Inside Edition Tracks a Stolen Bike as Theft Surges Amid Pandemic

Bikes are exploding in popularity during the pandemic, with demand surging to the point of a shortage. But there’s no shortage of bike theft, which is up nearly 30 percent in New York City alone. 

Jamie Kim told Inside Edition her $600 bike was stolen last month.

“Whether you have a really strong lock or not, your bike is still going to get stolen,” Kim said.

And Edit Nagay told Inside Edition she has had three bikes stolen, including one incident that was caught on surveillance video as the bandit rode off.

Inside Edition’s Investigative Unit decided to find out just how long it would take for a $2,300 bike to get stolen. Our producer securely locked the bike to a fence in Lower Manhattan, hiding a GPS tracker inside the tire.

It only took 40 minutes for a man to appear and cut through the lock. He then circled back and rode off with it.

Using the GPS tracker, we trailed him through busy traffic, three miles up 32nd street into a building near the Empire State Building. Although the tracking device wasn’t able to locate the exact floor, the plan is to keep monitoring until the bike starts to move again.

Joe Nocella, founder of 718 Cyclery in Brooklyn, told Inside Edition that he believes the thief is probably stealing more bikes until he’s got enough to move them out of state to resell. 

"I tell people if you leave your bike out, you have to come out and just be psychologically and financially prepared for it just not to be there,” Nocella said.

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