Video has surfaced that appears to show a young man methodically stealing a Divvy bike.
“I just heard all this rattling noise, like rattling and it just kept gettin' louder and louder," a neighbor who shot the video told NBC 5 Tuesday. The woman has asked not to be identified out of concerns for her safety.
She had spotted social media posts about several recent Divvy bike thefts in Chicago.
She says the first bike the young man on the video started shaking would not come out of its docking station, but that changed when he jumped on another bike.
“He couldn’t get that one his friend approached him he went to a bike a few feet down and he took the handle bar and he was like i can get this one,” she said.
Between July 2 and July 6, Chicago police say at least four people have been arrested for being in possession of a stolen Divvy bike.
One those arrests happened in the 800 block of North Michigan Avenue, where police say the man claimed he owned the stolen Divvy bike.
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Another two arrests happened on West Chicago Avenue, including a man police say had been caught riding a stolen Divvy.
“We have 570 stations, so they are super visible,” Divvy spokeswoman Kelly Goldthorpe told NBC 5.
The city bike share program owns 6,000 Divvy bicycles for rental in Chicago and Evanston and has grown in popularity over the years.
In a statement Divvy said “security of it’s bikes and stations is a top priority. In response to a recent series of thefts of bikes from stations, we’re also retrofitting all of our docks with stronger, more tamper-proof lock mechanisms.”
