- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 05:41 06:56 12:36 15:44 18:10 19:25
A bicycle is fixed to the railing of a bridge in Amsterdam. Police in a city in the bicycle-crazy Netherlands, fed up with high levels of theft, said they are leaving out two-wheelers secretly equipped with trackers to catch thieves. (AFP)
Police in a city in the bicycle-crazy Netherlands, fed up with high levels of theft, said they are leaving out two-wheelers secretly equipped with trackers to catch thieves.
"Bicycle theft is a type of criminality that often goes unpunished," police spokeswoman Cornelie Hogeveen told AFP of the project in the central Dutch city of Amersfoort, which had a population of 144,858 and 900 bicycle thefts in 2010 - 10 percent of the city's total reported crimes.
In a six-month pilot project that started December 10, so-called "bait bikes" are being placed in different spots around town, "sometimes locked and sometimes not," said a police statement.
The lures "look just like normal bikes," according to Hogeveen.
Whenever a bike is removed, the police pick up its Global Positioning System (GPS) signal and start a trace.
"Sometimes the thief is already gone, sometimes we find other stolen bikes," the spokeswoman said.
"It is a form of criminality that affects many in the Netherlands," she added. "Not only do they risk having their bikes stolen, but also buying a stolen bike."
The Netherlands, which counts an estimated 18 million bicycles for 16.5 million inhabitants, registered a total 515,000 bicycle thefts in 2009, according to AVC, an organisation that tracks vehicle theft statistics.
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