" bicycles so we are doing a Recovery Sale to find new homes for these bikes.
The bikes are all 50% off the retail price and can be purchased immediately."incrdible, i was not expecting to see those get recovered. looking forward to the story if it's ever released.