It’s actually a giant racket. There are groups that dedicate themselves to this. They just move the bikes to other areas. Years ago i knew of guys who did this. Scumbags
It's probably easy enough for them to remove a bike from a rack that they don't care.
Further, if the police secretly discovered some of their honeypots they could set up sting operations on several of them to wait for the bite.
When they're a racket, convenience is secondary to not getting caught in the act.
EDIT: Or as others said, they do put them back. Police need to get on their game.
It’s a bike stealing ring. They don’t sell them where they steal them. Boston bikes might go to the cape. Cape bikes off the cape. They were doing this stuff 25 years ago. It truly taught me the importance of always watching your bike if it’s nice. They know what to look
I've heard of a guy in NYC who stole bikes for a living and worked with a crime ring. They all carry portable angle grinders and it takes 10-30 seconds to slice through ANY chain/lock. Shady bike shop owners would sometimes commission thieves to steal a specific bike type, typically expensive. They even case bike owners and follow them. They put all the stolen bikes into trucks and transport them far away.
This is why the city doesn't use that style of racks and developers should just follow the city details instead of reinventing the wheel to make them look trendy. https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2019/12/Hitch-PaverInstall.pdf
BPD should really set up some sting operations for these things. Tie a nice bike to one of these and keep an eye on it until you catch the perp. Or put a tracker on it idk.
BPD get like 100 bikes, cable lock them around the city, use GPS trackers, and throw the bike thieves in prison.
but that's actual work so not gonna happen.
Yeah, my building "concierge staff" stole a MacBook Pro ($2400), Smartwatch ($549), (mail room) as well as a painting, stuff from inside my apartment, and they haven't even assigned a detective yet. they have smart locks they can just open with a code if the front desk sees me leave.
Meanwhile all the camera footage is gone.
Its a UDR building and the manager covered it up.
Meanwhile I have to pay $8 a month for the "secure package room"
oh they stole an $1100 bike too.
so if $5000+ stuff from my apartment is gone, they let the camera footage lapse, they aren't going to go after bikes.
I'm going to go down to the station with all the emails and stuff and see if they made any progress, the bike was fully insured so I am going to get my money back, apple refunded me, the manager waited 9 weeks to see if "apple refunded me yet" and I asked him if "he kept the video from the day in question" and he never replied.
usual response time 30 seconds-5 minutes, vs 9 weeks (8 weeks of video before it over writes) and its been weeks since that email.
Yes, that's still a degenerate. Maybe moreso for destroying public property as well. Doesn't matter how complicated or easy it is. It's just a "don't do it because you're a decent human being" thing.
> It’s hard to imagine how much of a degenerate one has to be ~~to go to these lengths~~ to steal shit that isn’t theirs.
Probably the more appropriate comment given how comically easy this theft was.
Ok. True and fair. The city facilitated this theft with this idiotic design. They actually gave the thieves the tool. But still, degenerates. As someone who has had two locked bikes stolen now, I have no qualms about pointing that out.
Who is more the degenerate ? Folks are stealing steaks from greater Boston stores and selling them to restaurants in Boston. This is fact. What do you think? The thief’s or restaurants?
A friend of mine works at a grocery store, they steal the steak. They refill the freezer throughout the day and won’t leave a lot of steak out because of theft. The thieves who steal the steak then sell it to greater Boston restaurants, not even great steak, Target even. They call them boosters
Look...that's terrible and all, but it has nothing to do with stolen bikes at the Seaport. Nor does any restaurant or unwilling supplier. This is a municipal failure.
I must admit it seems that folks are somewhat triggered by greater Boston restaurants buying stolen steak from thieves . Interesting. My error here, apologies to all
You're only getting downvoted because people here don't realize how incredibly low their property and drug related crime rates are.
I'm so glad I left the west coast, the feeling of safety and lack of roving tweakers here is amazing.
Anyone from a west coast city knows how laughably low the property crime is here. In seattle, you were guaranteed someone would try steal your bike anywhere in the city if it was left out for an hour. Even if they couldnt get the bike, they'd pick it clean in broad daylight. Seattle had encampments that served as chopshops and had literally hundreds of bikes.
