THE VOICE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER

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92 pages

35% increase in "92; Exotic, expensiv:

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NEWS photo Teizy Peters

THE FAMILY of a 19-year-old North Vancouver woman who died in a car crash two years ago
recently placed a memorial and a warning sijn at a North Vancouver roadside. Jana Atkinson
was one of five passengers in a car that careered out of control and flipped over on Kirkstone

Road.

sy fargets and quick

ash are wheeling away bicycles at an alarming rate, ac-
rording toe a North Vancouver RCMP investigator.

mm North Vancouver RCMP
Bpeciai Projects Unit Const. Col-
een Sones said bike thefts in
North Vancouver are up on
verage by 35% thus far this year
ompared with the same time last
ear,

in September alone, 75 bicycles
vere stolen in North Vancouver
for a total loss of approximately
65,000.

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

neouver, |2> moun-
s were stolen for a total
loss of $11,900 in September.
tid Jones, ‘It's escalating
at a seal tremendous rate in the
last six months.

bikes out there and of course
that’s the attraction. [ think some
of our criminal element out there
have just all of a sudden twigged
on this as a new tO pei some
quick cash. It's become very pop-
ular all of a sudden.”

Increasingly exotic bikes are be-
ing stolen, stripped down and
resold.

“Some of the frames are worth
a fair amount of money. With a
lot of the bikes, the serial
numbers are being sanded off,

and they are being repainted.
Where tt are being resold ...
we're not exactly sure,’ Jones
said.

Bikes are being
back yards, garages
many cases the bikes a
ed up

The expensive ones are generally
not recovered by the police.

“We're hearing from some kids
that there are guys out there with
good bikes for sale on the sireet,”’
Jones said.

Expensive bikes are being sold

lifted from

bicycles new targets for thieves

for a fraction of their actual
value.

Jones said that some of the
less-expensive bicycle simply
taken for a joyride, are recover
but in many cases the police are
unable to return them because the
victims fail to provide adequate
descriptions

Said Jones, ‘‘People should
take the time to record their serial
numbers and make a note of them
somewhere,

“Get a good description of the

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