I live in San Francisco, a city of crime and squalor. My last scooter was stolen a few days ago, but I have already bought another. Will it meet the same fate?
This time, I purchased this insane $100+ lock which comes with a yearlong antitheft guarantee. I also don't plan on bringing it to Chinatown (which is where my last scooter was stolen).
I intend on using the scooter a 4+ days / week to go to cafes, restaurants, etc. I won't leave the scooter outside overnight, but I will lock it to bike racks during the day if I'm going somewhere. I'm pretty diligent in general about locking up.
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Ouch.
Adding another data point, a thief snapped off my scooter's throttle / controller this past Monday. It was locked in front of the security guard room at Salesforce tower. That controller comes with a fingerprint sensor and no factory reset, so I can't figure out why they'd want it...
I'm using a lpl-recommended kryptonite chain lock. Apparently chains are harder to cut than U-locks, by virtue of being free to bounce around.
I put an airtag on the scooter to track it, and I made the perhaps foolish decision to go find it last night after I discovered it had been stolen. After renting a Lime scooter (a vastly inferior experience), I went to the corner of Sacramento & Buchanan, where the scooter was located, to see if I could see anything. I saw two shifty characters standing there by themselves but no scooter or truck or anything. I went home emptyhanded.
This morning I checked and it looks like the airtag was destroyed, or has at least not been updating for several hours. The last seen location was 1075 Post St...
@SG I’m telling you, we need to fill the inside of the padlock with somer that reacts with air, or maybe skunk juice.
@JohnSmithb9be Yeah, I probably can't get away with creating a mana bounty on the head of the thief, so next best thing...
@Sinclair I've thought these are appealing: https://www.skunklock.com/shop/skunklock
@SG I've been away for most of the last month so it really lasted only like a month...
@Stralor I did lol. I've been back in SF for a few days now. The scooter was stolen while locked up outside for a couple hours.
This guy gets his bike (protected by a D-lock) stolen in SF in under 24 hours. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz6Ade9PDzg&pp=ygUYYmlrZSB0aGVmdCBzYW4gZnJhbmNpc2Nv
Chinatown looks pretty bad actually
source (property crime): https://crimegrade.org/property-crime-san-francisco-ca/
From listening to police officers, the best strategy is deterrence. Is the scooter you just bought used or new, and if it is used does it look like something that is worth stealing (if it looks old the thief won't be able to fence it for a good price)?
I am at 60-75%, it's possible to cut through the lock with an angle grinder in 1 minute. I think thieves in the bay are probably relaxed using these tools (so will use them even to steal a low value item). It's pretty normal to see cut locks in the bay. I'm also considering the fact the previous scooter got stolen in under 2 months.
