The number of both locked and unlocked bikes reported stolen increased last term, especially towards the end of the school-year, according to Safety and Security Crime Prevention Specialist Rebel Roberts.
Although arrests in bike theft cases have been rare, 38 of the 77 bikes stolen have been recovered by Safety and Security.
Roberts said Safety and Security suspects people outside the College community may be responsible for the bike thefts.
"We used to see more bikes being taken around campus," Roberts said. "But the crime trends and the value of bikes have increased, and it's more serious for people to steal bikes."
The stolen bikes may be taken to chop-shops or sold off, Roberts said.
However, Safety and Security attributes some of last term's reported bike thefts to the fact that many students only began searching for their bikes at the end of the school-year, when in fact they may have been stolen weeks or even months earlier.
Safety and Security is not expecting a break in this recent outbreak during the usually quiet summer.
"Actually when you look at the overall campus there might not be less people [than the rest of the year] due to conferences and tourists," Roberts said.
Because there are more people passing through Hanover, the number of bike thefts may increase, Roberts said.
How these recent incidents of bike theft will affect the Student Assembly's Big Green Bikes project, a plan to provide bikes for use by anyone on campus, remains unclear.
Big Green Bikes will not carry locks but "will stand out and people won't steal them," Assembly President Josh Green '00 said. "We'll make sure they're registered," he said.
Other problems, including a discontinued wheel-type that the Assembly has attempted to order, are holding up the project, Green said.
Safety and Security advises students to lock all bikes to bike racks, as the number of reports of stolen bikes with only locked wheels or frames has increased.
Bikes registered with Safety and Security stand a higher chance of being recovered if stolen, Roberts said.
The increase in bike thefts has paralleled an increase in overall theft at the College, according to Roberts. The number of thefts of Powerbooks, cash and wallets has risen since September.
