19-Jul-18 – The operators of Chicago’s bicycle sharing program have responded to a recent series of thefts with locks it says are “more tamper-proof.”

The Divvy bicycles are being stolen from docking stations. Some are showing up on social media, “posed like trophies,” according to CWB Chicago. The crime news website says one possibly-stolen bike was used in a “pedal-by” shooting on Lower Wacker Drive on June 29. A CWB editor says he, personally, witnessed a Divvy bike being stolen outside Richard J. Daley Center in the Loop and then, about a week later, another bike being stolen near Washington Square Park north of the Loop.

Divvy has declined to quantify how many thefts have occurred but says it is “retrofitting all of our docks with stronger, more tamper-proof lock mechanisms” and that “security of Divvy’s bikes and stations is a top priority.”

So far this month, eight people have been arrested and charged with possessing stolen Divvy bikes, including a 55-year-old man from the Wicker Park neighborhood who was arrested on Michigan Avenue on July 2 for aggressive panhandling while in possession of a Divvy bike that had been reported stolen. A 25-year-old South Shore man, twice convicted for robbery and currently on parole, was arrested near State Street & Chicago Avenue on July 6 with an allegedly stolen Divvy bike.

The City of Chicago estimates the cost to taxpayers of each stolen Divvy bike is $1,200.