By Ryan Morgan
Saturday, March 31, 2007

A tag warns that an abandoned bike will face impoundment.

For years, downtown Boulder businesses have been getting rid of bikes that have been abandoned on the Pearl Street Mall, where they slowly become eyesores over the weeks as the elements, thieves and vandals take their toll.

Many of those bikes have ended up going to needy people. Which is fine, police say — provided their owners get a chance to claim them first.

Boulder police Sgt. Kurt Matthews, who patrols the mall, said there's a special process for making sure owners have a chance to collect abandoned property. Before now, he said, a downtown business group was cutting off the locks and giving away bikes without taking those steps.

"They would just go ahead and take it away, and snap the lock off themselves as part of maintaining the mall," Matthews said. "We said, 'You guys can't do that; you have to turn them in to us.'"

Over the past two weeks, about a dozen bikes parked along the Pearl Street Mall have started sprouting tags warning their owners they'll be confiscated.

But those bikes aren't all wearing the same tags. Some tell the owners to call Downtown Boulder Inc. Others are from the Boulder Police Department and read "Inoperable Vehicle."

From now on, Matthews said, the police will be handling abandoned property.

Dave Adams, deputy director of Downtown Boulder Inc., said he's worked with the city's business-improvement district to remove abandoned bikes from the mall.

He said he thinks most of them were turned over to the police department.

It's been confusing, he said, because no one agency has taken responsibility for removing abandoned bikes.

A rusty, abandoned bike sits outside Aji restaurant in Boulder.

"We're trying to get everybody on the same page," Adams said.

Adams said this winter has produced a bumper crop of abandoned bikes, possibly because of the weeks of blizzards at the beginning of the year. Taking care of those bikes is a lot of work — especially bikes with good locks, one of which broke DBI's cutting tool last week, Adams said.

"I've never seen quite so many," he said.

The Boulder Police Department collects about 300 abandoned bikes a year, said Sgt. Rob Bustrum, who heads up the Property and Evidence division. Between 20 and 30 of those bikes get returned to their owners. Many of the bikes that get returned had been stolen and then locked up and abandoned by the thieves, he said.

To find the bicycles' owners, police check to see if they've been registered, but most aren't. Police also post pictures and descriptions on the department's Web site and buy ads in local newspapers.

And the bikes typically have been in the weather for a long time, he said, eventually becoming targets for thieves and vandals.

"Some of the calls we get, there's been a bike parked, locked at this pole, for months, and it's missing pieces every other day," Bustrum said. "Before it's just down to a frame and chain, we try to grab it."

An abandoned bike rests on the sidewalk at 10th and Pearl streets in Boulder.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Ryan Morgan at (303) 473-1333 or morganr@dailycamera.com.

COLLECTING ABANDONED BIKES

How they used to do it: Bicycles abandoned downtown and elsewhere in the city would go to the city's Go Boulder alternative-transportation program. Officials there would try to give them to low-income residents who couldn't afford their own.

Police say Downtown Boulder Inc. sometimes collected bikes and gave them to Go Boulder without first handing them over to police.

Now: Police say they'll make sure all abandoned bikes go to them first. Then the bikes will go to Community Cycles, a nonprofit group that will also try to give bikes to people who need them. Participants in an "Earn-a-Bike" program spend 15 hours helping to rehabilitate old two-wheelers and in return get to take a bicycle home. The group's Web site is www.communitycycles.org.

See an abandoned bike? Call the Boulder Police Department at (303) 441-3340. The bike will be tagged to warn the owner to get it moved. If the bike is on private property, the property owner needs to bring the bike to police if it's removed.

Sgt. Rob Bustrum, who oversees the abandoned-property program, said owners should post signs warning people who park their bicycles of time limits.

Registration: Bikes that have been registered are much more likely to find their way back to their owners if they're lost or stolen.

In the city of Boulder, visit www.boulder-police.com and click on "Crime Prevention and Safety," then click on "Bike Safety." Or call (303) 441-3300.

University of Colorado students can call (303) 735-2705 to learn how to register their bikes.