Toronto Bike Theft King Closed Down. Finally.

In NY I see bikes every day that are worth more than some cars. You can blow $2000 on a bike easy. $1000 is a felony. Grand Theft Bike?

Bike thieves are the worst. It's sad, but it seems like every city has it's own "open secret" bicycle chop shop, but there never seems to be anything done about them.

What ever the reason, I'm glad Igor got the boot...but won't he just open up in another shady part of town?

For many years Igor added to the street charm, but since loft conversions and high end paper stores moved in, his days were numbered. He probably one of the most well known people in a of Toronto cycling, hes been busted before, I believe closed down too. Someone told me that the Bovine Sex Club was once his shop.

I have an old Cannondale from him, best $50 ever spent.

The shop has not yet been closed down, to my knowledge. Kenk has just been charged right now, not convicted. Kenk owns the building where that shop is. So if and when he gets out, he'll be back.

If Igor is a documented bike thief, then cyclists in TO are cowards. If I knew for sure some guy was a bike thief, he would soon be dead or severely disfigured.

I don't think death or disfigurement is really the answer...but why do people shop there still? If people like scomo don't give him business, the bastard will more likely stop stealing.

I really hope that Igor gets shot down - or really has been shut down. The guy is nothing but a crook and has, for a long time, fueled the bike theft rings in Toronto. Many people recognize the pickup truck stacked with stolen and abandoned bikes... heading to Igors in trade for a few bucks. Anyone who has bought a bike there knowing of this is just as bad. So to the previous commenter - you should be ashamed knowing that the bike you are riding may very well not belong to you.

I have always told friends that have had bikes stolen in the night to check there first.

Um, I don't think bike theft is a crime that deserves death or disfigurement as a punishment, Brennan. As much as I love my bike, and as sad as I would be if someone stole it, that's a bit heavy handed.

Canadian Tire and similar box stores contribute to these thefts, all the locks sold in their stores are grossly inadequate to secure a bicycle for even 5 seconds, and they know it.

Also why aren't the stores selling bikes make registration part of the bike sale process, then provide the police with the list weekly or monthly.

Police recover stolen bikes by the hundreds
ANTHONY REINHART

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

E-mail Anthony Reinhart | Read Bio | Latest Columns
July 22, 2008 at 3:56 AM EDT

Igor Kenk's rented house sticks out like a bad tooth in a brilliant smile on Berryman Street in Yorkville, where a renovated townhouse goes for $1.2-million.

A sticky-note advertisement for 1-800-GOT-JUNK fades beside the front door, and if it's meant to be a question, the answer is yes, even after the police came by on Sunday to remove 100 bicycles from the garage out back. An array of castoff items, from milk crates and tennis balls to a copy of Modern Competitive Analysis, Third Edition, still littered Mr. Kenk's driveway yesterday, where his Toyota pickup, bearing the vanity plate EXTATIC, sat silent, its cargo box full of similar detritus.

As for the bikes, they sat in a police warehouse among another 1,500 and counting that officers have seized from five Toronto addresses linked to Mr. Kenk, owner of a ramshackle repair shop on Queen Street West where stolen bicycles were allegedly sold, sometimes back to their original owners, police say.

Mr. Kenk, 49, who faces charges of theft and possession of stolen property, along with possession of drugs including marijuana, crack cocaine and powdered cocaine, is in jail pending a bail hearing this Friday. Jean Laveau, 47, whom Mr. Kenk allegedly instructed to steal a bicycle while police looked on last Wednesday, was arrested with him and faces similar counts.

Bicycle shop owner arrested on theft charges
Initially, police removed hundreds of bikes from Mr. Kenk's shop, but hundreds more were found in weekend searches of his Yorkville home, where police said the drugs were found, and at garages he had rented on College Street, east of Dufferin Street, and on Dovercourt Road, north of Dupont Street. As news of the alleged theft operation circulated, police received a tip and cleared out a fifth storage facility yesterday.

As aggrieved theft victims filed into the Hanna Avenue police garage to peer hopefully into the massive jumble of frames and handlebars just after 2 p.m. yesterday, a cube van full of bikes arrived, fresh from the latest search.

"You haven't seen around the corner yet," Superintendent Ruth White of 14 division said as she waded deeper into the warehouse, "and there's more coming."

Supt. White said she hasn't seen anything like it in 30 years of policing. "We had a woman identify her bike that was stolen eight years ago," she said, adding that about 70 owners had so far been reunited with their wheels - or at least their frames.

Grant Downey, a 39-year-old real estate agent, was among the lucky. After a fruitless visit to the warehouse on Saturday, he returned yesterday after more bikes had arrived, and there, in plain view, was his baby: a sparkling, lime-green Scapin, an Italian beauty worth $3,000, though it was missing its wheels.

"It's the green one there," Mr. Downey said as he pointed and jumped with excitement. "I'd know it anywhere. It's very rare."

After a battery of questions from police, Mr. Downey was handed his bike back. "It was three years ago," he said of its theft from a secure lockup at his east-end condo, "but I never gave up hope."

Mr. Downey said he went to Mr. Kenk's shop to look for his bike shortly after it went missing, a common practice among theft victims, since it operated as a pawn shop. (Detective Izzy Bernardo, a lead investigator in the case, said that before his arrest, the shop owner had, as required, kept weekly logs of bicycles that he took in to sell, and that he had occasionally turned in bikes that had been found to be stolen.)

But, because Mr. Downey had not registered his bicycle with the police or recorded its serial number, he could not have definitively claimed it when he visited Mr. Kenk. As it was, the shop owner, citing the extreme clutter inside his shop, "wouldn't let me in," Mr. Downey said.

