Bike Thief Thwarted—& Recorded

by Paul Bass | Jul 4, 2011 1:09 pm

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Steven Ongley returned a favor when he raced outside his office and sent a would-be bike thief running mid-caper. The foiled—and video-recorded—incident took place last Thursday. Jake Siegel, a 25-year-old policy fellow for the research and advocacy group Connecticut Voices for Children, was inside the organization’s Whitney Avenue offices. He had ridden his Next mountain bike to work and locked it on Audubon Street near the corner of Whitney. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Siegel, a man wandered up to bike and took cutters to the lock’s KryptoFlex 818 Cable. He made quick work of it. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the thief, Aimee Kanzler, a manager in a Yale IT office, noticed him as she looked out the fourth-floor window of her 55 Whitney Ave. office. “That guy down there seems to be stealing a bike,” she said to her coworkers. Steven Ongley and Bryan Kazdan took a look. It did seem to look that way. Kanzler called police. Kazdan pulled out his cellphone camera. And Ongley bolted down the stairs. He caught up with the man by the bike. The cable was now cut. The cutters were in his pocket. “Hey,” Ongley asked him. “Everything OK?” “Everything’s good,” the man replied. “Everything’s fine.” “From up there,” Ongley continued, “it looked like somebody was trying to cut a lock.” At that point the man ran down Audubon, down Whitney toward Church. (Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch Kazdan’s video.) Little did the man know the area was swarming with cops investigating a bank robbery. (Read about that here.) The cops were too busy, though, to respond to the bike call. Kanzler, Ongley and Kazdan waited 45 minutes without hearing back from the New Haven police. They then called the Yale police, who took a report. Meanwhile, Ongley went inside the Koffee? coffeeshop by the bike rack where the caper took place. He thought the rider might be inside. No luck. But a barista took the bike inside and left a note outside on the rack informing the Next mountain bike’s owner that his wheels were inside. Siegel found the note later in the day and reclaimed the bike. “I’m eternally grateful to all the folks at Yale IT, especially Steve [Ongley] for running down the stairs and confronting the guy,” Siegel said. Ongley knows the feeling. Two years ago he was in Siegel’s shoes. He’d ridden his bike to the Yale public health school and locked it there. While he was inside, two kids stole the bike. Fortunately, some students chased the kids off. Double fortunately, some cops happened to be in the area. They caught the kids. (In 2008 Elm City Cycling honored Steve and Laurie Ongley as “bike commuters of the month” for their 19-mile ride to work from North Madison.) “It feels really nice” to have saved Siegel’s bike, said Ongley, a 59-year-old systems programmer. “Stealing a bike is doubly mean thing to do.” Mean, because it’s mean to steal from people, he said. And doubly mean, he said, because bike owners tend to be kids, travelers without enough money for other forms of transportation, or people who care about making a better world.

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posted by: typical New Haven on July 4, 2011 1:57pm Two typical problems in New Haven… 1. A ... guy stealing an expensive bike. 2. The New Haven Police is “too busy” responding to another incident to help.

Because of #2, the number of incidents like #1 will continue to plague the upstanding, tax-paying citizens of New Haven (no wonder many people move to the surrounding suburbs when they can afford to). Great job, Steven Ongley, for confronting the perp who was stealing the bike. Let’s hope the NHPD will use the recording to identify the perp and send him to jail where he clearly belongs.

posted by: anon on July 4, 2011 2:10pm Bike theft is theft of transportation, in many cases, and therefore theft of one’s only means of sustenance. It therefore should be treated at the same level as auto theft. It is treated as a “petty” crime only because our policymakers are all well-paid suburbanites who drive everywhere, and can not fathom this.

posted by: William Kurtz on July 4, 2011 3:29pm Nice job, Steve, Aimee and Bryan! To respond to ‘typical New Haven,’ it shouldn’t be surprising that the police would deal with a bank robbery rather than chase down a would-be thief who, after all, didn’t actually have the stolen bike. I have to put in a word for the NHPD—last spring, when I saw a kid riding on a bike that had been stolen from my friend a few weeks before, I flagged down a couple of cops and they responded instantly. I know of a couple of other incidents, one just the other day, where they have helped friends recover stolen bikes so in general, they do seem to take bike theft seriously. Anon also has a good point. Bike theft is treated like simple larceny, with the severity of the crime being proportionate only to the monetary value of the stolen item. Unfortunately, a stolen bike may have a very disproportionate value to its owner.

posted by: A.Streeter on July 4, 2011 4:52pm It doesn’tappear to be a very big pair of cutters he has ( the thief)How big was your cable lock ? Usually it’s pretty tough to cut a lock , especially kryptonite U-Locks.

We have a drug addict walking around downtown with a bolt cutters , it looked like a gun huh ?

