Bike Index cofounder uncovers massive stolen bike network
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Portlander Bryan Hance spent four years exposing a $2 million stolen bike ring in Mexico that resold bikes from the Bay Area, Portland, San Diego and Denver, but the alleged ringleader he identified is still in operation, he told Axios.
Why it matters: Hance, a software engineer who cofounded bike registration and theft tracking site Bike Index, is the subject of a Wired magazine story this month that reveals how sophisticated bike theft has become in recent years, coinciding with a pandemic-era surge in the popularity of biking.
Driving the news: In 2020, the Southeast Portlander was surprised to find that an $8,000 bike, registered on Bike Index as stolen from an apartment in Mountain View, California, was for sale at a steep discount in Jalisco in central Mexico, Wired reported.
- The tip about that bike led Hance to discover a network of bike thefts in the western U.S., with hundreds of bikes listed for sale by a company that Hance traced to someone in La Barca, near Guadalajara.
Catch up quick: Hance spends a lot of his spare time reading the logs of the serial numbers, parts and custom markings of stolen bikes on Bike Index, which is a nonprofit.
- He cofounded the site in 2013 to give bike owners a place to register their bikes and post pictures and "last seen" details if their bike is stolen.
- It works, up to a point — more than 14,000 bikes worth over $25 million have been recovered using Bike Index, according to a counter on the website.
The intrigue: Hance tried to let the man he traced to the illicit bike sales know he was on to him.
- Ricardo Estrada Zamora denied having anything to do with selling bicycles when contacted by Wired.
- When emailed by Axios, Zamora said Hance was using his name to further Hance's business.
The big picture: Bikes, which are ingrained in the culture of cities like Portland, are notoriously easy to steal and difficult to recover. And now, Hance told Axios, bike theft has matured from "low-level guys" in the street with an angle grinder or a pry bar.
- With pricey bikes stored in garages, on balconies and inside apartments, thieves have started using ladders and box trucks to rob them at home, he said.
What they're saying: "We sometimes recover bikes and they'll be flagged in our system when we run the serial number. But we recognize that not everyone is willing to take the time to do that," Portland Police sergeant Kevin Allen told Axios, referring to registering a bike to make it easier to track if it's stolen.
- PPB offers these tips for bike owners.
The bottom line: Despite looping in law enforcement on his findings, Hance never got the top man of the bike theft operation, telling Axios "He's like the Keyser Söze of bike theft."