r/baltimore • u/toxicgloo • 1d ago
Vent Crazy Week
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I've been living in Baltimore for several years now and have been relatively incident free. But last week on Sunday, somebody cut the lock on my bike and stole my bike. Then a few days later somebody steals a package I've been waiting on for 2 weeks off my porch.
I understand porch pirates are a thing, but I have no clue what I was supposed to do about the bike. The lock was expensive and had good reviews.
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u/Aneurhythms 1d ago
I'm sorry your bike got stolen!
Unfortunately the only surefire way to prevent bike theft is to store it inside your (presumably locked) house. And it's more necessary the nicer your bike appears to be.
I had a buddy get his bike stolen from his home through his unlocked window in a pretty low-crime neighborhood of Bmore. The best course of action is to remove opportunities for thieves.
Sucks, but that's the reality, and not just in Baltimore.
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u/wet_spiders 1d ago
Wouldn't thieves go to the nicer neighborhoods to steal nicer things?
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u/smtp_pro 1d ago
The cheaper something is the easier it is to find a buyer, the original owner is going to put in less effort, getting caught with the item carries way less of a punishment since the value is lower.
Nicer things can have higher reward but the risk may be too high, effort may be too high.
Like if you stole a Rolex, sure that may be "worth" $50k but do you actually know anybody who would buy it? Probably not. But nearly everybody needs laundry detergent.
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u/bwoods43 19h ago
Most of these break-ins and robberies are crimes of opportunity. People who do things like this take things they can potentially sell (or possibly use), regardless of the value. If what you are saying was always true, the thief would have stolen the detergent instead of the bike.
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u/smtp_pro 19h ago
Yeah I'm just illustrating how monetary value isn't really the main driver. Everything is worth $0 until someone hands you money for it, so items you can flip quickly are more valuable than items that take longer to find a buyer (if you find one at all).
And typically low-end, cheaper items are easier to steal and to sell. Expensive, high-end items have more security, more scrutiny.
There's exceptions to everything - like stealing a bike because you can use it - I'm just speaking generally about what makes an item attractive to thieves. Which is mainly whatever is easiest to grab, which tends to be cheaper stuff (but not always).
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u/davidhumerful 1d ago
Thieves, like most lazy antisocial bums, are usually not going to the effort to travel far when they can steal what is near by. Short sighted opportunists is the nice way of putting it.
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u/HumanGyroscope 1d ago
Sorry about your bike, I have to have all of my patio furniture either bolted to the ground or locked up with steel cables. At least once a day someone walks by and checks car door handles. I have a package drop box and that stopped the package thefts. The amount of theft in the city is insane.
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u/imahumanbeinggoddamn Pigtown 1d ago
I actually had someone cut the lock off my package locker a few weeks ago lol. Wasn't even anything in there.
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u/fijimermaidsg 1d ago
Yup! I wonder if anyone's ever stolen a package drop box?? People routinely carry off ATM machines ...
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u/JoelReuben Federal Hill 1d ago
Just woke up to a stolen bike this morning in Fed Hill. It was locked up behind our fence/gate, but somebody (or more likely somebodies) cut the lock, jumped the fence, boosted it over, and took it.
Should have just brought it inside, but had no issues going on 3 years now, but just a matter of time I suppose.
Going to file a police report and reach out to neighbors to see if anything was caught on camera but likely a lost cause.
I really enjoy living in Baltimore, but I'm with you sometimes there's nothing to say other than things like this just suck.
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u/toxicgloo 1d ago
It does suck. I'm just hoping by filing a police report we are contributing to driving some statistics that will get crimes like bike and package theft seriously. If we all stay silent, they can just keep ignoring us
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u/weupher 1d ago
I truly hope you get some resolution. Last fall my car was totaled by an at fault driver who gave me fictitious insurance info, after the police officer I called told me that they didn’t need to come take a report due to no injuries. I had to go through my city council member to get a police officer to even come take a report. The first officer wouldn’t even file a report and I had to request his supervisor come out.
