By Christian Wells | Staff Writer
As electric scooters and bicycles crowd bike racks and line sidewalks across campus, so do opportunities for theft — a problem campus police say has remained steady but preventable.
BUPD Assistant Chief Zackary McVey said reports of stolen scooters and bikes have not increased significantly over the past year as more students invest in the popular mode of transportation.
“I would honestly say it’s probably stayed kind of steady across the board,” McVey said. “With the amount of e-scooters that people have, they’re becoming more and more available as prices come down. More people have them, which is making more of an opportunity, unfortunately, for them to be stolen.”
McVey said there are no specific hotspots where e-scooter thefts occur, but rather that they are simply left around campus. Scooters and bikes are typically taken when they are left unlocked or improperly secured, often late at night.
“It’s not necessarily places — it’s how people are managing their scooters wherever they are,” McVey said. “Scooter theft is almost always a crime of opportunity.”
He said many cases involve students who leave their scooters unattended outside a dorm or classroom, even briefly.
“Even if it’s, ‘Oh, I’m just running in to ask a professor a question quick,’ that right there is leaving it open to be stolen,” McVey said.
To prevent theft, McVey recommends students use solid metal U-locks rather than cable or chain locks. Chain locks can often be cut with bolt cutters, while U-locks require significantly heavier tools to break.
“The U-locks are the ones that we recommend,” McVey said. “They’re the hardest to defeat.”
He also emphasized that scooters and bikes should only be secured to designated bike racks. If a device is locked to a bench, light pole or other unauthorized structure, parking services may remove it.
Another key step in protecting property is registering scooters and bikes through Baylor Parking and Transportation. The process takes less than five minutes and requires students to provide identifying information, including the serial number and photos of the device.
“If you don’t register it with us, most people don’t just know the serial number of their scooter,” McVey said. “Registering it gives us the best chance to be able to get something back to its owner.”
When a scooter is reported stolen, officers enter its information into state and national databases. If another agency, such as the Waco Police Department, recovers the device and runs the serial number, it will appear as stolen and can be returned to the owner.
Without that information, recovery becomes significantly more difficult. McVey encourages students to make their scooters uniquely identifiable, such as by placing a small paint mark underneath the footplate, to help officers distinguish between similar models.
If a scooter or bike is taken from campus property, students should contact BUPD to file a report. If the theft occurs off campus, the appropriate local law enforcement agency will take the case, though students can begin by contacting BUPD for guidance.
Fort Worth junior Tyler Cox said she experienced a bike theft her freshman year after leaving it unlocked outside her residence hall overnight.
“My first reaction when I saw my bike was missing was disbelief,” Cox said. “It had been locked to the bike rack securely in the inner courtyard of South Russell. The thought of my bike being stolen from within my own dorm was unsettling.”
Cox said she filed a report but had not registered her bike with Baylor’s Parking Service.
“I reported the theft to BUPD when I got home from class later that same day,” Cox said. “They came to South Russell and asked me for details about the bike and told me they would keep an eye out. A day or so after that, they called to inform me that they had found the security camera footage of a man stealing the bike around 6 a.m. … They explained that it was not likely that my bike would be found.”
Cox said if she could do anything differently, she would have purchased a U-lock because she knows they are much stronger. She warns her peers to always make sure their bike is securely locked, even in areas they think are safe.
E-scooters and bikes are attractive targets because they are easy to use immediately and blend in on a college campus where many students own similar models.
“You can jump on it and ride it down the street like you own it, and nobody’s going to think twice,” McVey said. “They’re so prevalent now that it just makes it easy.”
He said students who take the time to properly lock and register their devices significantly increase the chances of protecting their property.
“If you’re doing those two things, you’ve got a great chance of protecting your property and not getting it stolen,” McVey said.