That looks like the same druggie that stole my bike as i dozed. He resides in the shelter i believe,he can be seen walking up Grand towards downtown between 7 am & 8 am every moring, and returns at 4pm.. maybe wrong but,also a connection to the Newhallville area.Are residents need to NOT BUY any bikes from suspicious characters like this druggie.

posted by: Habitue on July 4, 2011 5:47pm Steven & Aimee: Great job. Overcoming apathy is key to better quality of life especially, it seems, in cities. As a long time resident of New Haven, I’m very proud of the both of you.

posted by: Ben Berkowitz on July 4, 2011 6:24pm Would like to put in a word regarding NHPD as well. Last summer I stopped two kids who had just cut a lock on a bike. I pursued them with the police on the phone after I had spoken with them and they left the bike. After the first call to the police I called back to see where the officer was. I have a recorded conversation of one operator laughing at the other operator and saying “no” when asked if she sent officers for my previous call. I followed two individuals waiting for police officers who NHPD had said were coming to assist while one of the children threatened me with a large rock. Once the officers were notified no NHPD ever came. My good word is for the Yale Police Department who saw the incident on their bicycles and pursued the kids. I have some choice other words for the NHPD and the typical “we have bigger problems that we’re not very good at solving either” response..

posted by: troll on July 4, 2011 10:42pm Eternally Grateful?

posted by: John Lennon's Ghost on July 5, 2011 12:19am Imagine,

If every New Haven resident stop taking sh#t from every bike thief, petty robber, loud mouth, and drug dealing scum. We need to band together to stop all forms of violence in New Haven. We (the good citizens of the Elm City) vastly outnumber these small numbers of ... Chase them, make a citizens arrest like a mob group, take their photos, take a video, call the police and YES snitch on these ... The unfortunate truth is, the New Haven PD can not solve, or be present to stop all crime. Citizens have to STAND UP! GREAT JOB stopping the theft of your bike

posted by: cyclopathic on July 5, 2011 5:02am I hate to generalize, but this has been the police reaction everywhere I have lived (IL, NY, WI, CT) to bicycle theft. I understand that the police are busy. I understand that in purely economic terms bicycles seldom approach cars in terms of economic value. But for those who choose to ride (or who must ride), bicycles are every bit as essential as automobiles. Had this been an auto theft, would the police have reacted as they did?

posted by: robn on July 5, 2011 8:19am ANON, agreed…if bicycle theft were made a felony it would abate.

posted by: MRM on July 5, 2011 9:27am I guess the guy didn’t know that he could go get a free bike down the street at the free shop.

posted by: Mark Oppenheimer On an unrelated note: I was playing at the Edgewood Park tennis courts on Thursday night, June 30, around 9:50pm when my friend and I saw a guy on the lawn (near where the farmers’ market is) clearly tripping on something, taking his clothes off, throwing himself violently on the ground. I called 911, the police showed up quickly, and the officers were VERY patient with this man while he refused to comply by sitting down on the ground. At any second he could have charged the officers—and he seemed crazy enough too—and one officer just kept talking to him, saying he would taze him if he didn’t sit down, but didn’t taze him, and finally talked him down. I was very impressed with the cops’ patience. That said, what a bummer about the no-response on the bicycle theft. Glad you still have your bike, Jake.

posted by: jt75 on July 5, 2011 10:12am Can all bikers just go out and get a U-Lock already? Virtually every bike theft I hear of involves a cable lock being cut. Even Kryptonite acknowledges the cable locks are inferior - cable locks have a security rating of 2 on their website while even the cheapest U-Lock is given a 7.

posted by: robn on July 5, 2011 11:28am classic theft method to watch out for…

guy locks up cheap bike near expensive bikes,

goes away and returns later with duffel bag containing cable cutter,

when coast is clear he snips cable and departs with expensive bike,

if questioned while he’s casing the bikes he claims he’s just unlocking his own bike (which he does and departs)

posted by: streever Steve, you rock my man!

posted by: ray vera on July 5, 2011 2:27pm we solve problems by confronting them, not pretending they aren’t there. but if it makes you feel less guilty somehow, my golly, ... out all the words you want.

posted by: streever Here is a great story on how one bike theft was handled in Japan—where no one bothers to lock their bike: http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/bike-theft-case-shows-japans-true-colors

posted by: dave bonan on July 5, 2011 3:02pm i think steve should have said it was his bike and grabbed it from him.

posted by: please on July 5, 2011 3:33pm Boonan, too bad you weren’t there to do everything right! I agree, Ongley sure did bungle this one.

posted by: DAVE BONAN on July 5, 2011 3:41pm ... i’m not superman. they did everything right. just another option, but of course a thief was probably packing a knife. one never knows.

posted by: paulschmittdt on July 5, 2011 6:57pm He was going back to get another bike, and caddy it with him to wherever it is they sell them at -

posted by: Ahhh New Haven on July 6, 2011 8:46am You’ve gotta love New Haven. The only place where the comments to a 100% positive news story can descend into a catty exchange. Well done everyone, and three cheers for Steve!

posted by: JAK on July 6, 2011 4:48pm Hold on folks! On this video all I saw was some big white dude approaching a smaller black dude and then…he obviously scared the hell out of him! Why do people on this site jump to conclusions so quickly without seeing evidence? What exactly did the big dude say? Do we have audio? Has Casey Anthony taught us nothing? Helloooo… Maybe the question we need to ask ourselves is who really is the culprit, the little dude or the big dude? Just askin…

posted by: Truth Avenger on July 8, 2011 3:31pm Sadly, Bicycle chop shops are in operation around the city. Small groups of kids can often be seen riding up and down city blocks, particularly in Westville, looking for opportunities to snatch and ride. Typically, an extra person rides shot-gun, hops off and makes off with the stolen bike. I have seen this M.O. in action and have personally given chase to the little predators. Lately, someone with a bolt cutter has been accessing driveways and cutting locks off of sheds and garages. If ever I have an opportunity to apprehend these rascals during the commission of a theft on or near my property, they are going to wish they had stayed home that day. The perp in that video should count his blessings that I did not witness his despicable actions.