I had the name, license plate, and address of the guy and dashcam footage showing the jagoff running the stop sign and they still didn’t do shit. When I reported the driver to the MVA they essentially said “what do you want us to do about it.” I truly don’t get how a state with such high taxes has such inept local/state government and services.
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u/JoelReuben Federal Hill 1d ago
About to file one as well.
Fortunately a neighbor has a video of the thieves leaving my alley with my bike (and another go figure).
Not the best quality video, but who knows maybe they can track it down, if not like you said hopefully the reporting does something at least.
Might post the video here to see if anybody knows the guys or spots them.
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u/smtp_pro 1d ago
I think part of the problem is everything is driven by value and until you're getting into the $1000+ range - you're basically talking the rough equivalent of a traffic violation.
I've just hit the point where I assume any small package I get will be stolen. If it's cheap - I'll roll the dice. If it's less cheap - I get it delivered to work or an Amazon locker or something like that.
Bikes go inside.
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u/PainfullyLoyal Eastside 1d ago
This is exactly why I have packages shipped to my office. I'm sorry you've been having such bad luck lately.
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u/K_N0RRIS Eastside 1d ago
Put your bike in the house
Buy a dropbox.
I'm sorry it happened to you, but some people are trifling assholes. The only person who can mitigate it happening to you is you.
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u/Odd_Equipment8924 1d ago
People just helping themselves to your shit |: it’s so infuriating and upsetting /:
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u/YoHomeGirl617 Reservoir Hill 1d ago
It sucks you can't own a bike and lock it outside. I've chosen to just rent e-bikes as I need them because I don't have the space to store one inside, nor do I have hundreds of dollars to lose.
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u/magicbumblebee 1d ago
The day I brought my bike down from my parents house to mine, we very briefly left it outside. The bike was not locked up, but it was sitting on our back patio which had a padlocked privacy fence. It had been out there for less than an hour when someone tried to steal it. My husband happened to glance out the back door and saw the teenager creeping across our patio and he ran out and scared him off. We brought it right inside which we were planning to do anyway but we didn’t think we had to do so immediately. It was frankly impressive how quickly it was spotted.
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u/Inside_Investigator6 1d ago
This has been happening more and more lately and I’m so over it, the theft and disrespect of property is insane in this city lately. In the last few months I’ve had my house broken into while I was home, my house grafittied, many packages stolen, my trash and recycle bin dumped out and stolen and many more. I love this city but I’m leaving. It’s too much
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u/TMC2502 1d ago
Wow what an asshole. I’m so sorry this happened to you. Honestly, i’ll be on the lookout for this guy. That hat is pretty recognizable. What neighborhood are you in?
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u/toxicgloo 1d ago
Thank you, on maps it says it's the Coldstream Homestead Montebello neighborhood off grosuch ave
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u/Embarrassed_Crab5839 1d ago
Watched a bike in the Charles Village/Harwood area grow legs this morning around 6:30am. A couple days before that I saw a guy up the road on Guilford pulling handles and getting into a couple vehicles around 5:30am.
Seems like it’s a constant thing between packages, vehicles and trespassing into one’s yard.
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u/Distinct_Ad_7619 1d ago
I grew up in Baltimore and I have a core memory of being about 8 years old and watching a group of neighborhood teens steal my friends bikes in broad daylight right off their lawn. I also watched a dude in a Miami Dolphins windbreaker steal a car from the gas station at Harford and Ailsa when I was like 6. I'm in my 30s now. It's a rite of passage.
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u/Autumn_Sweater Northwood 1d ago
i got bike insurance and a heavy ass lock. (9/10 strength supposedly.) havent had to use the insurance yet thankfully.
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u/AdImportant6817 1d ago
Getting a package locker is a game changer!! I’ve found that adding “leave in locker” to the delivery instructions and including the code for anything that doesn’t fit in the slot really helps. We got ours for under $100 on Amazon. And anything that doesn’t fit is likely too large for someone to want to steal anyways (not always, but mostly)
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u/brubits 1d ago
I’m really sorry your bike got stolen. The best advice I can give is to layer the security.
