Editor’s note: This article is available in Spanish here.
Aerospace engineering freshman Ethan Bergman woke up Jan. 17 to find his bike missing from the racks outside of the Fremont building. Bergman filed a report with the Cal Poly Police Department (CPPD) but still hasn’t heard back from them.
Over winter break, Bergman applied for a bike locker, only to be informed a week after his bike was stolen that he will be placed on the waitlist.
“I bought a cheaper bike but it’s just not the same. Like it breaks all the time. So sometimes I get up for class and it’s just like tires flat or something like that,” he said. “It’s not comfortable.”
Business freshman Aidan Bretthauer’s electric bike was stolen Jan. 12 from the bike rack along Grand Ave. Despite not having his bike pre-registered, Bretthauer submitted a stolen vehicle police report to CPPD and now is more inconvenienced in getting around campus, he said.
“It makes it harder to get around because most of my classes are in OCOB [Orfalea College of Business], so it’s pretty far from my dorm,” he said.
Students whose bikes or bike parts are stolen on campus may encounter greater challenges by no longer having accessible transportation, and the likelihood their bike is recovered is fairly low. According to CPPD, out of 127 reported stolen bikes on campus last year, only eight were recovered.
Senior Zack Volpe had his bike stolen in May of 2022 in the bike racks near OCOB.
“These bike racks are always filled every day. They’re filled and there’ve been so many instances where I’ve heard people getting their bikes stolen on those same racks,” he said.
In July 2022, CPPD contacted Volpe after recovering his bike, which had been found in the possession of someone else who was taken in on separate charges.
“I’m just a little more conscious of how I lock it up and how I leave it,” Volpe said. “I remember it’s an expensive piece of equipment. Don’t want to just throw it around, you know.”
In the fall quarter of 2023, 71 bicycle and bicycle part thefts were reported to the CPPD, according the assistant vice president for communications and media relations, Matt Lazier.
Students can register their valuable items, including bikes, through the personal property registration database. If stolen, CPPD can return these items to their original owners if found.
“Thanks to community members utilizing this system, the department has been able to return over 20 bikes to their owners over the past three years,” Lazier wrote. “Many more bikes were recovered by CPPD over this time, but only those registered have been able to be returned to their owners.”
Senior Nicholas Mayton had his bike stolen his freshman year outside of the Sequoia residence hall.
“I feel like the very first time when I was in the dorms I heard ‘Oh register your bike, register your bike,’ but it just didn’t get through to me and I was like, whatever. Lo and behold I should have registered it,” Mayton said.
Mayton believes all freshmen should register their bikes because they often need to keep them overnight on campus.
“I definitely think as a freshman, if I was getting a new bike again after getting that one stolen, I would have registered it,” Mayton said. “It seems like everyone has a story [about a bike being stolen], like you don’t have to go far to find someone.”
