r/seattlebike • u/trimTheJib • 2d ago

Black VanMoof abandoned on Westlake

Post image

Saw this last evening (forgot to post then) - it's near the intersection with Valley St.

26 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

23

u/septic_7 2d ago

Looks like someone tried stealing it and probably gave up after realizing it has an alarm

8

u/trimTheJib 2d ago

Yeah definitely looks suspicious. I ran the serial on bike index and it wasn't registered.

2

u/Hummblerummble 2d ago

Seattle PD puts these out as bait. Usually they have a flimsy bike lock on it. They'll have a GPS tracker hidden in them.

5

u/externalhouseguest 1d ago

do you have any links or anything about this?

2

u/Hummblerummble 6h ago

I just found this link. https://www.reddit.com/r/seattlebike/s/EEYz5h7QYQ

1

u/externalhouseguest 6h ago

cool thanks!

1

u/CertifiedSeattleite 4h ago

That’s Lynnwood PD - not Seattle PD. Seattle PD hasn’t had the staffing to do preventative police or detective work for years.

If you get your bike stolen in suburban cities police will actually help you recover it. Heck, in Redmond they might even deploy a few drones to go after thieves dumb enough to operate on the eastside.

In Seattle I’d say cops are able to help retrieve stolen bikes from encampments and online sales 1 out of 10 times.

1

u/Hummblerummble 6h ago

Just first hand accounts from youths that got pinched. But they've been using bait cars for a good long while. Now the vanmoof bikes are like $3000 so stealing one of those is grand theft. That comes with a felony charge and 1-5 years of jail time. The kids that I new stole bikes with $300-$500 and they all got off with just a misdemeanor.

1

u/CertifiedSeattleite 4h ago

Seattle PD hasn’t deployed bait cars for many years.