On a warm, sunny morning, a DU student walks out of his dorm on his way to unlock his bike from the bike rack and ride to class. First problem-the bike isn’t there.
“I was pissed and thought someone stole [my bike]” said Ketan Shah. Then he found out that the bike wasn’t stolen and “found out that Campus Safety took it.”
When Shah went to the Campus Safety office to retrieve his bike the first time, he was told the person with the key to the storage couldn’t be found.
Shah returned the following week and even though the person with the key to the storage was there, he was startled when he discovered that in order to retrieve his bike, he had to show Campus Safety an approved kryptonite U-lock. Campus Safety took down Shah’s license, dorm phone number and cell phone number.
Shah went back for a third time only to find out that his brand new $700 Trek ZX6000 mountain bike had recently been auctioned off. A Campus Safety officer, realizing his mistake, offered to buy Shah lunch. Unfortunately, lunch was not what Shah was hoping for when he walked into that office last June.
Shah is not alone. During fall quarter of 2002, 28 bikes were stolen, mostly from the bike racks near the dormitories. Beginning winter quarter 2003, Campus Safety initiated a program to force students to lock their bikes with a Campus Safety approved kryptonite U-lock, which can conveniently be purchased at the DU bookstore or from the Campus Safety office for $22.
Every Friday, Campus Safety officers walk around campus to look for bikes not locked up with the recommended lock.
Even $100 custom-made Thule bike locks are not approved, as Solomon Freeman discovered.
“I had a cheap bike with a custom lock,” said Freeman. “I got a notice to buy a better lock so I lodged a complaint explaining that they don’t need to protect my lock, but they cut it anyway and took my bike.”
Bikes found in violation receive a notice to purchase a U-lock. The following Friday, if the owner has not purchased a U-lock, the bike receives a notice of bike removal. Therefore, 14 days after the original notice the bike is taken to the pound where the owner can retrieve it if he or she can show proof of ownership through a bill of sale or by unlocking the recently cut cable lock.
According to Officer Tyrone Mills of campus safety, 14 days is plenty of notice. The problem most students face is that they don’t walk by or check their bikes for weeks or months at a time. Some students unload their bikes from their cars at the beginning of the year, lock them up and for whatever reason just don’t ride them the entire year. If the bike rack is not on a path frequently traveled by the student, it is easy to see how some students can only notice that their bike is missing after it has already been auctioned off. However, according to University Counsel Paul Chan, if the bike is not moved it can be considered abandoned property and campus safety has the right to remove bike from its place. Most of the time, bikes are not auctioned off until they have been in the pound for at least 90 days.
According to Chan, the law provides that the University can dispose of property abandoned on campus. In a situation where a “bicycle has been improperly stored, parked or secured; where repeated notices have generated no response; where no one has reported the bicycle missing for six months, and where there is no registration on file; the University considers the bicycle to be abandoned,” said Chan.
“This program is the university’s response [to bike theft], and it has dramatically decreased the number of bicycles that have been stolen.”
“The money [from the auction] goes back into the bike program [mostly to purchase U-locks] and the bike program is for prevention,” said Mills. We are “trying to help [students] protect their property…and it is unfortunate that students have their bikes sold.”
The program does not add up as far as prevention in the number of bikes auctioned off last June. While 28 bikes were reported stolen fall quarter of 2002, 70 bikes were taken by campus safety in the following two quarters and auctioned off last June. This means that last year, more students lost bikes as a result of campus safety’s new program than had bikes stolen. This year’s auction will be held this Saturday, where 26 bikes will be auctioned off. If you are having trouble discovering where your bike disappeared to, go to the campus safety office on the corner of Gaylord and Wesley and prove that the bike belongs to you.
As for Shah, he is no longer getting ready for mountain biking season and still has not been able to use his brand new U-lock.
