Sacramento Police Warning Thieves Going To Great Heights To Steal Bikes

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Police say thieves are getting more creative and brazen, leading to a number of bike thefts in the Sacramento area.

Sacramento Police say thieves are going so far as to scale walls to steal bikes off of balconies.

Video from this past weekend shows a suspected thief casing an area, then cutting the lock and taking off with a bike.

"It can be a matter of two to five seconds if a person has scoped out the bike that they want, go up there, clip it and ride away on it," said Sacramento Police Sgt. Rachel Ellis.

Police have ways of cutting into crime.

"We put several bait bikes out there, and we want it known that we put bait out there for our thieves to catch to hopefully try to deter them from trying to steal a bike in the first place," she said.

T.J. Windsmiller with Mike's Bikes on I street says with temperatures warming, more people are taking to two wheels to get around. He says many customers who end up in the market for a new bike came in because their last one was stolen.

The weekend theft caught on video was actually a police-owned bait bike. The thief is still being tracked down.

Police are reminding bike owners to register their bikes with the city's online registration system so they have a shot at getting it back.