The Prince George RCMP and volunteers will once again be out in the community to help us protect our bicycles from theft.

RCMP will be recording all essential information and photos of stole bikes in the 529 Garage app.

This app allows RCMP and the community to work together to reduce bike theft and return recovered bikes to their rightful owners.

According to RCMP, the app has been incrementally successful and has even united two owners with their lost property before they knew the bikes were missing.

Having all the essential information on the app not only allows the bikes to be easily identified, it also allows RCMP to provide more evidence that can support future charges.

"It has been very exciting to see the public evolve from knowing nothing about this program to where they seek us out to get their bikes registered," says Cpl. Craig Douglass, the officer leading this initiative.  

"It has been equally exciting to see bikes get returned to owners instead of going to auction."

From Jan. 1, 2017, to Oct. 31, 2017, there were 146 reports involving 164 bikes.

The following are statistics derived from the theft of bike files:

• 45 owners did not know the make and model of their bike(s).
• Serial numbers were not provided for 109 bikes (67%).
• Purchase value was provided for 73 bikes, which totalled $78,178. An average of $1070 per bike.
• At least 97 bikes were not locked (some victims did not report whether the bikes(s) were locked).
• 10 of the locked bikes were locked by an easily defeated cable.
• 31 were recovered (19%).
• 13 of the 164 stolen bikes were registered with 529 Garage (8%).  Two of the 13 were registered after the theft.
• Seven of the 13 registered bikes were recovered and returned to owners (54%).
• Registered bikes had a recovery rate 6.75 times higher than unregistered bikes.
• Of the seven recovered via the 529 Garage app, two owners were not aware their bikes were stolen.
• One bike was returned to its owner through the app without any police involvement (this bike is not counted in any of the above stats).

As an incentive, the RCMP will be raffling off a 2018 Norco Storm mountain bike donated by Cycle World and Norco.

Bike owners will get one entry for each bike they register at one of the registration events this biking season. Click here to view the list of event dates, times and locations.

Draw date is set for the end of September.

Let’s all do our part and help out our fellow community members! You never know when you might need the same help!