Recent victims of bike theft are being urged to contact Vancouver police, after 148 stolen bicycles were discovered on August 29th.
Police say the bikes were found at a self-storage facility on Powell Street, near Hawks Avenue. A man who'd been arrested on an unrelated matter nearby led police to the huge cache of stolen bikes.
"I'm a 19-year officer of the Vancouver Police Department, and I've never seen one recovery of 148 bikes," said Sgt. Aaron Roed.
Two men from Vancouver and one man from Surrey initially arrested at the scene were released without charges. While police continue investigating, they're asking anyone who's had a bike stolen recently in Vancouver to contact the non-emergency line or file a report on the vpd.ca website.
"The information required will be make model of the bicycle, serial number and if you have it, a receipt," said Roed.
"Many stores that sell bikes do keep information on that, so you can go back and get information regarding your bike. The more detail you have, the better chance it can be recovered."
Police are also uploading details of each recovered bike to 529 Garage, a database where owners can register their bikes.
"This is a lot of work but we're here for the community and we're working hard to get these bikes back to their rightful owners," Roed said.
Any unclaimed bikes will go to the annual VPD property auction, where stolen bicycles are the main attraction. Around 1,600 bikes have been reported stolen in Vancouver so far this year, 400 fewer than last year.
"So it's down," said Roed. "But it still is a problem in the city of Vancouver. And the officers are working diligently to stop property crime."
