we're chatting today with a familiar face here at Prime Time local news Constable Kelsey davage is joining me to talk about the recent increase in bike thefts in Lloydminster Kelsey thanks for joining me today of course thank you for having me let's talk about the issue everybody seems to be seeing a lot of posts or a lot more posts on social media about bikes being stolen so what are you guys seeing as as far as the stats go for bike thefts in Lloydminster so we have seen an increase over the summer I would say that more people are also utilizing their bikes and other means of transportation other than a vehicle during the nice summer months um we always want to let people know to lock up their bikes and really anything valuable whether that be from their vehicle or uh left within their vehicle we have seen an increase in people leaving their wallets or uh belongings in a vehicle and then not unfortunately maybe forgetting to lock the car or leaving it open as just out of habit and then that being taken overnight or during the day and uh used within frauds or having their ID their SIN number or financial cards taken as a result of that so as part of the problem uh with the bike thefts in particular Kelsey what are some of the things that people can do uh just to make sure that they're keeping those bikes safe because you know we had a discussion and a lot of these bikes can be worth lots of money so you know think of it as as your property that you don't want to have somebody else take and and keeping that in mind what can you do to help prevent theft yeah 100% a lot of bites can get upwards of a couple thousand doar or if you have those electronic ebites those are worth a couple thousand we always want people to lock up their bikes so use a nice lock uh that can help deter someone from stealing it or taking it uh I always say park it out of sight so whether you can put it within a garage or lock it up somewhere hidden within your home um out of sight may help uh deter that from being taken we always want people to record their serial number or VIN number off their bicycle this is what Police use to identify a bicycle once it's been stolen I would always recommend too taking a photo of your bike um that's one thing that we always ask as police officers if we're able to identify it if it has any specific or unique marking stickers or colorings um ensure you have good lighting around your property uh this will help deter uh people as well and we always want people to register their bike at the bike index. org this is a free site that uh police use and have a thousand Partnerships within law enforcements bike shops cities and organizations that help recover and get your bike back to you if it's stolen and with that bike index Kelsey is it something where it's just as simple as posting the bike serial number or how does it work yeah it's very simple if you visit bike index. org I would say it takes five to 10 minutes to register your bike there and it's another tool that we can use to help recover your bike and get it back to you as soon as soon as we can now in some cases some of these bikes may be stolen and tried to you know maybe be sold elsewhere so what happens if you do see what you suspect is your bike in an online Marketplace uh please contact the police uh we have done U Marketplace buys or able to identify suspects that way by linking it through social media so if you do see your bike online please give us a call and hopefully we'll be able to contact or connect that to your theft of bike but again we can only confirm it to be your bike with that serial or VIN number that is so important to register or to have knowledge of when uh when reporting to police and another issue that people have been posting about is that they see somebody with a bike that they suspect is their friends or their neighbors and obviously we don't want to be starting confrontation so if you think you see somebody that has a bike that's not theirs what is the best course of action Kelsey again please don't approach people yourself we want to keep the public uh safe please call your what if it's an emergency please call 911 if it's a non-emergency please use our non-emergency number to contact police and we'll have a member attend there as soon as we can and hopefully be able to recover that bike all right Kelsey well thank you so much for joining me I appreciate it and once again if you could just give us that email address for the bike index just to remind people how they can just take another step in preventing a bike theft yeah it's bike index. org 5 to 10 minutes simple way to register your bike and ensure it gets back to you if stolen all right well thank you so much for joining me today