Sunny skies, family vacations, swimming at the lake, playing at the park; these are some of the images commonly associated with summer. Bike theft, on the other hand, is not something that usually comes to mind when thinking of summer activities, but for Kimball Police Chief Todd Rohloff, it is an unfortunate reality of the season. Rohloff most recently dealt with incidences of bike theft last week. He first spotted suspicious activity between Elm Street and Spruce Avenue early Thursday, June 19. A car was pulled off to the side of the road with the headlights doused. Rohloff observed a person on a pedal bike approach the driver, then ride away. The driver was Marvin Andrew Schmidz, a 19-year-old Eden Valley native. After speaking with Schmidz, Rohloff discovered – among other items – one bicycle in the back seat and another in the trunk of the car. “(Schmidz) initially said he was transporting the bikes for friends,” said Rohloff. As it turned out, the two bikes had previously been stolen from Buffalo. Later in the morning, Rohloff caught up with two boys, also from Eden Valley, who had assisted in the thefts and confessed to abandoning two stolen bikes in the tall grass on the west side of the Church of Christ. Schmidz and the two adolescents were charged with third-degree theft. The bikes in the grass were originally from homes on Elm and Main streets, that had previously been burglarized. Together the bikes were worth about $1,000. Rohloff said name brand bikes are the main target in most bike thefts, and for a very simple reason. “You get more money for brand name bikes,” he said. With the increasing popularity of bicycling as a sport and a means of transportation, its no surprise that bike theft is on the rise. According to FBI statistics, an estimated 1.5 million bicycles are stolen every year. Rohloff said one way for Kimball residents to protect their bikes and other personal property is to eliminate the temptation factor. “Make sure to put any loose items in the garage or house,” he said. “As long as your valuables are out in the open, the potential for theft is there.” Bike owners specifically have an additional way to protect themselves: bike registration. Bike owners who have joined the National Bike Registry (NBR) vastly increase their chances of being reunited with a stolen bicycle. More than 48 percent of stolen bicycles are recovered every year by law enforcement, but only 5 percent are returned since there is no way to determine ownership. A bicycle labeled and registered in the NBR database can be easily identified by police and returned. Parents can help Rohloff recently encountered two 13-year-olds, one from Kimball and the other from Watkins, bike riding at 4:15 a.m. They had stolen a 100-foot extension cord from a fireworks display tent on Maus Drive. They were charged with misdemeanor theft. According to Rohloff, part of the reason this type of incident occurs is due to lack of parental supervision. “Parents need to know where their kids are,” he said. But if the parents aren’t going to keep an eye on their kids, Rohloff and the Kimball Police Department will. “We have a car on duty every night,” he said. “If we see kids roaming the streets at night, or if we observe any suspicious activity, we won’t hesitate to act.”
