{"id":21776,"date":"2025-06-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-police-department-joins-registry-to-help-reunite-owners-with-stolen-bikes\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:00:00","slug":"durango-police-department-joins-registry-to-help-reunite-owners-with-stolen-bikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-police-department-joins-registry-to-help-reunite-owners-with-stolen-bikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango Police Department joins registry to help reunite owners with stolen bikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango Police Department Sgt. Dave Cunningham looks over stolen and found bicycles on Tuesday that are kept in a storage container until the bikes are returned to their owners or sold at auction. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Around Christmas Day 2024, Christina Rinderle went to her garage to get her bicycle for a ride to work at Durango Land & Homes real estate. But when she got to her garage, she noticed her Trek e-bike was missing.<\/p>\n

Rinderle then saw the remnants of cut bike locks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first reaction was I must\u2019ve locked it someplace else,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reality set in when I saw my mountain bike was also stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, with help from Gary and Karen Provencher of 2nd Ave Sports and the Durango Police Department, Rinderle recovered her e-bike.<\/p>\n

Rinderle\u2019s bikes were two of seven stolen in Durango in May, according to the Durango Police Department. The agency reports an average of six bicycle thefts per month in the city from February 2022 through May 2025.<\/p>\n

Those statistics are based only on people who report their stolen bicycles to the DPD. Rinderle said she thinks bicycle theft across Durango and elsewhere is a concern but it\u2019s probably no worse than other similarly sized cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interesting thing is the e-bike was stolen again in the spring, but video surveillance caught who stole it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to Bicycle Retailer & Industry News\u2019 Annual Bike Theft Report, 118,942 bicycles listed in the Bike Index registry were reported stolen nationwide in 2024 \u2013 a 15% increase from the previous year.<\/p>\n

Locally, DPD Cmdr. Nick Stasi said the bike-theft problem is \u201cpersistent\u201d and is getting worse, despite the department\u2019s efforts and programs to curb the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYear after year, it\u2019s a consistent issue with bike thefts in town, in part because Durango is such a bike-centric community,\u201d he said. \u201cBike thefts, over the last few years, have continued to increase, which is partly due to the increase in our population.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stolen
Stolen and found bicycles are kept by the Durango Police Department in a storage container until the bikes are returned to the owners or sold at auction. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Stasi, in his 16th year with the DPD, said according to police department statistics, the average value of a stolen bike in Durango since 2022 was $1,552. The lowest was listed at $50 and the highest at $12,000, with two bikes at that value stolen \u2013 one of those bikes was recovered in Tucson, Arizona. He said bike thefts increase in the warmer months, due to more people out and about riding, parking bikes in bike racks across town and toting them on their cars.<\/p>\n

Stasi said there isn\u2019t any accurate data on the ratio of unlocked to locked stolen bikes, and DPD data shows there are places that have more total bike theft reports than others, but those are locations more frequently used by bicyclists, such as the Durango Community Recreation Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more bikes are out on the street, the more opportunities for criminals,\u201d said Stasi, who was promoted to operations bureau commander in May 2023. \u201cOverall, it\u2019s all over town. We\u2019ve had bikes stolen from people\u2019s front porches, from the backs of people\u2019s cars \u2013 there\u2019s no one or two places that are the \u2018go-to.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

According to DPD statistics, in February, no bicycles were stolen. But in June 2024, 17 were illegally rolled away.<\/p>\n

Stasi has been with the DPD since January 2009 and said not all stolen bicycles are gone forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recover approximately 40% of the bikes that are reported stolen to us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know that some bike thefts go unreported, and we have no way to calculate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stasi said Durango has had a bike registration program in place but it wasn\u2019t effective, with few people registering their bicycles. To help to keep bike theft rates in check and help owners retrieve their bicycles, Durango joined Project 529, a bike registration and security platform based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It\u2019s the largest bicycle registration database allowing residents to register their bikes, provide contact information and upload photos to help with identification in the event that it is lost or stolen.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Project 529 organizers started the organization to create a program that helps reduce bike theft, promotes cycling and \u201cmakes cities and campuses more bike-friendly,\u201d according to its website. The goal was to provide riders, shops, police, schools and cities around the world with tools that \u201callow communities to become better organized than the criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stolen
Stolen and found bicycles are kept by the Durango Police Department in a storage container until the bikes are returned to the owners or sold at auction. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The DPD participates with Project 529 to encourage residents to register bicycles, helping to deter theft and get help in recovery if a bike is stolen.<\/p>\n

Brent Fahrberger has been the director of government affairs of Project 529 in Denver for two years. He\u2019s assisted by Rob Brunt in Vancouver, British Columbia, a former police officer.<\/p>\n

Fahrberger said U.S. bike theft statistics have stayed about the same for the past three years, with trends nationally and state-to-state seeming to show an increase in e-bike thefts. He said in the U.S. over the past year, e-bikes are the highest reported thefts, followed by mountain bikes, road bikes and hybrids.<\/p>\n

Cities that have joined Project 529 have reportedly had double-digit theft reduction results within the first two years.<\/p>\n

To prevent bike theft in Durango or anywhere, Fahrberger said good quality locks are important and not to use cable locks except for accessories. He added proper locking technique is equally important.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Durango a couple weeks ago for the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic and I noticed a lot of expensive bikes not properly locked or not locked at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One tool Fahrberger said has been \u201cvery effective\u201d against theft is called the \u201c529 Garage Shield\u201d \u2013 a tamperproof decal with a unique identifier that acts as a deterrent similar to a home-security sign. He said thieves avoid shielded bikes because cyclists who purchase bicycles will look up serial numbers before purchase, thus complicating what would normally be an \u201ceasy transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Fahrberger said the best way for riders in Durango to prevent bike theft is to register their bikes with the DPD. If the police can\u2019t prove ownership, they cannot return the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police also use our software tools in Durango to recover bicycles and they are doing an amazing job of using the program,\u201d he said. \u201cIf your bike has been stolen and you think you\u2019ve found it, please make sure to contact the police to do a civil assist. Do not retrieve your bike on your own. Your safety is much more valuable than any monetary item.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stolen
Stolen and found bicycles are kept by the Durango Police Department in a storage container until the bikes are returned to the owners or sold at auction. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Project 529 suggests among the ways to help prevent a bike from being stolen are:<\/p>\n

Locking both the wheels using manual locks.Parking in an area with good lighting.Buying an electronic locking system.Securing the bike to an immovable object.Avoiding parking a bike in the same spot over a long period of time.Keeping the bike looking simple.<\/div>\n

In the past, Stasi said the DPD has used surveillance cameras, GPS trackers and decoy bikes to catch people in the act of stealing. However, he said those take a lot of officers\u2019 time and DPD resources. He said the No. 1 way to avoid bike theft is to lock the bicycle \u201cevery time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a perception that Durango is this small-town where these sorts of things don\u2019t happen. So people don\u2019t lock their bikes, they don\u2019t lock their cars, and their bikes and cars get stolen,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a simple solution: We just need people to make sure they\u2019re taking that extra step to secure their property.\u201d<\/p>\n

An earlier version of this story erred in saying Project 529 has offices in Seattle, Washington, and Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

enforcement report steady rise in thefts; urge residents to register with Project 529<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1065,28,74],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-police-department","tag-headlines","tag-theft"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21776"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}