JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – The recent discovery of dozens of bicycles in a Jacksonville Beach storage facility, including a stolen bike, has residents on edge about property crimes in the area.
Officers were acting on an anonymous tip about stolen bikes kept inside a storage unit at Public Self Storage on Shetter Avenue off Beach Boulevard when they made the discovery, according to police.
Despite harboring suspicions that all of the bicycles inside were likely stolen, investigators were only able to prove one bike was stolen because a police report had been filed in that case.
That bike belongs to Brian Long, who got it back since he had reported the bike stolen and provided police with a serial number when he filed his report. If he had not done that, Long might be out of luck.
“There’s one million Mango bikes on the beach – half of them are purple, so you can’t prove it,” Long told News4Jax, adding that Jacksonville Beach offers a service to keep your serial number on file.
On Friday, police told News4Jax that even though dozens of bikes were found inside the storage locker, most people don’t save their serial numbers or take the time to enter them into the police database.
That’s key, especially when it comes to tracking down a stolen bike. For those who don’t already know, the serial number can be found by flipping your bike over – it’s located between the pedals.
In Long’s case, he even had surveillance footage showing his bike being stolen. While police reviewed the video as evidence of the theft, the man who had Long’s bike insisted it was given to him.
“He recognized the first guy, but on camera we didn’t actually see that guy stealing anything,” Long said. “He claims that an anonymous person dropped it off in his yard to fix it up. That’s what he does.”
Another resident, Amanda Bruton, said she’s had multiple bikes stolen at different locations in Jacksonville Beach. As she told News4Jax, bike locks just don’t cut it.
“You can’t do anything about it,” Bruton said. “You can lock them up and your locks are going to get smashed, you can have them in your yard and they’re just going to get jacked right out of your yard.”
There was no arrest in this case because there wasn’t enough evidence to prove all of the bikes inside the storage unit were stolen. Things might be different if the bikes’ owners had their serial numbers.
As for the man who owns the storage locker, he told police he found the bikes in dumpsters and that he merely fixes up and sells them. Now, he gets to keep all of the bikes – all of them, except for Long’s.