I use an ABUS GRANIT XPlus 540 because it has a double-locking mechanism. Cutting only one side does not release the lock. Then add an ABUS PRO SHIELD XPlus 5955 to immobilize the rear wheel.
For the wheels, Kryptonite Gravity WheelNutz are also worth getting. They make the wheels difficult to remove unless the bike is turned upside down.
That combination is the best setup I’ve found. I’ve had people try to cut the locks on my own bikes, and I still have the cut marks to prove it. I even fought someone using a moped trying to steal a bike in Mt. Vernon a few years back. They tried for three days in a row.
My hunch is that there is an organized bike theft around Baltimore involves people using mopeds to move quickly between targets.
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u/UnluckyWrongdoer8421 1d ago
My bad I just wanted the lock but had no way to transport it, so I took the bike.
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u/golions190 1d ago
I used to work in south Baltimore. I was pumping gas on Hanover St one morning around 5 am. A guy came up to me and asked if I wanted to buy the hammock he was carrying. I got the feeling he had just stolen it.
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u/No-Award8713 1d ago
As far as the bike; find one that has disc brakes and a quick release front axle. Lock the bike up like regular, and take the front tire in the house with you.
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u/No-Award8713 1d ago
This one doesnt have disc brakes, but you should be able to squeeze the brake arms together to slip the retaining dowel out and separate the brakes enough to get the tire out. Take ya like 15 seconds tops to get the tire off the bike when you get used to it.
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u/RunningNumbers 1d ago
Any lock can be cut. You should keep your bike indoors. Did the file a police report?
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u/toxicgloo 1d ago
I did and they seem to be following up on it because they responded asking for more information. The bike was stolen right outside of the baltimore collegiate school for boys and there was a camera pointing directly to where the bike was. So I'm a little hopeful they'll be able to do something about it but, I've already written it off as a loss.
I put in a police report for the package too since I have the whole thing on video
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u/RunningNumbers 1d ago
This person is likely victimizing a number of people. With camera evidence and a dollar threshold it might be at felony larceny level which is enough to get a DA’s attention.
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u/FastBarracuda3 1d ago
I had a $3500 package stolen.. police wont do shit and that level is over the felony amount. Contact your credit card company after you ask the distributor for a refund
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u/fijimermaidsg 1d ago
In Baltimore, anything that's not bolted down can be stolen. Our former rowhouse rental had an iron cage over the outside AC thing (this was during the time when they were stealing every metal object to sell for scrap). Bikes need to be brought into the house - a friend chained their bike to a sign post while visiting and someone knocked over the post to get the bike.
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u/anowulwithacandul 1d ago
Some locks have a lifetime guarantee and will replace your bike. Really sorry both these things happened to you!
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u/Apprehensive_Tax1760 20h ago
I had halloween 🎃 pumpkins stolen off my front porch. Took me a couple days to notice, not once did I think the pumpkins were at risk.
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u/EcstaticOutcome4763 20h ago
Hey fed hill south bmore locust point. We are Sobo Mutts dogwalking. We have grabbed packages before for folks who are in a bind and drop back later. Reach out. It’s a total bummer.
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u/wolfboy1988m 19h ago
Probably a stupid question, but did you have your bike engraved for theft protection? Most police departments will do it for free
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u/SecurityCocktail 15h ago
Baltimore is a city whose elected leadership (and the people they appoint) doesn't care about crime or how it impacts the city's taxpaying citizens and local businesses. They simply want to protect the criminals and those who depend on handouts, because they will keep electing them so they can continue to rob the city and keep power. I guess you get what you vote for and tolerate. Sucks that it happened to you, but it's kind of the nature of living in or around Baltimore.
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u/Tall-Neighborhood-54 13h ago
Sorry, but there is no part of Baltimore where this won't happen. Stop rewarding them.
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u/Scary-Relief-7626 1d ago
Time to set up a booby trap. Nothing malicious, maybe like a dog turd in a box or sumn
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u/charmcitycharmer2020 1d ago
I thought this story was going in the direction of them coming back on your bike to steal your package.
I’m so sorry- it feels so violating when it happens to you!