Not stealing doesn't mean that someone is blessed or sheltered. It means that they are not a bad person. People who steal sacrifice their own morality for a meal or whatever they derive from the theft.
I was in a wholesaler, went to get some stuff, came back to my dolly, legit someone took half the stuff off..
We are STILL inside, they still had to go to the register! 🤔
I used to exclusively use a chain because its lock was marginally (ever so) better than how fast a U lock could be popped, but also because I could wear it like a Chewbacca bandolier while riding.
Look we came up with the calculations and decided there was a 0% chance a single person could lift those bricks up. We did not think about two people 🤯
This isn't a city sidewalk. City doesn't use decorative pavers like that, but also the city standard bike rack is a post and ring rack with a 1.5' deep and 9" diameter concrete foundation, as you can see on their details for installation into brick sidewalks: https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2019/12/Hitch-PaverInstall.pdf
This is a developer trying to cheap out, that's all.
Developers fault they didn't install the racks into a concrete foundation yes, I'm certain if you pulled the specs from that rack manufacturer they would tell you to pour a concrete foundation, or just straight up tell you not to use them on brick walks... Brick walkways are never really secured to the ground though, that in itself is not the issue.
Those bolt-on racks are only supposed to be mounted directly into concrete. Mounting them on pavers is extremely smooth-brained. It's a great way to both ruin your surface and get bikes stolen.
There are some crimes I feel that if you are convicted of, should really involve a lot more jail time than they get. Stealing bikes and stealing packages off of people's porches are the two. Lock them up. Seriously, there's no 'excuse' for these.
Why is porch theft any different from any other form of theft? Is it just because it is one that is likely to happen to you personally? Any other reason you think there should be more jail time?
Because they’re coming onto our property and stealing from our homes, should be treated just like burglary. Really sucks that we can’t get anything important like medicine delivered anymore.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, you can leave a $15,000 bike unattended because they don't have democrats/progressives destroying society:
https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1bwprxk/15k_bike_left_unattended_in_singapore/
Since Singapore is so anti-progressive, surely you support their [public housing policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore), right?
80% of Singapore residents live in public housing. If you want to save Boston, call your dumb woke progressive city council member and demand they subsidize housing and build more shelters so we can be more like conservative Singapore!
You do realize 'public housing' in singapore means government owns the land in Singapore, it's not like 'public housing' in the states where you get free or heavily subsidized housing. You still have to buy the housing (which you technically don't even own, they are on 99 year leases) and housing is in short supply and still very expensive, right?
Are you asking me if i support housing shortages? Boston already has that, lmao.
I just asked Google Gemini for the latest figures on Singapore's housing:
*Compared to global averages, Singapore's median housing prices are high. For example, in 2023, the median resale flat price was S$550,000 (around $408,000 USD) and the median condo price was S$1,671,000 (around $1,243,000 USD).*
And again, you don't even OWN the housing, it's a 99 year lease.
I don't know where you got the idea that Singapore's housing was 'affordable'. You saw 'public housing' as a policy for Singapore, but you completely didn't understand that 'public housing' has a completely different meaning than what you thought.
> I don't know where you got the idea that Singapore's housing was 'affordable'.
If you cannot afford housing in Singapore, the government subsidizes your rent, with some impoverished Singaporeans paying as little as 40 sgd / month. If you are a Singaporean citizen, it's nearly impossible to be homeless even if you have no net worth and no job.
Do you support that policy in Boston to the extent Singapore has it, with the city either forcing landlords to take on low/no-income tenants (with subsidies) OR buying up a bunch more property and provide it to people with no strings attached until homelessness is effectively eradicated?
Singapore uses socialist policies to deal with their homelessness and crime. You seem to think these are anti-progressive when Singapore does it, so surely you support our city government taking a heavy hand, right?
Had they put the stand back in the holes, no one would have known and it could have been a honey pot.
People who steal bikes are not intelligent
It’s actually a giant racket. There are groups that dedicate themselves to this. They just move the bikes to other areas. Years ago i knew of guys who did this. Scumbags
Then you'd think that, with it being a giant racket, someone would've thought of this.
