TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucson is a bicycle loving town—and pedaling along in the heat makes electric bikes a popular option but University of Arizona Police say those e-bikes are popular with thieves too.
It’s easy to see why bikes are appealing to college students. Even an expensive bike is cheap compared to a car, and you don’t have to fight for a parking space.
Electric bikes can help riders pull back on the pedaling and pump up the speed. They’re getting more popular, so they’re popular with thieves with several E-bike thefts since U of A’s new session began.
To help reduce any type of bike theft, U of A offers help, like secure valet parking for bikes where someone’s there to watch your two-wheeler.
That’s where we met U of A Sophomore Michael Greco. He has a regular bike and he got some special encouragement to keep it secure.
“My mom was like, big on that, like, get bunch of bike locks, get a bunch of everything to keep it safe. Do what you can. Do the best you can. I even store it inside. I don't keep it outside my apartment.”
U of A Police say their usual advice to secure your bike with a substantial lock and chain absolutely applies to that pricey E-bike too.
If a thief knows just trying to defeat a lock will slow them down that’s probably enough to make them give up.
Sgt. Andrew Valenzuela says, “They're making noise. They might be drawing attention to themselves. And we have community members on campus at all hours of the day and the night. So we're asking them just to pay attention to their surroundings.”
U of A offers bike valet parking on weekdays where someone’s watching those bikes.
Tanner Shelton likes that option to keep thieves off of his bike.
“It can happen pretty quickly. It can happen in a flash, really. So you gotta, you gotta either lock it up in a public area where there can be a lot of eyes on it, or the free bike valet is probably the best way to go about it.”
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
