Stolen bikes are nothing new, but a bikejacking in broad daylight on the Upper West Side? We haven't heard about that kind of brazen crime in some time. And yet today My Upper West has a story on just such a theft. Bikers? Watch out for suspicious pedestrians standing in the middle of the road!
My Upper West reader David, who emphasizes that the police have been "great" in responding to the situation, was biking on Riverside Drive yesterday shortly after noon. Right before he got to Grant's Tomb (roughly 127th Street) he reached a guy who was standing in the middle of the street. The man then shouldered the cyclist "hard and sent me crashing to the ground. He was waiting there with 2 accomplices for a cyclist to ride by and steal his/her bike. It is an ideal location to mug cyclists: little traffic at that time, almost no pedestrians, easy get away. They left, with the bike, towards Broadway."
“An [NYPD] car was with me before I could hang up with 911," the victim says. And "several other cars, including a lieutenant’s, got involved in the canvasing. And the detective in charge of the case spent lots of time with me and has been in touch since.” However, the police have not been able to find the thieves.
Here's hoping this is an isolated incident (the NYPD doesn't keep statistics on bikejackings specifically, as they are just another kind of robbery) but it does bring to mind stories of bike crime in the 80s. Like the time They Might Be Giants' John Linnell had his bike stolen from him by a thug with a machete on the Williamsburg Bridge.
