Tyler Pusateri locked up his all-black electric bike, as usual, outside his River North office. In less than an hour, the bike worth $3,000 was stolen.
Pusateri immediately went to the nearest police station to file a complaint. Later, after browsing 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 reported it as stolen online. He took the Facebook list — which contained the alleged 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 could, even giving the police a solved case, and they still wouldn’t do anything.”
Bikes can be a cost-effective way to get around the city, but increased theft is a costly and frustrating problem for Chicago cyclists. The number of thefts reported to police has returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to public records obtained by the Sun-Times.
Reported thefts decreased from 1,636 in 2018 to 997 in 2021. But thefts increased by 29% between 2021 and 2023. The 1,283 thefts reported last year cost victims an average of $634.
And this year, 891 thefts were reported through August 17, 13% more than what was reported by the same date in 2023.
A flourishing painting
Nationally, it is estimated that more than 2 million bicycles are stolen each year, which equates to one theft every 30 seconds, according to Project 529, a national bicycle registry. And many victims don’t bother to report bike thefts to the police.
Chicago police did not respond to requests for comment.
Chicagoans are cycling more
Chicago has taken steps to better accommodate bikers by adding lanes and greenways. A recent study found that cycling in Chicago increased 119% between fall 2019 and spring 2023. This is the strongest growth among the 10 largest U.S. cities, according to a report from the company Replica Data Analytics and Chicago Department of Transportation.
But riders like Pusateri said having a bike stolen makes them wonder if it’s the best way to get around. This year, most victims reported their bikes were stolen from sidewalks, streets and residential yards. Downtown neighborhoods like Loop and Streeterville saw the most thefts, followed closely by West Loop.
Since Pusateri’s bike was stolen on July 6, his main mode of transportation has been walking.
“It makes me hesitant to buy another bike or invest money in it. I don’t want to risk it being stolen from me again,” he said.
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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 had used to build the bike were removed and he attached it properly. But he came back and found it missing.
The high cost of owning a car was the main reason Vecchio used a bicycle. He estimated spending about $1,200 on the bike and accessories.
Vecchio filed a police report and obtained security camera footage showing the thief. But he said he felt like he was doing it for insurance reasons and had 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 and pursue this matter, 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 that a good Samaritan will spot it.
“In the early years, we devoted more energy to recovery – even finding stolen bikes and returning them to their owners, participating in police operations,” Kaplan said. “But it quickly became clear that the problem was too big for us. The primary goal of the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry has always been to serve as an educational resource for cyclists to understand the best way to avoid having their bikes stolen.
According to registry data, about 2% of people who listed a stolen bike got it back.
Maria Barnes, owner of bike shop Uptown Bikes, suspects the increase in thefts she’s seeing is because more people are riding bikes.
“A lot of people who move to the city moved here specifically because they don’t have a car,” Barnes said.
Bike thefts have been a problem in Chicago for the more than 15 years Matt Golas has been riding bikes. The owner of Golas and Sons Bike Repair in South Loop said there has “definitely been an uptick this summer.”
“People are less likely to get a brand new bike just because they feel like it will be a bigger target to steal,” he said. “People ride bikes that aren’t very reliable or that aren’t very comfortable – that they don’t like simply because they don’t want to risk having something they care about stolen.”
For other victims, the loss is sentimental. Isabella Welsh is heartbroken after her one-of-a-kind electric bike, featuring a 1963 black English frame with cream-colored tires, was stolen. She locked it up near the Humboldt Park boathouse during a festival and returned to find it missing.
“Everything is done by hand. There’s no other piece like it 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, parking and gas,” Welsh said. “Chicago is a really special place, because if you’re in the right neighborhood — and I am — it can take just as long to get somewhere on a bike as it does on a car.”
“I know bike theft is a symptom of a bigger problem, but the fact that it affects workers makes me feel violated in every sense of the word,” Welsh said.
“More important things to worry about”
When Lisa Wunsch’s $500 bicycle was stolen from the garage of her Lincoln Park apartment building in June, she tried to file a police report online. When the form failed to be processed, she spent 40 minutes doing it in person at the nearest train station.
“Does the CPD have bigger concerns? I’m sure of it,” Wunsch said. “But it is clear that this phenomenon is increasing. It was a lower cost to me, but on a grand scale we’re really talking about a citywide problem.
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Jordyn Schreiber said biking is her primary mode of transportation. Then, in July, the Logan Square resident was unable to get to work after her bike worth $550 was stolen.
“I was frustrated that the police didn’t have specific resources to recover stolen bikes because so many people have their bikes stolen in the city,” she said.
Schreiber has since replaced his bike with a refurbished bike worth $500, including a new lock.
“I’m going to continue to use it because the joy that cycling brings to my life is worth it,” she said.