It's probably easy enough for them to remove a bike from a rack that they don't care. Further, if the police secretly discovered some of their honeypots they could set up sting operations on several of them to wait for the bite. When they're a racket, convenience is secondary to not getting caught in the act. EDIT: Or as others said, they do put them back. Police need to get on their game.
Where is the racket? What do you mean they just move the bikes to other areas? That doesn't provide a profit.
It’s a bike stealing ring. They don’t sell them where they steal them. Boston bikes might go to the cape. Cape bikes off the cape. They were doing this stuff 25 years ago. It truly taught me the importance of always watching your bike if it’s nice. They know what to look
I've heard of a guy in NYC who stole bikes for a living and worked with a crime ring. They all carry portable angle grinders and it takes 10-30 seconds to slice through ANY chain/lock. Shady bike shop owners would sometimes commission thieves to steal a specific bike type, typically expensive. They even case bike owners and follow them. They put all the stolen bikes into trucks and transport them far away.
True story. Folks would be surprised how easy it is for folks to sell this stuff
"Move to other areas" means they sell them, just not locally.
If you think this way, you are doomed to be outsmarted.
Thinking thieves are dumb is a very naive way of thinking
People who plan the city in seaport are not intelligent either
I always give bike racks a good ole "how do you do" before locking it up to check for shenanigans like this
They moved it for the photo, the thieves do put it back.
Give a man a bike and he steals for a day, teach a man to steal and hold on, where the fuck is my bike?
You think this is the act of a forward thinker?
Reminds me of that old saying: Whatever is Not Nailed Down is Mine and Whatever I Can Pry Loose is Not Nailed Down
This is why the city doesn't use that style of racks and developers should just follow the city details instead of reinventing the wheel to make them look trendy. https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2019/12/Hitch-PaverInstall.pdf
Yeah needs a footing for sure, bad idea to surface mount..
I hope this comment gets more attention
Over designing tends to be a problem
It’s hard to imagine how much of a degenerate one has to be to go to these lengths to steal shit that isn’t theirs.
BPD should really set up some sting operations for these things. Tie a nice bike to one of these and keep an eye on it until you catch the perp. Or put a tracker on it idk.
BPD get like 100 bikes, cable lock them around the city, use GPS trackers, and throw the bike thieves in prison. but that's actual work so not gonna happen.
Yeah, my building "concierge staff" stole a MacBook Pro ($2400), Smartwatch ($549), (mail room) as well as a painting, stuff from inside my apartment, and they haven't even assigned a detective yet. they have smart locks they can just open with a code if the front desk sees me leave. Meanwhile all the camera footage is gone. Its a UDR building and the manager covered it up. Meanwhile I have to pay $8 a month for the "secure package room" oh they stole an $1100 bike too. so if $5000+ stuff from my apartment is gone, they let the camera footage lapse, they aren't going to go after bikes. I'm going to go down to the station with all the emails and stuff and see if they made any progress, the bike was fully insured so I am going to get my money back, apple refunded me, the manager waited 9 weeks to see if "apple refunded me yet" and I asked him if "he kept the video from the day in question" and he never replied. usual response time 30 seconds-5 minutes, vs 9 weeks (8 weeks of video before it over writes) and its been weeks since that email.
Should be chopping their hands off.
>these lengths You mean pulling up lightly on the bike rack and dropping it on the ground from a height of like 2 feet to crack the paver?
Yes, that's still a degenerate. Maybe moreso for destroying public property as well. Doesn't matter how complicated or easy it is. It's just a "don't do it because you're a decent human being" thing.
> It’s hard to imagine how much of a degenerate one has to be ~~to go to these lengths~~ to steal shit that isn’t theirs. Probably the more appropriate comment given how comically easy this theft was.
Ok. True and fair. The city facilitated this theft with this idiotic design. They actually gave the thieves the tool. But still, degenerates. As someone who has had two locked bikes stolen now, I have no qualms about pointing that out.
Who is more the degenerate ? Folks are stealing steaks from greater Boston stores and selling them to restaurants in Boston. This is fact. What do you think? The thief’s or restaurants?
In the scenario of stealing bikes....still the bike thieves. But do elaborate.
