Preventing E-Bike Thefts

I don’t know if you have ever had your car stolen, but if you have, you may have walked around the spot where it was once parked – in a state of disbelief – secretly hoping that somehow, you’re in the wrong place, and that maybe, just maybe this wasn’t the spot where you left it. Between 1994 and 1995, I had three cars stolen, and each time this was my response. The problem was that I lived in a high crime area (best I could afford when I left university), and I drove old cars, that had few security features – cars over a certain age are more valuable for their parts than they are as a vehicle, and the parts are extremely hard to trace and identify compared with an original/complete car. Vehicle thefts in the UK, US, and Western Europe have fallen steadily since the mid-1990’s as manufacturers started to respond to the security issues their products had. When new products come on the market, such as mobile phones, security isn’t usually the first priority, and it takes time for such issues to be addressed e.g., my first mobile phone didn’t even require a pin to login. A study in the Netherlands has found that E-Bikes (electric bikes) are three times more likely to be stolen than a standard bike. E-Bikes are a much higher valued asset than a normal bike e.g., the cheapest are normally around the $1000 mark, and can be over $10000 etc., and are as easy to steal. They share all the same vulnerabilities as a conventional bike. Most do not have GPS trackers by default, and although they do have a distinct serial number, this doesn’t make it easy to identify stolen bikes. In this article I want to look at some different ways to improve the security of E-Bikes.

               Although bikes (both E-Bikes and standard bikes) are often stolen in public places, many are stolen from garages and sheds where they are stored overnight, or for longer periods of time. These may be criminals who come across a bike by opportunity, in the course of another crime e.g., they are breaking into garages in order to steal tools for resale, or it could be a targeted theft, where they have observed a homeowner coming and going on an E-Bike and know that it is probably stored there. Garages and basements are often not the best secured units, and fairly easy to access (something that is an extreme vulnerability, when the main house/property can be accessed from them). The longer a bike remains in one place, the more vulnerable it is to theft. With an E-Bike, one way to reduce the risk of theft is to remove the battery from it (batteries typically weigh about 10-20 pounds, so as long as you only have to carry it a short distance, such as from a parking lot to the office etc., this shouldn’t be a major ordeal). It is also worth noting that batteries on their own may be worth stealing. This makes it a less convenient item to steal, as although it could still be stolen e.g., carried out and transported in a van etc., for it to be resold, an offender would have to first buy a new battery (reducing the amount of profit they get from the theft), and this may be for many an inconvenient step in the process e.g., they can’t turn it into cash as quickly as if it had the battery with it. Also, the longer that an offender has to hold on to stolen goods, the higher their odds of being apprehended. These may seem minor obstacles to overcome, but unless the individual stealing the bike has already calculated out these issues, then in the moment they may seem like major ones. It is probably also worth locking the E-Bike to something secure in the garage or basement etc., rather than relying on the security of the building alone.

               As for locking the bike, whether in a public or private setting, it is better to use two locks than one. This means any offender looking to steal a bike, will have to contend with two locks, and increase the time the offense takes, increasing the likelihood of being spotted and apprehended. Most offenders engaged in property thefts are looking for a quick and easy opportunity, and if something may appear harder than they envisaged, they may look for easier targets. In a UK study of burglars, offenders were found to engage in easier break-ins that carried more risk of being caught, than harder ones where the risk was significantly less. Adding an extra step to a theft, such as having to break an extra lock, may cause an offender to decide to look for easier opportunities. If you have the ability to lock your E-Bike near to other E-Bikes that may not be so well secured, then an offender already has access to these easier opportunities. Bike locks with alarms are also available, and these may offer an added layer of protection. If removing the battery isn’t going to be practical, a chain lock should be wrapped around it, to help prevent it being stolen on its own.

Hopefully, E-Bike manufacturers, will start to address some of the security issues that E-Bikes have, as they come to understand the methods that offenders use to either steal them or their batteries etc. Often manufacturers initially like to believe that security measures, such as having to use a key to lock and unlock the battery on to the bike will be sufficient, only to find that criminals have found a way to remove them without one. Security is often a cat and mouse game which takes time for changes and responses to be made in order for vulnerabilities to be addressed. However, even when this occurs, double locks etc., will still be good additions to help deter offenders.