E-Bike Theft (no way to prevent it?)

[Stefan Mikes]

Let me describe the sad story of a person who I know very well, and who lives in a good neighbourhood of a North European country's capital city.
The man owned as many as two Bosch E-Bikes, Smart System, Flow App. One night, he forgot locking his garage. His two e-bikes got stolen overnight.
He filed a police report. He marked his e-bikes as stolen in the Flow App. He reported the case to his insurer.
The police didn't find the e-bikes. The insurance was excellent, so our man soon got the full compensation. The most interesting part comes now.

Someone tried to use the Bosch Flow App as if the person bought the e-bike second hand. Our man immediately denied the operation. Bear in mind, the e-bike in question had been marked as stolen yet the stupid Bosch system still allowed for transferring the ownership. Our man wanted to get some credentials of the new "owner", so he tried using Bosch E-Bike support page to no avail. Bosch evidently does not want to be contacted, and the website turned out to be a rubbish as it comes to seeking for more help.

The man is furious with himself. He could have locked the garage in the first place. He could have removed the e-bike batteries and displays from the e-bikes and bring them home. The only good thing was the thieves did not get the chargers or the battery keys.

Is there any way we can protect our e-bikes against the theft?

 

[Chargeride]

Digital ID and gps implants

 

[Old-tool-guy]

Interesting that in that town, or maybe country (?), thieves will open garage doors if they are not locked. If the door was open I could understand.

 

[harryS]

Apparently while Bosch owners can take their own measures to protect against theft, they can't rely on Bosch to deter use of their ebikes if they are stolen. I had heard that Stromer has a good lockout system.

The other day, a office worker had her phone stolen by an armed robber. They picked him up 30 minutes later using Apple's "Find my Phone" app. It helps that it was a politicians office, so the cops were helping, Me and you, we're not important, ANyway, it's a good App.

 

[gromike]

Cheap and ugly is what I use for theft prevention.

 

[stompandgo]

Tracker.

 

[6zfshdb]

Sadly, there is no way to protect a bike from a determined thief. My approach is to never let the bike out of my sight in public and keep it inside my home and out of sight when not in use. Unfortunately, even doing this isn't enough. There was an incident near here recently where a bike was stolen from a man at gun point on an urban bike trail. An e-bike makes a good getaway vehicle and so far, no arrests have been made.

It's possible a tracker would help find the bike in this case but confronting an armed thief isn't something I would do. Law enforcement would have to get involved and unfortunately, they have more important things to address than a stolen bike.

Whenever there is an incident like this, I simply add that place to the ever growing list of places I don't ride.

 

[PedalUma]

Cheap and ugly is what I use for theft prevention.

So no one has stolen a kiss from your girlfriend?

A good one for me is no saddle height QR on my bikes and the saddle is very high. I also take them inside stores, or where I can keep an eye on them. My bikes tend to be custom and unique, so they could never be advertised as for sale. If I did have one stolen, I am the first guy they would call for a replacement charger. I would drop it off with a free house call saying that I need to match the spec. and have the cops show up at the sametime.

 

[gromike]

So no one has stolen a kiss from your girlfriend?

A kiss I wouldn't mind, but someone stole the whole danged thing.

 

[fauconnier]

In Quebec, we don't have a problem with that; they prefer to steal luxury cars from the age of 14!

When you leave your bicycle, adjust your seat to the highest setting; they'll think twice before stealing a giant's bike.