The New York Times - USA (2020-10-15)

A8 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020

Tracking an OutbreakThe New Reality and the Resurgence

One of the more unexpected
side effects of the pandemic has
been a surge in cycling, fueled by
people avoiding trains and buses
and seeking a way to stay in
shape. That triggered an extreme
shortage of bicycles. Then came
the thieves.
Bikes are being plundered from
sidewalks, garages and apart-
ment building basements in rising
numbers in New York and across
the country. Similar spikes in
thefts have also been recorded
abroad, including in Britain and
France.
No one, it seems, is immune.
A father recently posted a sign
on a Brooklyn street to publicly
shame the thief who stole the bike
his 10-year-old son got for his
birthday. A bike along with the
railing it was locked to were stolen
from a Brooklyn apartment build-
ing. In the Bronx, a 15-year-old
boy riding a bike was attacked by
eight men who stole his cycle.
“When you buy a bike you just
hope that you hold onto it for as
long as you can,” said Jacob Priley,
29, explaining how he had two
bikes stolen, one after the other.
The first was at a protest
against police brutality in Brook-
lyn where he said he was arrested
after being out past a curfew and
left his bike on the street. He re-
placed it with an electric moun-
tain bike costing about $800. That
one was stolen, too, after he left it
overnight in the street, albeit
locked.
While locks are obviously a
good idea, many are no match for
the electric saws that thieves com-
monly use.
“Every lock — you can break it,’’
said Sty Gonzalez, who works at
Trek Bicycle shop in Manhattan.
“The stronger ones just buy you
more time.”
Before the pandemic, Joe No-
cella, who owns 718 Cyclery in
Brooklyn, used to hear about
someone getting their bike stolen
maybe once a week. Now it’s ev-
ery day.
“If they leave their bikes out,
they have to be emotionally and fi-
nancially prepared for it to not be
there the next day,” Mr. Nocella
said. “The best thing is to keep it
with you everywhere you go.
Sleep with it next to you.”
The number of bicycles, includ-
ing those with electric motors, re-
ported stolen in New York from
March through Sept. 21 was 4,477,
an increase of 27 percent from the
3,507 reported stolen during the
same period last year, according
to the police.
Those figures are likely an un-
dercount since only one in five
bike thefts are reported to the po-
lice, according to 529 Garage, a
bike registry service. About 1.
million bikes are stolen every year
in the United States, about one ev-
ery 30 seconds, according to the

group.

Bike Index, another national

bike registry group, said that be-

tween April and September, the

number of bikes reported stolen to

the service totaled 10,059, com-

pared with 5,998 during the same

period last year, a rise of 68 per-

cent.

Bike theft is nothing new, but

the latest surge seems to be driv-

en, at least in part, by the shortage

caused by a disruption to global

supply chains during the out-

break.

Between April and July, sales of

bicycles in the United States rose

81 percent compared with the

same period last year, according

to the NPD Group, a market re-

search company.

“We tend to have seasons like

‘garage break-in season,’ or ‘theft-

from-the-street season,’ but now

it’s all seasons at once,” said Bry-

an Hance, a co-founder of Bike In-

dex.

The handling of bike theft dif-

fers among police forces, so it can

be hard to get a precise handle on

the scope of the problem in differ-

ent cities. Several police depart-

ments were unable to provide

data. Some agencies will not ac-

cept theft reports without a serial

number, which not every owner

records.

The police force in Portland,

Ore., is one of the few agencies in

the country to have a dedicated

bike theft unit. It reported an 18

percent increase in stolen cycles

between January and August

compared with the same period

last year.

The chances of recovering a

stolen bike are often slim. Thieves

can easily and quickly sell pilfered

bikes on apps and will often sell

bikes to buyers in different cities

or states, to lessen the chance of

being caught, according to bicy-

cling groups.

Velosurance, a company that

provides customized insurance

for bicycles in many states, said it

had its largest monthly sign-up of

new customers in August.

“Everyone thinks that bikes are

covered somehow by some other

policy,” said Dave Williams, chief

executive of Velosurance. “Unfor-

tunately, it often takes a claim to

find out how badly high-value

bikes are insured.” One customer

who had a $2,000 bike stolen from

his garage recently, Mr. Williams

said, only received $183 after fil-

ing a claim with his insurance

company.

Bikes are also being stolen in

growing numbers outside the

United States.

In Paris, bike theft surged by 62

percent from the beginning of this

year through September com-

pared with the same period last

year, according to local news re-

ports. Cyclists have been urged by

officials to find a bush to hide their

bikes in.

In London, bike theft fell when

Britain went into lockdown but

surged when it eased. Between

June and August, Metropolitan

Police recorded 8,453 thefts, com-

pared with 6,422 in the same peri-

od last year, a rise of about 30 per-

cent. In August, the police ar-

rested two men after discovering

nearly 120 stolen bikes at a home

in East London.

