Where are bikes most commonly stolen in Eugene? Check the map 

Sue Wolling has been cycling her whole life. But despite her experience, and double-locking her bicycle with a U-lock and a Kryptonite cable, her bicycle was stolen from a bike rack in front of the Goodwill store at the Delta Oaks shopping center.

Immediately, she took action. She reported the incident to a store manager, listed the stolen bike on the crowdsourced site Bike Index, and filed a police report.

Ultimately, though, she found the bike herself, and confronted the thief. She told the story through GEARS, a local Eugene bicycle club, in a column in the club newsletter.

Wolling went to extreme lengths to recover her bicycle, worth around $3,000. But as many riders can attest, the loss of a bike can be more than just monetary.

“It’s every bit at least as important to somebody who rides a bike as a car is to somebody who drives,” Wolling told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “It can be your transportation, it can be your recreation, it can be your sanity … it really is the focal point of our lives.”

Through the first six months of 2025, 231 stolen bikes have been reported to the Eugene Police Department. Bike thefts reported to Eugene police account for about 10% of the state’s overall number of bike thefts.

To many locals, Eugene’s rate of bike theft isn’t surprising. The city is aware of the issue, posting bike theft prevention tips which become especially important as the number of thefts peak in the summer.  

The following map shows where bike thefts were reported to Eugene police since 2024.

Green pins show stolen bikes worth $600 or less. Yellow pins show bikes worth $600 to $2,000. Red pins show bikes worth $2,000 or more.

More than $1 million worth of bicycles have been reported stolen, with some of the bikes valued as high as $20,000.

Eugene Police Community Engagement Specialist Jeff Blonde, who oversees many of Eugene’s bike theft prevention efforts and policies, wishes there were more resources dedicated to recovery efforts.

“We would love to have a dedicated bicycle team or a theft prevention team that does just that,” Blonde said. “It’s not that it’s not a priority, because it is a priority and it’s important. It’s just having the resources.”

Since the start of 2024, the Eugene Police Department’s bicycle recovery rate averaged 12%.

Richard Hughes, a ride leader with GEARS, has been leading rides in the area for 13 years. He believes many riders don’t report bike thefts to the police, and that the true number of thefts is much higher than official reports.

Blonde says he frequently encounters community sentiment that there’s no point to reporting thefts to police. But reporting is essential, he says, especially giving police the stolen bike’s serial number, so there is at least the possibility of returning it to its owner if the bike is recovered.

“That’s what’s going to give us a chance at getting that bicycle back to its rightful owner,” Blonde said. “We may have recovered a bicycle (but) if it’s not been reported stolen, then, unfortunately, we don’t know who to get that back to.”

Theft-prevention tips

Blonde calls bicycle theft a “crime of opportunity.”

“I always like to remind people to remove the opportunity, remove the crime,” he said. “It’s all about being a harder target and putting obstacles in the way.”

Creating obstacles can take many forms, but the most common method is locking your bike effectively.

“We highly recommend a U-lock to lock what they call the rear triangle portion of the bicycle,” Blonde said, “and steel, the thicker, the better.” Cable locks, he said, are not sufficient. “I tell people: Think about using multiple things. Protect your wheels and the frame of the bike.”

Hughes, with GEARS, emphasizes the importance of registering bicycles with websites as well as taking down the serial number, which can be located at various points on a bicycle. These can be effective in verifying the ownership of recovered bicycles. 

“You have a trail to follow in case something happens,” Hughes said. “It doesn’t guarantee you’re going to get it back, but more bikes now are being returned because people are registering.”

Hughes also uses an AirTag on his bike to help recovery efforts in case it’s ever stolen.