Lethbridge Police Service offer proper bike locking tips

The Lethbridge Police Service is reminding us to always lock up and secure our bikes. The LPS is targeting bike thieves through a community crime initiative. Earlier this week, police were able to use a bike bait technique and managed to arrest an offender who stole a bike after it was locked to a street sign. Police are encouraging us to always lock up our bikes and not to leave them unattended when they are unlocked.

“We recognize that there is a myriad of different locks out there and things like that. Those U-bolt locks seem to be the best deterrent. The most difficult to break through, to kind of cut off, things like that. Ensure that your bikes are placed up against or attached to an immovable object. Not trees, some fence posts things like that are sometimes not the best as they can be removed, busts can kind of bring the bike away with them. Well lit areas, heavy traffic, ensuring that, especially at night time, if the criminals can’t see the bike they can’t steal the bike, so to have them in a locked shed, possibly bring them inside the home, things like that,” said Sergeant Liam Breedon, Property Crimes Unit with the Lethbridge Police Service.

So far this year 95 bikes have been reported stolen and when last year over 500 bikes were taken. So far, only about 123 were found and returned to their owners.