Bike theft victims are frustrated, saying the problem is getting worse and isn't being fixed

Tyler Pusateri locked up his all-black e-bike, as usual, outside his River North office. In less than an hour, the $3,000 bike was stolen.

Pusateri immediately headed to the nearest police station to file a report. Later, after scouring social media, he found the bike listed for sale on Facebook at a fraction of the purchase price. Someone even contacted him promising to return the bike for a fee after Pusateri listed it stolen online. He brought the Facebook listing — which had the suspected thief’s name and location — to the Chicago Police Department.

"I knew exactly who this guy was, and the police were like, 'We can't help you at all. We're too busy,' " Pusateri said. “I did everything I possibly could, even giving the police a solved case, and they still didn't want to do anything about it.”

Bikes can be a cost-effective way of getting around the city, but rising thefts are a costly and frustrating problem for cyclists in Chicago. The number of thefts reported to the police has been climbing back to pre-pandemic levels, according to public records obtained by the Sun-Times.

Reported thefts had declined from 1,636 in 2018 to 997 in 2021. But thefts increased by 29% from 2021 to 2023. The 1,283 thefts reported last year cost victims an average of $634.

And this year, 891 thefts had been reported through Aug. 17, which is 13% more than had been reported through the same date in 2023.

Nationally, it's estimated that more than 2 million bikes are stolen annually, equivalent to a theft every 30 seconds, according to Project 529, a national bike registry. And many victims don't bother reporting bike thefts to police.

Chicago police did not respond to requests for comment.

Chicagoans are biking more

Chicago has been taking steps to better accommodate bikers by adding lanes and greenways. A recent study found biking in Chicago was up 119% between fall 2019 and spring 2023. It was the largest growth among the 10 biggest U.S. cities, according to a report from data analytics firm Replica and the Chicago Department of Transportation.

But riders like Pusateri said having a bike stolen has them questioning whether it's the best way to get around. Most victims this year reported their bikes taken from sidewalks, streets and residential front yards. Neighborhoods downtown like the Loop and Streeterville had the most thefts, with West Loop following closely.

Since Pusateri's bike was stolen on July 6, his main mode of transportation has been walking.

“It makes me hesitant to even get another bike or invest money into it. I don't want to risk it getting stolen again,” he said.

More bikes, more problems

Little Italy resident Luis Vecchio was on alert when he locked his bike to a city rack in Streeterville in August. The stickers from the high-end parts he used to build the bike were removed, and he secured it properly. But he came back to find it gone.

The high-cost of car ownership was Vecchio’s main reason for using a bike. He estimated spending about $1,200 for the bike and accessories.

Vecchio filed a police report and obtained security camera footage showing the thief. But said he felt like he was going through the motions for insurance purposes and has no hope of getting his bike back.

“You can clearly see who stole my bike,” he said. “If we don't have the facilities to investigate that and chase that down, how can we trust the city to do anything else?”

That’s partly why Howard Kaplan started the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry, where users can submit photos and information about their stolen bike in hopes of a good Samaritan spotting it.

“In the first few years, we put more energy into recovery — even going out and finding stolen bikes to get them back to their owners, participating in police stings,” Kaplan said. “But it soon became painfully clear that the problem was too big for us. The core intent of the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry has always been to serve as an educational resource to empower cyclists in understanding how best to avoid getting their bikes stolen.”

According to data from the registry, about 2% of the people who've listed a stolen bike got it back.

Maria Barnes, owner of bike shop Uptown Bikes, suspects the spike in thefts she’s seeing is because more people are cycling.

“A lot of people who are moving into the city moved here specifically because they don’t have a car,” Barnes said.

Bike thefts have been an issue in Chicago during the 15-plus years Matt Golas has been cycling. The owner of Golas and Sons Bike Repair in South Loop said there’s “definitely been an uptick this summer."

“People are less likely to get a brand new bike just because they feel like it's going to be a bigger target to be stolen,” he said. “People are riding bikes that aren't super reliable or aren't super comfortable — that they don't love just because they don't want to risk something they care about getting stolen."

For other victims, the loss is sentimental. Isabella Welsh is heartbroken over the theft of her one-of-a-kind e-bike, which has a black 1963 English frame with cream-colored tires. She locked it up near the Humboldt Park Boathouse during a festival and returned to find it missing.

“It's all handmade. There's not another piece like that in the world,” said Welsh, who estimated the bike was worth more than $1,500. She had saved up to buy the bike and only had it for two weeks.

“It's really expensive to own a car in the city [with] insurance and parking and gas," Welsh said. "Chicago's a really special place, because if you're in the right area — and I am — it can take the same amount of time to get somewhere with a bike as it would a car.”

“I know that bike theft is a symptom of a bigger problem, but the fact that it is impacting working people makes me feel violated in every single sense,” Welsh said.

‘Bigger things to worry about’

When Lisa Wunsch’s $500 bike was stolen from her Lincoln Park condo building's garage in June, she tried filling out a police report online. When the form wouldn’t process, she spent 40 minutes doing it in person at her nearest station.

“Does the CPD have bigger things to worry about? I'm sure," Wunsch said. "But it's clear that this is on the rise. It was a smaller cost to me, but at scale, we're really talking about a problem for the whole city.”

Jordyn Schreiber said biking is her main mode of transportation. Then, in July, the Logan Square resident couldn't get to work after her $550 bike was stolen.

“I was frustrated that the police department had no resources specifically for getting stolen bikes back because so many people are getting their bikes stolen in the city,” she said.

Schreiber has since replaced her bike with a $500 refurbished one, including a new lock.

“I'm going to continue to use it because the joy that biking brings to my life is worth it,” she said.