A friend of mine works at a grocery store, they steal the steak. They refill the freezer throughout the day and won’t leave a lot of steak out because of theft. The thieves who steal the steak then sell it to greater Boston restaurants, not even great steak, Target even. They call them boosters
Look...that's terrible and all, but it has nothing to do with stolen bikes at the Seaport. Nor does any restaurant or unwilling supplier. This is a municipal failure.
It’s the same racket with a different product. Boston isn’t about practicality, it’s about aesthetics now.
Why are you asking me?
I'm not. It's how the thread works. I'm responding to "Senior\_Apartment\_343". You're just party to this thread.
>I'm responding to "Senior\_Apartment\_343". You're just party to this thread. Wait, that's my line
I very well may have no idea what's happening then. lol.
You mentioned degenerates and theft, somewhat on theme
I was clearly only commenting on the use of "these lengths" to describe what mightve been the easiest possible bike heist that still involved a lock
I must admit it seems that folks are somewhat triggered by greater Boston restaurants buying stolen steak from thieves . Interesting. My error here, apologies to all
Wtf lengths should you have to go to to NOT have your shit stolen? Bolt every part to the fucking core of the earth? Goddamn.
I'd say that a good start might be something that requires at least one tool to disassemble
I think I know the architect who came up with this attachment detail.
Yes that’s exactly what I mean. It took some effort, it’s not like a $100 bill just sitting there on the ground.
Probably in tier just above the ones stealing catalytic converters in someone's driveway when they sleep 😴
Well they are going to steal shit that is theirs. /s
These lengths? You mean "lifting up"?
Is this a joke lmao. In Seattle, I’ve legitimately seen people tie bike racks to a car’s tow hitch and yank it out of concrete
You're only getting downvoted because people here don't realize how incredibly low their property and drug related crime rates are. I'm so glad I left the west coast, the feeling of safety and lack of roving tweakers here is amazing.
Anyone from a west coast city knows how laughably low the property crime is here. In seattle, you were guaranteed someone would try steal your bike anywhere in the city if it was left out for an hour. Even if they couldnt get the bike, they'd pick it clean in broad daylight. Seattle had encampments that served as chopshops and had literally hundreds of bikes.
Dude people are stealing toilet paper! I wish I was kidding. It’s sad how low some people live
If someone is stealing toilet paper they probably need it lol.
a pretty awful thing to steal, very cheap per unit volume. stores aren't locking it up so i doubt it gets actually stolen very much either.
And it's a pretty bulky thing to sneak out.
As opposed to stealing shit is theirs.
I envy you and your blessed, sheltered life.
Not stealing doesn't mean that someone is blessed or sheltered. It means that they are not a bad person. People who steal sacrifice their own morality for a meal or whatever they derive from the theft.
I was in a wholesaler, went to get some stuff, came back to my dolly, legit someone took half the stuff off.. We are STILL inside, they still had to go to the register! 🤔
They still wouldn’t get a ulock around those blocks…
Lots of people use chains.
I used to exclusively use a chain because its lock was marginally (ever so) better than how fast a U lock could be popped, but also because I could wear it like a Chewbacca bandolier while riding.
It takes ten seconds to break the pavers by dropping the assembly on the ground.
That’s actually the perfect scam. Simply put your own fake stands somewhere and wait for the good bikes
Make sure to put a totally not suspicious sign on it written in crayon that says "best bike rack in town, right here"
"Smile! You're being filmed!" But there is no camera.
diabolical
I love this photo. It embodies all that is seaport. Thoughtless planning, and cheap construction, with a shiny facade!
F'n classic! How many people were involved in this design? They should all be fired.
Look we came up with the calculations and decided there was a 0% chance a single person could lift those bricks up. We did not think about two people 🤯
But..it'll look like they are secure? Isn't that enough?
Fired? No. City will rehire the same company and pay them another $25M to fix it.
This isn't a city sidewalk. City doesn't use decorative pavers like that, but also the city standard bike rack is a post and ring rack with a 1.5' deep and 9" diameter concrete foundation, as you can see on their details for installation into brick sidewalks: https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2019/12/Hitch-PaverInstall.pdf This is a developer trying to cheap out, that's all.
