Early bicycle theft

"The bicycle thief has been making himself very numerous in Boston of
late [1886]. No less than a dozen machines have been stolen within the
last few weeks from wheelmen of that city. The police have been
notified of the thefts but have been unable to do anything towards
recovering the stolen property. It is an easy thing for the thieves to
render the stolen machines unrecognizable by battering the number, and
thus eluding the vigilance of the police. It is understood that the
dealers and others who have suffered the loss of machines propose to
employ an experienced detective to follow the case up. It has now got
to be so that no one dares leave his machine unprotected outside the
house a single moment."

--Sporting Life, June 30th, 1886

http://la84foundation.org/SportsLibr.../SL0712006.pdf

Cheers,

Carl Fogel