Property Management

February 6, 2024 Published by Toronto and Area Chapter - By Mike Fenton

Condominium Bicycle Theft Protection

From the Winter 2023 issue of CCI Toronto Condovoice Magazine.

Here Are Some Helpful Tips To Reduce The Probability Of Your Bike Being Stolen

Disclaimer

While the possibility of crimes such as vandalism and theft occurring is always present, crime prevention practices can reduce the probability that certain crimes will happen. The techniques outlined in this article aim to enlighten and educate to reduce such probabilities as much as possible. A multitude of options are offered that can be tailored to the physical location as well as to the possible threats. Not all suggestions will apply to every place, nor will all be always necessary. By offering the many choices in this article, it is hoped that property owners and managers can create environments that are as safe as possible.

Overview – Condominiums can present real challenges for bicycle owners/users. Many condominium boards do not want bicycles being wheeled along carpeted corridors in case they damage the broadloom. Nor do they want bicycles and their owners crowding the elevators. Since the condominium may lack secure bicycle storage areas, bicycle owners may not want to leave their expensive bicycle in the parking garage, secured to a pillar or railing, possibly with a weaker chain and padlock than we would recommend. Hence, they will likely move their bicycle to and from their suite with minimal regard for damage to carpets or elevators or injuries to other owners or guests.

Basic Locker Security Precautions – Most condominium boards have very sensible locker storage policies already in place such as prohibiting storage of flammable liquids, firearms, and ammunition. Tools such as axes, crowbars, hacksaws, power saws, electric drills, etcetera, are also prohibited to prevent thieves from using them to compromise weak locks and hasps to access lockers. If the condominium does not require these tools to be stored in the owner’s suite, updating their bylaws accordingly should be considered.

Alternate Solutions

Locker Room Door Signage: Most locker room doors are located in parking areas and are labelled “Locker Room # 6,” etcetera. When the condominium is being commissioned, management and the Board of Directors should consider alternate ‘decoy’ signage such as: ‘Sump Pump #19’ etcetera. Storage in the Unit Owner’s Locker Room: On the surface this may appear to be a logical choice. Unfortunately, most condominium locker rooms have weak key-in-knob sets and easily pried doors that open outward. In most cases, the security of these doors can be improved by adding a steel strike cover plate or preferably the more secure full length steel astragal to cover the gap between the door and its frame.

Note: Where the gap between the door and the door frame is 3 mm or more, a steel strike cover plate or astragal 6 mm or ¼” is recommended.

These items make it much harder to pry open the outer door of the locker room. Dead bolts such as Medico or MultiLock are desirable for locker room doors when valuables such as expensive bicycles are stored. Often contractors specify ‘builders’ hardware’ that is the least expensive, weak key-in-knob locksets that are NOT very resistant to forced entry. The Multi-Lock dead bolt is preferrable as it has ball bearings that lock into indentations in its strike box.

Builders of some condominiums also construct very weak lockers with flimsy ¼ inch plywood panels and doors and ineffective chicken wire or somewhat stronger 9 American Wire Gauge chainlink fencing for locker walls. To make matters worse, many condo owners persist in using inexpensive, very weak, and easily forced low-cost padlocks to secure their lockers. Some bicycle owners try to protect their expensive bicycle by covering it and or placing light items around and on top of it. In our view, many locker rooms are not suitable for storing most bicycles especially expensive ultra light weight racing bicycles.

Dedicated Secure Bicycle Storage Area Recommendations

Location. To reduce escape options for thieves, the storage area should be located on the P2 parking level ideally near an ongoing source of activity such an owners’ car wash area, an elevator lobby, security office, cleaners’ office, or owners’ carpentry area. The presence of witnesses nearby may serve to deter some bicycle thieves.

