Dutch police bait thieves - hidden GPS in bike

[Dh]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/03/10/bikes.gps1.reut/index.html

GPS bicycles used to bait thieves Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Posted: 11:58 AM EST (1658 GMT)

AMSTERDAM, Holland (Reuters) -- Amsterdam police will use
bicycles equipped with hidden GPS transmitters to bait
thieves and track them down in the latest effort to stamp
out rampant bike theft, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

Cycling is a way of life in the pancake-flat Netherlands,
which boasts more bicycles than its 16 million inhabitants,
and in Amsterdam alone an estimated 80,000-150,000 bicycles
-- over one tenth of the total -- are stolen every year.

"It would be great to get hold of the organized bicycle
thieves, to track the whereabouts of stolen bikes and see if
any end up in an official bicycle shops," Amsterdam police
spokesman Rob van der Veen said. "We just want to do
everything we can to combat bicycle theft and are going to
use new GPS technology."

In a campaign starting in spring, police will leave locked
bikes with secret GPS emitters in Amsterdam's bike theft
hotspots such as the historic city center. GPS, the
worldwide radio-navigation system used for shipping and
military purposes, enables users to pinpoint the position,
speed and time to locate themselves or an object.

Bike theft is so widespread in the capital that rental
shops won't let customers leave without giving them a crash
course on bike locking -- attaching both wheels to the
frame, and chaining the bicycle to a fixed object, such as
a bike stand.

Van ver Veen said the initiative targeted professional
bicycle thieves, those who scour the city at night and steal
several bikes at a time putting them in vans or trailers.

According to a Web Site campaigning against bike theft in
Amsterdam (www.fietsendiefstal.nl), 40 percent of bike
thieves are professionals while 30 percent are drug addicts
who sell stolen bikes as quickly as possible to pay for
their next fix.

The remainder are usually impulsive thieves, sometimes
students or youths -- and very often drunk -- who steal a
bike to get home after their own was pinched.

 

[Mike]

Why did they publish it before they did it. Anyone who knows
anything about GPS knows it doesn't work inside. They can
just steal the bikes and shove them in a van. Then they can
look for the unit and disable it. It was really STUPID of
them they should have just done it and not told the world.

"DH" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/03/10/bikes.gps1.reut/-
> index.html
>
> GPS bicycles used to bait thieves Wednesday, March 10,
> 2004 Posted: 11:58 AM EST (1658 GMT)
>
>
> AMSTERDAM, Holland (Reuters) -- Amsterdam police will use
> bicycles equipped with hidden GPS transmitters to bait
> thieves and track them down in the latest effort to stamp
> out rampant bike theft, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
>
> Cycling is a way of life in the pancake-flat Netherlands,
> which boasts more bicycles than its 16 million
> inhabitants, and in Amsterdam alone an estimated 80,000-
> 150,000 bicycles -- over one tenth of the total -- are
> stolen every year.
>
> "It would be great to get hold of the organized bicycle
> thieves, to track the whereabouts of stolen bikes and see
> if any end up in an official bicycle shops," Amsterdam
> police spokesman Rob van der Veen said. "We just want to
> do everything we can to combat bicycle theft and are going
> to use new GPS technology."
>
> In a campaign starting in spring, police will leave locked
> bikes with secret GPS emitters in Amsterdam's bike theft
> hotspots such as the historic city center. GPS, the
> worldwide radio-navigation system used for shipping and
> military purposes, enables users to pinpoint the position,
> speed and time to locate themselves or an object.
>
> Bike theft is so widespread in the capital that rental
> shops won't let customers leave without giving them a
> crash course on bike locking -- attaching both wheels to
> the frame, and chaining the bicycle to a fixed object,
> such as a bike stand.
>
> Van ver Veen said the initiative targeted professional
> bicycle thieves, those who scour the city at night and
> steal several bikes at a time putting them in vans or
> trailers.
>
> According to a Web Site campaigning against bike theft in
> Amsterdam (www.fietsendiefstal.nl), 40 percent of bike
> thieves are professionals while 30 percent are drug
> addicts who sell stolen bikes as quickly as possible to
> pay for their next fix.
>
> The remainder are usually impulsive thieves, sometimes
> students or youths -- and very often drunk -- who steal a
> bike to get home after their own was pinched.