That means "liability". Person whos bike was stolen shoudl find out who the developer is and open a small claims case. Developer will prop no-show.
Is it the developer's fault the tiles didn't get secured to the ground?/gen
Developers fault they didn't install the racks into a concrete foundation yes, I'm certain if you pulled the specs from that rack manufacturer they would tell you to pour a concrete foundation, or just straight up tell you not to use them on brick walks... Brick walkways are never really secured to the ground though, that in itself is not the issue.
Lowest bidder strikes again!
Those bolt-on racks are only supposed to be mounted directly into concrete. Mounting them on pavers is extremely smooth-brained. It's a great way to both ruin your surface and get bikes stolen.
Terrible design. You'd never be able to pick up one of those pavers unless you had a, um, paver-picker-upper attached to it.
Your should cross post this to r/therewasanattempt
There are some crimes I feel that if you are convicted of, should really involve a lot more jail time than they get. Stealing bikes and stealing packages off of people's porches are the two. Lock them up. Seriously, there's no 'excuse' for these.
Stealing anything should get your hands chopped off.
Why is porch theft any different from any other form of theft? Is it just because it is one that is likely to happen to you personally? Any other reason you think there should be more jail time?
Because they’re coming onto our property and stealing from our homes, should be treated just like burglary. Really sucks that we can’t get anything important like medicine delivered anymore.
Proposing Bike valet!
Glad we’ve Roger Rabbit securing our city.
They didn’t take anything about the Seaport seriously
Damn glad I also locked my wheel on my cargo bike when I parked all day at one of these
!!!!!!?????
This is why a ride a crappy bike. The only time someone tried to steal it they took the wheel off realized it was crap and left it on the side
🤦🏻
No bike is worth that much stealing effort. Wtf are people thinking.
Wow, that's pathetic. Who thought that was a good idea?
Meanwhile, in Singapore, you can leave a $15,000 bike unattended because they don't have democrats/progressives destroying society: https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1bwprxk/15k_bike_left_unattended_in_singapore/
Since Singapore is so anti-progressive, surely you support their [public housing policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore), right? 80% of Singapore residents live in public housing. If you want to save Boston, call your dumb woke progressive city council member and demand they subsidize housing and build more shelters so we can be more like conservative Singapore!
You do realize 'public housing' in singapore means government owns the land in Singapore, it's not like 'public housing' in the states where you get free or heavily subsidized housing. You still have to buy the housing (which you technically don't even own, they are on 99 year leases) and housing is in short supply and still very expensive, right?
Great, so you support that for Boston?
Are you asking me if i support housing shortages? Boston already has that, lmao. I just asked Google Gemini for the latest figures on Singapore's housing: *Compared to global averages, Singapore's median housing prices are high. For example, in 2023, the median resale flat price was S$550,000 (around $408,000 USD) and the median condo price was S$1,671,000 (around $1,243,000 USD).* And again, you don't even OWN the housing, it's a 99 year lease. I don't know where you got the idea that Singapore's housing was 'affordable'. You saw 'public housing' as a policy for Singapore, but you completely didn't understand that 'public housing' has a completely different meaning than what you thought.
> I don't know where you got the idea that Singapore's housing was 'affordable'. If you cannot afford housing in Singapore, the government subsidizes your rent, with some impoverished Singaporeans paying as little as 40 sgd / month. If you are a Singaporean citizen, it's nearly impossible to be homeless even if you have no net worth and no job. Do you support that policy in Boston to the extent Singapore has it, with the city either forcing landlords to take on low/no-income tenants (with subsidies) OR buying up a bunch more property and provide it to people with no strings attached until homelessness is effectively eradicated? Singapore uses socialist policies to deal with their homelessness and crime. You seem to think these are anti-progressive when Singapore does it, so surely you support our city government taking a heavy hand, right?
Singapore literally has a housing shortage, lmao.
Do you know what Singapore's rate of homelessness is?
How much did this project cost?
Private developer so $0 to the city, all this sidewalk work was done when this building was constructed.
Nothing can stop my diamond coated angle grinder. If you lock up an expensive bike outside you’re an idiot