PORTLAND, Ore. -- Thieves have found a way to loosen some of the staple-style bicycle racks in SW Portland.
Thousands of the racks are spread across Portland and the discovery that a few had been loosened in a Goose Hollow parking garage had alarmed many in the city's cycling community.
Earlier this month, Bryan Thompson's year-old road bike was stolen from a parking garage staple rack, according to Portland Police.
Bike theft is by no means unusual in Portland. But this theft was exceptional because of the potential weakness it exposed. And the city of Portland owns and operates about 4,000 staple-style racks across town.
Thompson said the thieves were able to loosen the garage staple with a simple ratchet set. Upon further investigation KGW discovered that other staples in the garage had also been partially loosened, leaving some bikes exposed to theft.
Thompson noted how many cyclists depend on the racks - and he's concerned the crime will spread.
"I figured once it was locked up to a staple it was golden but after it happened I started looking around to all the staples and started realizing how many of them could be disassembled in the same manner," he said.
BikePortland.org editor Jonathan Maus acknowledged he'd seen bolts loosened on the racks before, but he'd never seen anything like this.
"I’ve had suspicions that this could be a method for thieves for a couple years but I never really heard of it actually happening," he said.
The city owns 4,000 of the staple racks positioned across Portland in public right-of-ways and on sidewalks.
The racks, all of which are painted blue, were ordered with special security bolts that were thought to be tamper proof.
However, some of the private racks around town still use run-of-the-mill bolts. A warning went out through the community that cyclists should avoid the private bike racks and use the city's blue ones instead.
