Bicycle Bonanza

Mary Oster’s office is usually filled with wallets, purses, backpacks, jackets, umbrellas, toys and baby shoes. But recently Oster noticed her collection of bicycles growing.

The lost-and-found administrator for the Orange County Transportation Authority used to be able to fit bicycles in her Santa Ana office, but not anymore.

“I got a couple at a time,” Oster said. “Then one day, I was keeping them in the office with me, and I noticed 10 bikes. Soon, I couldn’t walk into my office anymore.”

Unclaimed bikes--many of them believed to have been stolen--plague OCTA and several Orange County police departments. They’re clumsy to handle, they’re almost never properly licensed and they hang around for ages.

Oster has designated two rooms to store bicycles. She had 59 on this particular day. In 1999, the OCTA counted about 500 unclaimed bikes in its lost-and-found center.

“The number of bikes left on our buses or at bus stops is alarmingly high,” said Tom Franklin, manager of fixed route operations for OCTA. “We want to make the public aware that OCTA’s lost-and-found recovers numerous bicycles and after other places turn up empty they should check here.”

Bus riders are taking their bikes along and then forgetting or purposely leaving them there. Of the approximately 500 bikes collected by OCTA, 80% are unclaimed. Oster and other OCTA officials guess the number is so high because many of the bikes are stolen.

Police agree.

“A lot of times people steal cars just to get from Point A to Point B, said La Habra police Capt. John Rees, “and sometimes that is the motivation to get a bicycle.”

His department has its own share of unclaimed bicycles: 100 to 200 still there from last year. Santa Ana has 225, Fullerton 100. “It’s a huge problem,” said Fullerton police Sgt. Joe Klein.

Many cities require bicycles to be licensed, which would make it easier for police officers to find the owners. But few people obtain licenses, and police seldom bother to cite violators, Rees said.

A survey conducted by Fullerton police showed that 300 bikes were stolen in the city during 1998 and 1999. Only 7% of them were recovered, and fewer than 5% were licensed.

To claim an unlicensed bicycle, owners must give a detailed description of the bike. OCTA requires that owners tell which route they were taking.

Unclaimed bikes at police departments are auctioned or donated to a charity or nonprofit organization. For example, the La Habra Police Department gives its unclaimed bikes to the Boys’ & Girls’ Club of La Habra. After 90 days, OCTA donates its bicycles to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County.