In the United States, Craigslist

and Facebook Marketplace, as

well as apps like OfferUp, are

filled with gleaming mountain

bikes selling for $200, a suspi-

ciously low price suggesting the

bikes may have been stolen.

Part of the problem, especially

in New York, cyclists say, is a lack

of secure indoor places to park,

even though the city anticipates

more bike commuting in the

months ahead and officials are

building out the city’s network of

bike lanes.

“We’re in this Wild West,” said

Mr. Priley, who had two bikes stol-

en. “I just have to hope that the

bike locks I bought are good

enough to deter someone long

enough until someone else comes

by and says go away.”

Shabazz Stuart, co-founder of

Oonee, a company that designs

parking pods for bikes, said two of

the pods were being used in New

York, one of them large enough to

accommodate up to 20 bikes. The

pods are free for bikers to use.

City officials, Mr. Stuart said,

needed to add many more secure

parking shelters, especially in

poorer neighborhoods where it

might be more difficult for cyclists

to replace a stolen bike.

“We have to treat it like we treat

public transit,” he said. “If we have

3,000 bus shelters in New York

City, why can’t we have 1,000 bike

stations and why can’t you finance

it through advertising and media,

like we finance bus shelters and

newsstands?”

The city’s Department of Trans-

portation declined to discuss any

additional measures to protect

bikes from thieves and referred

questions to the Police Depart-

ment. Officials there simply un-

derscored the importance of lock-

ing bikes in public.

In the meantime, victims are

making do — and making peace —

with their experience.

Guillermo Ortas, 27, a Brooklyn

resident who had his $800 bike

stolen — along with the railing to

which it was attached in the base-

ment of his Bushwick apartment

building — took a more philosoph-

ical view.

“In the end, we live in a pretty

crazy world, so I can’t really focus

on negative energy,” he said.

Alice Culpepper, who lives on

the Upper East Side of Manhat-

tan, had a $500 turquoise hybrid

stolen recently. She bought a new,

more expensive bike that she

parks at the foot of her bed.

“There’s no way I’m parking

this bike outside ever again,” she

said. “I’m just too paranoid and

that’s no fun, but that’s how it is.”

CRIME

As Cycling Grows, So Do Bike Thefts, and Locks Don’t Seem to Matter

A delivery worker locking up in Manhattan. Left, a stripped bike

in Brooklyn. Bicycle ridership has soared during the pandemic as

more people seek alternatives to the subway and buses.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JORDAN GALE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

By KIMIKO de FREYTAS-TAMURA

One shop owner’s

advice: ‘Sleep with it

next to you.’

aging lockdowns, often opting for
the lightest possible measures.
For Germany and a handful of
its neighbors, this second wave is
particularly demoralizing be-
cause they had navigated the first
wave relatively well. In late June,
revelers in Prague celebrated the
end of the outbreak with a dinner
party stretching across the
Charles Bridge. Spain and Italy,
which were hard hit in March and
April, threw open their doors to
vacationers in July and August.
Now, with these countries expe-
riencing an alarming spread of the
virus, the carefree days of sum-
mer are a distant memory.
On Wednesday, Ms. Merkel and
Mr. Macron announced a raft of
nationwide restrictions in their
countries, ranging from the clos-
ing of bars and restaurants to the
mandatory use of masks. The cur-
fews in Paris and other French cit-
ies, including Lyon, Toulouse and
Marseille, will last at least four
weeks.
“We haven’t lost control,” Mr.
Macron insisted. “We are in a situ-
ation that is worrying that justi-
fies being neither inactive nor
panicked.”
Germany reported 5,132 new in-
fections on Tuesday, up from 2,
a week earlier; France reported
120,000 new cases over the past
seven days, one of the highest
rates in the world.
French officials warned that in
the Paris region, intensive care
units would be 70 percent to 90
percent filled with Covid-19 pa-
tients by the end of the month. The

surge in cases has thrown into dis-

array Mr. Macron’s plan to shift

his focus to economic recovery,

with a fiscal stimulus plan worth

100 billion euros ($117 billion).

“All of the government’s strat-

egy is destabilized,” said Jérôme

Fourquet, a political analyst at the

IFOP polling institute. Mr. Ma-

cron’s ambitions, he said, were

“colliding with the necessity to put

out the fire, from a health stand-

point.”

In the Spanish region of Catalo-

nia, where cases have risen 40

percent in the past week, the au-

thorities closed bars and restau-

rants for 15 days, except for take-

out food. Shops were told to limit

their traffic to 30 percent of capac-

ity.

“We are in an extremely compli-

cated situation,” the acting re-

gional leader of Catalonia, Pere

Aragonès, said on Twitter.

