News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech Police have seen an increase in reported bicycle thefts on campus over the last few weeks.
Tennessee Tech Chief of Police Tony Nelson said multiple students have reported approximately 16 stolen bikes across campus.
“Some of these bikes were left unlocked but some of them were locked with some of the cable lock,” Nelson said. “Problem is someone looking to steal those, they can just take a simple pair of wire cutters and cut right through those cheap cable locks.”
Nelson said a clear timeline does not exist because students did not see their bicycles for days at a time.
“We really don’t have a time frame as far as whether they are happening during the day, at night. It is probably more accurate to say that most of them are probably happening over the night hours when it is dark,” Nelson said. “We have a lot of people moving about here during the day. And that increases the chance of someone actually seeing someone take a bike and reporting it.”
Students can protect their property by writing down serial numbers and investing in U-locks, Nelson said. Keeping bikes indoors overnight can protect them as well.
“Any type of serial number or anything like that that we can get from the victim so that we can put that in the system,” Nelson said. “Problem is most people don’t know to write those serial numbers and stuff like that down. So it is kind of hard for us to do that. Some do, but most don’t. ”
Nelson said the station will compare pawn receipts to the bikes that have been reported missing.
Tennessee Tech police will continue to investigate the bike thefts, Nelson said. Anyone can report suspicious activity by calling the Tennessee Tech police office.
