Saratoga News

Bicycle thefts teach SHS kids hard lesson at summer school

Thieves takes six bikes in just one month

One student is threatened

By Michelle Alaimo

In just one month, six bicycles have been stolen from the Saratoga High School campus between the summer school hours of 8 a.m. and noon. The figure brings the total number of bikes stolen since Jan. 1 to eight.

"Eight bikes is a high amount," said Det. Luther Pugh of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department's Westside substation.

The latest incident, being considered a strong-arm robbery by police, and the only one in which violence was threatened, occurred July 18 at about 12:30 p.m. A 13-year-old boy attending summer school was leaving campus when a man in his late 20s carrying a black duffel bag approached him. The teenager said the man threatened him and told him to hand over his bike, worth more than $1,000. The suspect then rode off on the bike to Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.

Santa Clara County Sheriff's Deputy Leila Sutherland, who responded to the incident, said she drove up and down Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road looking for the suspect, but he was gone. Police said this incident is not related to any of the prior bike thefts.

However, Pugh said two incidents, occurring on July 2 and July 3, are related. In the first incident, the student parked his bicycle in the bike rack but forgot to lock it. The bike rack is shaped like a cage with an open top but is not visible from Herriman Drive. His bike, valued at $400, was gone when he came back at the end of the school day. About 24 hours later, a bike valued at $1,400 was stolen. Pugh said the bike was locked to the fence by the tennis courts in front of the school, which school officials said is an unauthorized place for bikes to be kept. Both cases are classified as felony grand thefts.

Bikes are generally stolen by other students because no one pays attention to someone who is young walking up to a bike rack and leaving with a bike, Pugh said.

But this was not the case in a July 7 incident in which three bikes were stolen at one time. Pugh considers this incident to be a "spree" in which someone probably drove up in a truck, cut all the locks and then loaded the locks and bikes, with an average value of $1,000, into the truck. He said this is the type of incident that happens at big campuses such as Stanford University where several bikes are stolen in one day.

Richard Shippee, a parent of one of the teenagers who had his bike stolen on July 7, said the bike rack is in a remote area of the campus, far away from where anyone can easily see the rack.

Summer school Principal Jerry McCloskey said the bike rack is located next to portable classrooms which are currently not in use. Two gates lead to the bike rack, both of which he said are locked.

Two other bikes were stolen during the regular school year, one on Feb 20 and one on June 2.

McCloskey said he made an announcement after the first bike was stolen during summer school to remind all students that bikes should be kept locked on the bike rack.

Both Pugh and McCloskey recommend the use of a Kryptonite-brand lock, which is u-shaped and very hard to cut off.

"Generally, bikes are locked improperly," Pugh said. Often the bike is locked in such a way that it only secures the front wheel to a fixed object. It is not uncommon to have a bike stolen, leaving only the locked wheel.

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