Curtis Monti, 35, reported a similar experience yesterday, recalling the Oct. 26, 2005, theft of his $3,000 Kona Explosif, in broad daylight and captured on a surveillance camera, at Bloor and St. George streets.

"People said, 'If it's anywhere, it's at Igor's,' " Mr. Monti said, so he paid Mr. Kenk a visit. "I sort of baited him to lead him to believe I was looking [to buy] a bike," rather than the victim of a recent theft, he said.

Mr. Kenk allowed him into the cramped chaos of his shop, and "it looked like Silence of the Lambs for bicycles," but he did not see his Kona among them.

Mr. Monti had the same result at the police warehouse yesterday.

"I've already got it replaced," he said. "I just want to see an end to the story."

That's not likely any time soon, as police begin the laborious task of going through the massive cache of seized bicycles. Happy as they were to hand 70 of them back to their owners, it barely made a dent in the pile, most of which remained unsorted. Yesterday was the last day the warehouse, which is needed for repairs to cruisers and other police work, was to be open to the public, but Supt. White said police are scrounging for 1,400 square metres [15,000 square feet] of space, on a donated site if necessary, to catalogue and display them for another two weeks.

"I just can't believe the constant flow of the public," she said, adding that people's reactions have been stronger than those typically seen after a house break-in. "Obviously, it's important to people."

Why was Anonymous's comment posted in full? Copyright issues due to a cut-and-paste job? What about a link to the article? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/GAM.20080722.BIKES22/TPStory/TPComment

Went into a Canadian Tire store the other day looking for a mirror. Got looking at the black cable locks. There were three on the rack. Looking a little closer, I noticed that 2 had the same key.
Called over a clerk and asked him to try the keys on each lock, Of course, they worked. I asked for the manager and suggested that these be taken off of the shelf. Last time I checked, they were still there.
It's like they don't even care. I would love to here a Canadian Tire rep on the CBC try to justify this. It doesn't matter if the bikes are cheap, it's how we fell about them.

Let him go. We need a thriving bike culture in Toronto. Bike theft is a part of that, look at Amsterdam. Take this guy down and then we're going to have a splinter-cell of small time thiefs everywhere that will be unstoppable. I agree with Kenk that people should license bikes. There should be a registration fee for each one and insurance available for them. Locks would have to be certified by insurance companies, and once that happens companies would start to provide decent locks because of new economic expectations.

On a Foucaultian note, we have to stop with this whole crime and punishment system, and start integrating this behaviour into the system. This is reality, lets not feed peoples thirst for blood by punishing this guy that honestly loves and is obsessed with bikes. What's bad about it? You want to protect your capitalist interests? Forget that action, there's cheap bikes everywhere buy one or fix one, don't contribute to the Pacific Garbage Gyre.

Honestly, I cut locks on bikes that are abandoned, is that stealing? If I see a bike, or part of a bike, locked to something and its there day after day and the tires are getting flat and the chain rusty, and its knocked over, or some or all of the above, I set it free. I will set an abandoned bike free and fix it up. I will set YOUR bike free!!

There is nothing like a cheap bicycle, people like me shop at Canadian Tire etc for lower priced bikes because we cannot afford anything pricer.

For someone like me losing my cheap bike of $250 is alot of money, I scraped together another $200 and got another "cheap" bike, alas both are now gone, and that is for me and bikes, I simply cannot afford another.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. By cheap bike, I meant a used bike, that is cheap. There's no reason to by a new bike! In downtown Toronto the price of used bikes are inflated so guys can charge like 50 or more dollars for a bike. But if you just take the rocket out of Downtown Toronto to Scarborough on a nice summers day you'll find people at garage sales begging you to take their bikes; you'll get a bike for five bucks.

I recently went back to Toronto to visit my family, and arrived at the central coach terminal (because flying is dirtier) and within five minutes I found an abandoned bike, unlocked, with no brakes, and I rode it home to Scarberia. I had my hacksaw blade too, just in case I had to set one free.

But anyway, I'm still advocating for Kenke. Sure, he's hoarding bikes and taking them out of the market, but people keep buying new bikes! Why are people buying new bikes? Bikes last forever, if you maintain them, and if not they usually just need a new part. I feel no sympathy for people who buy new bikes and have them stolen. You're plundering the Earth so you can underperform on a shiny new bike? Forget that action. As Lance Armstrong said, "It's not about the bike".

Buy used bikes. Fix neglected and abandoned bikes. If you need to race at an event, rent one!

That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Don't buy new bikes. You are probably one of the people working for Igor. What do you do for a living that you can sit around fixing up bikes all day long. Why should I have to ride some poor quality bike around this city with the worst roads EVER, with some poor quality brakes that wouldn't help me if someone opened their car door suddenly or a taxi decided to turn in front of me?

My bike was 8 years old and it was stolen. 2 weeks later, my mom's bike (which she let me borrow to ride) was stolen and it was over 10 years old, maybe 15. Do not justify what Kenke does because he has horribly inconvenienced me. I have to purchase a metropass for 100$ a month now because I can't ride a bike for fear it will be stolen. Meanwhile he sits in his comfortable home I'm sure with tons of unearned money. It makes me sick and I can't believe you would ever defend such a person.

Let me tell you, a bike isn't just a bike, it saves lots of people money each year and the environment. Supporting a person who takes away from that is idiotic, even if you feel justified by terming in un-capitalistic or whatever guise you have. To steal from people is never good. He's not Robin Hood.