Dozens of bikes have accumulated over the past two years at the Richmond Hill Police Department – so many the department is planning to auction them off.
"We impound about a bike a month here," said RHPD clerk Lisa Long, who has organized the auction. "We don’t auction bikes very often. They are taking up a lot of room though. When the chief complained about it, that’s when I started to get this thing together."
RHPD Detective Dana Strickland said bikes are hard to trace because bike owners don’t seem to keep a record of their serial number and they are not registered.
"There are many more bikes found than are reported stolen," Strickland continued. "A lot of it is that throwaway mentality where parents will replace the bike without checking to see if we have it."
Detective Mike Albritton said the bikes in impound should serve as a lesson for making bike theft accessible and that residents should be more careful about securing their belongings.
"Take a ride around town right now," Albritton said. "I bet you would find bikes laying in front yards near the street. It doesn’t surprise me that we have a problem with bike theft here."
Long said the auction will take place on May 17 in the back parking lot of the police station and all the proceeds will go into the general fund for the city.
She also encourages those who are missing bikes to claim theirs.
For further information, call the RHPD at 756-5645.