The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-08-20
THE ART BICYCLE
STEALING.
How It Is Practiced in Great Britain

How It Is Practiced in Great Britain
BY Luke Sharp
livery new craze brings in its train
number Of hitherto unknown trades and
professions, to which a number Of en-.
terprising persons are Indebted for
more or less lavish livelihood. The BIZ
cycle boom has done much to stimulate
tie industry Of bicycle theft. A bicy-
Gle leads itself to stealing in a way
mat no other object on earth does;.
that is, no other inanimate object, I'M
less it be railway engine with steam
up, and even locomotive, although it
is 4 good runner, is restricted to the
railway, which is almost invariably
bordered by telegraph line, there
tore no man has yet risen to eminence
as an engine thief. Then a locomotive
is not a very salable article, even
though a man gets safely away with
it. Few of us need a locomotive in our
daily life, and when we do, we are
content to buy railway ticket and
enjoy our engine with some one else
driving it. A horse may be stolen, and
the aniaml will do it's best to aid the
thief in getting away, but although you
paint horse green OF blue, it is hard
to disguise the animal so that the
owner won't know it, and thus diff
cultieS arise, to the discontinue of the
horsethief, leading to prison in some
countries and to hempen rope in
others.
But a bicycle is different thing. 1t
is speedier than the average horse, and
almost as speedy as a locomotive,
while it is more salable, at the present
moment, than either. An energetic
man, with a paint brush, a soldering
iron, and a file, can in ten minutes so
disguise a bike that it's next of kin
would not recognize it, and it does not
possess the faculty of the horse for
knowing it's real master. A bicycle
has never been known to neigh at the
wrong moment and thus betray hid
den thief, who trusted to it's good
sense. So, all in all, a bike is a simply
ideal subject for successful theft
Many Of us who have hitherto led
reasonably honest lives will, 1 fear be
led astray if this bicycle boom con-
tinues.
The machine itself actually seems to
be an accessory both before and. after
the act. The riding Of it along a dusty
road makes a man thirstier than any
other occupation he can undertake.
He therefore adjourns frequently to
the wayside inn, there to partake of
cooling drinks; ginger beer and such.
There is usually no one in sight, and
he leaves the machine resting against
the outside Of the pub. When he
comes out, wiping his mouth, the ma
chine is gone. There is not the slight
est use in asking the wayfarer if he
has seen man passing that way on a
cycle, for the wayfarer has; dozens of
him. Now, with a horse, one can give
stolen, but to the ordinary man on a
country road all cycles are alike, and
once thief gets away with machine
it is an impossible task to attempt to
recover it.
There are in London at least three,
possibly many more, receiving depots
for stolen cycles. They bear the guise
of repairing shops and salesrooms.
They have most of the paraphernalia
for enameling and plating, and once a
cycle spends few hours in the shop
its own maker would not recognize it.
The first thing done is to interchange
the parts of the cycles as much as pos
sible. From a dozen stolen cycles a
dozen others are made, one machine
being made up of various parts of vari-
GUS other machines. The handle bar
Of pneumatic-tired machine changes
places with the handle bar of a cush-
ion-tired cycle, and so on. Then no de-
scription a man can give to the police
regarding his machine fits any particu-
lar cycle. The numbers are obliterated
by soldering and plating, and new
numbers are put on. If a machine is
not interchangeable with any other
machine it is painted up and sent
over to France or Germany to be sold
at the continental agencies. The
others that have been made. unrecog-
nizable under any circumstances are
easily sold at the London depots or by
way of an advertisement in the papers,
The daily papers are full Of advertise