In the Navarre region in north-

ern Spain, which has in recent

days superseded Madrid as the

area with the country’s highest of-

ficial infection rate, new restric-

tions came into force on Tuesday

that included closing playgrounds

and outdoors sports areas, as well

forcing restaurants to close at 10

p.m.

In the Netherlands, where the

number of cases almost doubled

this week to 44,000, the govern-

ment announced a limited lock-

down. After 10 p.m. on Wednes-

day, all bars and restaurants will

be closed for at least four weeks.

Gatherings will be limited to 30

people, while most sports events

will be halted.

In an about-face, Prime Min-

ister Mark Rutte issued “strong

advice” for people to wear masks

inside public places. The Dutch

authorities had long said that

masks provided a false sense of

security, emphasizing other forms

of social distancing. Mr. Rutte said

his government would seek to

make them legally obligatory.

The aversion to masks, experts

say, could help explain why the

Netherlands is suffering such a

serious spike, despite being

wealthy and well-organized, with

one of the best health care sys-

tems in the world. It also has a

lack of testing capacity, which has

prompted the Dutch to consider

hiring labs in Abu Dhabi.

“Despite spending large

amounts of money, they couldn’t

get these things done,” said Sheila

Sitalsing, a columnist for the

newspaper De Volkskrant. “The

problem is with our management,

although of course also many ordi-

nary people have ignored obvious

health rules.”

In Britain, which has suffered

the greatest number of virus

deaths in Europe, Prime Minister

Boris Johnson has walked a

tightrope between scientific ad-

visers who are pushing for an-

other nationwide lockdown and

members of his Conservative

Party who warn that such a draco-

nian response would wreck the

economy.

On Monday, Mr. Johnson rolled

out a three-tier system of restric-

tions. Though the government ini-

tially put only put hard-hit Liver-

pool in the highest-level tier, other

cities, like Manchester, are likely

to be added soon.

The opposition Labour Party

and medical experts are urging

Mr. Johnson to impose a two-week

shutdown, which experts have

dubbed a “circuit breaker,” to ar-

rest the virus, which is now

spreading from the north of Eng-

land across the country.

“You don’t need to be a rocket

scientist to look at that and realize

you’re going to end up with the

majority of people living under

more severe restrictions,” said

Graham Medley, a professor of in-

fectious disease modeling at the

London School of Hygiene and

Tropical Medicine.

Other parts of the United King-

dom are already taking strong

measures. On Wednesday, North-

ern Ireland announced it would

begin a four-week lockdown, and

close schools for two weeks. It is

reporting an average of nearly

900 new daily cases this week,

compared to just over 100 during

the height of the first wave in mid-

April.

“This is deeply troubling, and

more steps are urgently needed,”

said Arlene Foster, Northern Ire-

land’s First Minister, as she an-

nounced the new restrictions.

Wales announced that it would

bar entry to people coming from

other parts of the United Kingdom

with high infection rates.

Among European countries,

only Russia has put the emphasis

on positive developments. But its

new vaccine, like an earlier one

that Mr. Putin announced in Au-

gust as world-beating triumph for

Russian science, has yet to com-

plete critical, late-stage clinical

trials to determine safety and ef-

fectiveness.

Tatiana Golikova, a deputy

prime minister coordinating Rus-

sia’s response to the pandemic,

said the new vaccine had so far

been tested on only 100 volun-

teers. Ms. Golikova, who said she

had been injected herself and “did

not feel any complications,” added

that trials would now be carried

out across the country with 40,

volunteers.

News of the vaccine led news

reports on state-controlled televi-

sion, obscuring news earlier in the

day that Russia had recorded

14,231 new infections, the biggest

daily increase since the pandemic

began.

The spike has been particularly

sharp in Moscow, which reported

4,573 new cases on Wednesday.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered

schools to switch to distance

learning for grades six through 11.

Moscow schools reopened in early

September but a month later, stu-

dents were told to take an un-

scheduled two-week vacation to

try to slow the spread.

On Tuesday, Russia’s deputy

health minister, Oleg Gridnev,

said hospital beds for virus pa-

tients were nearly 90 percent oc-

cupied. But Mr. Putin, speaking

Wednesday by from the country

residence where he has sheltered

for much of the last seven months,

insisted there was no shortage yet

of beds.

The data “suggests that the sit-

uation in Russia, although quite

tense and difficult, is nevertheless

under control,” Mr. Putin said.

A SECOND WAVE

Curfew in Paris as Virus Soars Across Europe, Spiking in Russia and Germany

A patient in a Moscow I.C.U. Russia reported its largest daily increase in infections on Wednesday.

MAXIM SHEMETOV/REUTERS

From Page A

Reporting was contributed by Au-
relien Breeden, Constant Méheut
and Antonella Francini in Paris,
Andrew Higgins in Moscow, Thom-
as Erdbrink in Amsterdam, Megan
Specia in London, Christopher F.
Schuetze in Berlin, and Raphael
Minder in Madrid.