295 Vehicles Stolen This Year, 30 Recovered
The frequency of reports of stolen vehicles being received by the Bermuda Police Service is on the increase, with 295 such theft reports for 2015 of which only 30 of the vehicles have been recovered, the police said today.
Inspector Robert Cardwell Officer of the Roads Policing Unit said, “The frequency of reports of stolen vehicles being received by the Bermuda Police Service is on the increase. The offence committed is Taken Without the Owner’s Consent or T.W.O.C.
“Stolen vehicle trends when compared annually show that there is a higher rate of vehicle theft over the summer months. There have been 295 such theft reports for 2015 of which only 30 of the vehicles have been recovered. The majority of vehicle thefts are motorcycles.
“The motorcycle type currently subject of frequent theft reports continues to be the Yamaha Nouvo and Honda Scoopy. Several motorcars have also been reported stolen.
“Vehicles are more likely to be taken between the hours of 5pm and 1am. Motorcycles are most frequently taken from car parks around the City of Hamilton but also from residential neighborhoods island wide.
Chart provided by the Bermuda Police Service
“Typically motorcycles are stolen for joy riding or for stripping of their parts,” added Inspector Cardwell.
“Prevention and deterrence is the best advice for all motor vehicle owners to adhere in order to not become a victim of vehicular theft.
“That includes always removing keys from the ignition of your vehicle even if only intending to be away from your vehicle for a short time, and for motorcycle owners to always use a secondary lock that is in addition to the handlebar lock.
“Where possible the secondary lock should be used to attach the motorcycle to a fixed object.”
Now we know why our insurance is so damn high! There has to be a better way of preventing the thief of cars / bike in particular
Just watch City Hall car park (and most others) you see the thiefs walking along kicking the front wheel to see if it’s locked… if not they will be back shortly and the bike will be gone…
There is Raymond, when each their is caught, chop their hands off!!!
Sadly, two men tried that already and got jail time themselves .
Good idea!! What about liars ? Cut off a piece of their tongue ?
Then sign language we can cut off fingers too . Sounds just about right . Let’s lobby for this to pass as well !
PARTS !!!!
thief
Thanks for the data, but why do the police mix bikes and cars? They are different crimes, at least in perception.
No. It’s theft.
One in 10 chance you will get your vehicle back, who ever buys stolen parts need to stop. Why not use “bait bikes” and catch these losers?
Pretty much slim to none lmfao….RIP Scoopy from 2000 still waiting to see you hahahaha
This confirms that the Datatag system being pushed by most of the insurers is a failure and should be dropped as an unnecessary expense.
Strange that there’s a consistent sine wave – does this imply that there’s a limited number of thieves and it normally takes them a week to dispose of the parts before they steal more bikes?
How is it possible for 265 vehicles to go missing on a 22 sq. mile island? What can you do with a stolen vehicle once it must be passed at TCD?
Stripped for parts. Vehicle doesn’t exist any more.
We should start hiding gps chips in the cars and I bet my life that the same people are doing this and could bust the whole ring. How about setting these thieves up? Let them take the bait and you would catch them in a heart beat.
@ Sara, same way how $18 million went missing from CoH.
If you have your bike stolen the police do not even show up .They take the info on the phone. Why not? A bike can cost from $1,000 to $4,000 plus . Is there not a device that all bikes can have put in the bike and they or the Insurance companies as a group hire people to find them with the tracking devices. 265 bikes X say $3,000 average each =$795,000. that’s just so far this year.Now that is a great job for a new business venture. the insurance company can then pay them for each bike recovered based on value of claim or something! I am sure you could get 15% to 20% as a recovery fee or set fee from the Insurance companies.
I think the police treat bike theft as a “victimless crime” and don’t do much to pursue it. Thus it effectively becomes a tax on all insurance premiums.
Ditto their failure to control to traffic – leading to higher collision rates – hits us all in the premiums.
And if you get caught you get a slap on the wrist – discharge. Am shocked by these figures. That is very high.
Yes, a tracking device small enough to fit up into the frame or something that can actually be inserted into the gas tank…Just a though?
Yes… they have a GPS system that can be purchased and then you pay a yearly fee. which ends up being worth it in the end. Friend of mine’s bike was stolen and they sent cops directly to where bike was and caught thieves red handed stripping it.
What system is this? I need one.
What’s the name of it?
Do the police really need to come and look at where the bike was?
There is no evidence there! The bike has gone!
I’m with whomever said chop their hands off, sick of these creeps making insurance go up and up. Crime pays here, when are we going to make it not fun to be a criminal. Pay some desolate country to take our criminals, and maybe they will think twice and it would save us a lot of money every year!
What about the criminals in suits and ties?
Somebody tell me again what is the purpose of these cameras all over the island?
to make it look like the island is secure. all the criminals know where the camera are located and avoid them.
Irony is but the authorities don’t tell you that most of these vehicles are being ‘spruced up’ and sold on the cheap.
When was the last time anyone checked your engine#/frame# at Tee Cee Dee.
It’s free to take nd if you can 2/2/4/5 hundred dollars and a can of spray paint……………….
Shalom.
Here we are, a little 20 sq mile dot with more cops per capita than any place on earth & they can’t catch the thieves or find the bikes.
Worse, the courts let the thieves go on the rare occasion when they are caught.
And we have the most churches per capita………….
I know, it is really pathetic. We are a laughing stock.
295 stolen 30 recovered, hardly a BPS record to be proud of
But than they post something like this to let guys know how easy it is
Scooters taken for a joy ride and dropped off a cliff and into the water. I used to find 6 to 8 of them underwater at a time.
If in the market for a new bike don’t buy the a model the thieves like.
Comment makes no sense. Trends change every time a new model bike is. Are we all supposed to ride jitlas? They get stolen all the same…
The jitlas get stolen the most. The amount of oleander cycles scooters i’ve seen thrown into the trees in the tracks is astounding.
The bikes are typically stolen by guys with a truck. They don’t care if it is locked or not. If it is chained to something they have bolt cutters and just chop the chain and throw the bike in the back of a truck. Takes seconds not minutes and nobody pays attention to a truck they just assume bike has broken down. The cars are not stolen they are mostly domestic disputes.
Thanks for the tips BPS. Lock your bike? wow, I never thought of that.
Now, what are you doing to catch these thieves? Are you shaking down bike repair shops to see where they getting parts from? Are you investigating all these “bike for quick sale” ads on emoo? Are you setting up honeypots to catch thieves in action? Are you doing ANYTHING? Because you are quick to hide in trees to catch me speeding on my way to work but when my bike got stolen last week it didn’t seem like anyone there actually cares too much. This graph proves my theory
Many of those “stolen” bikes are just false claims. Neither the police or the insurance companies make much effort to determine if the bike was truly stolen.
What percentage do you reckon? Can’t be that many ‘fake reports’ to justify the inaction by the powers that be to crack down on thieves.