Posted on September 15, 2015 at 9:51 pm by West Sider



The motorcycle above was stolen from West 87th street about three weeks ago.

Nine motorcycles have been swiped in the past month in a relatively small section of the Upper West Side, as a coordinated team of thieves appears to have been making off with several bikes.

Our tipster said that both her husband and brothers’ bikes have been stolen — one of them was actually swiped twice.

“My husband’s motorcycle was stolen 2 weeks ago on 87th street,” she wrote last week. “We reported it stolen and we have surveillance of the theft happening at around 3:45 a.m. Two nights ago, my brother’s motorcycle was stolen (94th street) at around 5:30 pm and recovered in Washington Heights. Last night, the same motorcycle was stolen on 93rd and west end ave and recovered once again in the Bronx (pictured below). My brother has a GPS tracking and was able to recover the bike. The police were able to catch the suspects in Washington heights but they ran off leaving their id’s and the van used in the theft.”

The two images below are from surveillance cameras that captured one of the thefts, according to our tipster. The van that they loaded the bikes into is in the upper right corner.

Captain Marlon Larin of the 24th precinct tells us that motorcycle thefts have become an increasing problem in the precinct (which stretches from West 86th to 110th street), although grand larcenies of automobiles overall are flat on a year-over-year-basis.

Larin confirmed that one motorcycle had been stolen twice, and said that they have identified the suspects and are continuing to investigate. Seven of the thefts have occurred in the area bounded by the following streets:

East Side: Columbus Avenue

West Side: Riverside Drive

North Side: W95St

South Side: W91St

The NYPD made arrests in July in connection with some earlier motorcycle thefts, Larin said, but are trying to nab the remaining suspects. Officers are looking for any tips or leads from people in the neighborhood.

In case you missed it: there have also been some thefts of catalytic converters in the area.