Door and Door Frame – A 16-gauge stiffened steel door with welded-in stiffeners and a 14-gauge stiffened steel frame should deter burglary to locker and bike storage areas. Doors should not have a window. However, there should be an apartment-style wide-angle optical viewer to allow departing bicyclists to conduct a cursory threat risk assessment before leaving the bicycle room. A door of this weight must be supported by equivalent robust hinges. These hinges will require non-removable hinge pins or cross pins which extend into corresponding holes in the hinge mounted on the door frame. This prevents illegal removal of the door via removal of the hinge pins. Estimated cost for this door is $1,200.00 plus shipping and taxes. This door should be painted yellow to attract visual attention and can be mislabeled as ‘Sump pump #7’, etcetera, to divert thieves. Suppliers that provide high security hardware such as doors, hinges, and stiffeners should be sourced.

Access Control – For access control, we recommend a magnetic lock with in reader and a bond sensor to detect items that have been left between the halves of the magnetic lock to render it inoperable. A PIN pad is also recommended to ensure that if a thief finds an access card, he or she will not have the authorizing 4-digit code, rendering the card useless to him or her. We also recommend the use of access control software with the inactive card management feature that alerts management when an operable card has not been used for a selected period such as two weeks which might indicate that the card is in the hands of an unauthorized person. Lenovo and CCURE both produce access control software with this feature.

Egress – To exit the bicycle storage area, users will have to push an exit button mounted on the wall at least 1 meter (40”) from the door.

Video Surveillance – We recommend the installation of one exterior and two interior Internet Protocol cameras for this room to allow bicycle owners remote monitoring of their bicycles and the exterior door. Note: One of interior cameras should be hidden or disguised so the thieves do not attack it.

Conventional Security Solutions

Photography – Photograph your bicycle when you purchased it and after you have added any accessories. Give copies of these photos and your sales receipt to the police when you report it stolen.

Business Cards – Insert your business card in three or 4 not so obvious places on your bicycle. This may help the police return your bicycle back to you faster.

Parking – Avoid parking your bicycle in vulnerable places where a thief believes you will not be back soon, such as outside a subway station, bus station or movie theatre. In conventional parking lots, always try and park near the attendant’s booth where she or he can see your bicycle. Always try and park your bicycle near some sort of activity such as an outdoor café, smoking area, etcetera. Where none of the above are available, take your bicycle seat with you. Depending on where you are going and what you will be doing, also consider taking your bike’s front wheel with you.

In addition, some condominiums do not want bicycles stored on balconies. While this prohibition exists primarily for esthetic reasons, to date we only know of one successful theft of a bicycle from an upper-level balcony by use of a grappling hook and a rope.

Chain, Padlock & U Bolt Lock – Carry one meter or more of the thickest, hardened chain with flattened links that cannot be cut by bolt cutters and a quality padlock such as Abus Granite or Rock. These padlocks are expensive but are very hard to defeat as they have features such as square shackles with heel and toe locking at both ends of the shackle, cylinder inserted from the top, and cast bodies. Avoid padlocks with round, easy-to-cut shackles, and weak hasps. When chaining your bicycle to a metal pole try and pull it out. Some thieves install decoy poles that they can remove from the ground when you have left the area.

Paint your bicycle pink – Mayor Olivia Chow used this tactic successfully in the past. Since most bicycle thieves are male, it makes sense that police may stop a male riding a pink bicycle. Decals of flowers maybe another disincentive to male bicycle thieves.

Lock insurance – Buy a bicycle and/or a bicycle lock that comes with an insurance policy. To ensure you get a replacement bicycle, we recommend that you closely adhere to their security guidelines.

Barrel Key Locks – Avoid bicycle locks that use barrel keys. Informal replacement keys are easily made by lighting a ball point stick pen on fire and when the plastic starts to melt insert it into the barrel keyway. Let it cool off and harden and it will open all similar barrel key locks that are keyed alike.

Education – Attend any local police bicycle theft prevention days or other similar types of events.

Re-Selling Your Bike – When selling your bicycle, meet the purchaser in a police-supervised parking area ideally with police video surveillance. Only let someone take it for a test ride if they leave their wallet, house keys and phone with you.

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Mike Fenton, CPP, PSP
Independent Security Consultant
Senior Partner, Mike Fenton & Associates Security Consulting