Claim your stolen bike: public viewings

I got my stolen bike back yesterday, proving it was mine was a bit of a hassle, but that's understandable. I was just really excited that it was there and fine! It was stolen last monday!

Go down, chances are your bike is there.

1500 bikes, that's insane! If the number usually quoted is true (12,000 bikes stolen across TO per year), this guy must have been affiliated with for most of the bicycle thefts in the west side.

There is still the untouched issue of the city not doing anything about this guy for years. As I understand it, Toronto requires 2nd hand dealers to keep track of who they buy stuff from. Either Igor was doing that, and the city wasn't keeping on top of the fact that he kept "buying" from the same people (i.e. thieves); or he wasn't doing any record keeping. Either way, the city should ahve shut him down years ago.

Kind of frustrating really, I went down there today. The public had access to about 50 bikes, while the remaining hundreds lay beyond reach behind yellow tape. I know they have a space issue, but I just wanted to start rummaging through to see if mine was somewhere in there.

As a side note i'm a little bit pissed off at how the bikes are all piled on top of each other in the various bays. Before my bike was stolen it was in mint condition, now if it is somewhere in those piles it will be scratched to hell.

I wish they had viewings at better times, 10 - 6pm isn't exactly convenient.

I just had a thought. If Igor's bike ring is responsible for a conservative 2000 bikes/year changing hands in that neighbourhood, at a rumoured $25/pop for a hit of crack, that's $50000/year he's pumping into the drug trade in that neighbourhood. I'd guess it's a lot more. With that gone, the neighbourhood is going to get a lot better, or a lot worse. If the crackheads abandon it for greener pastures, the crime will move elsewhere; if they stay close out of habit, and the community services in the area, they're going to look for other criminal activities. A habit's got to be fed. If the city/province had a clue, they'd be down there in force with treatment programmes. Not likely. And once the investigation's done, the cops will abondon the residents and addicts to their own devices.

You should have more credulity at his complaint. The complaint identifies things that are wrong with or inconvenient about the Police's handling of the stolen bikes. Maybe you disagree with what is pointed out, but the correctness or truth of the grievences do not depend on the convenience of any previous situation (i.e. there being no access at all to the bikes).

I think the moderators have to start putting in some filters on language. Maybe block certain people, too: erase them, at the very least. Please.

I'm upset at your choice to censor the topic entirely rather than allowing us to work this out Tanya. I think DJ's post was enough to bring us back on track. A topic such as this deserves a lot more discussion.