Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association - Forums

My friend had his car broken into (upper-lot) between 5-7pm Saturday. Took his bike gear bag with all kinds of swag in it. Has anyone looked into calling 14th and 92nd district about cameras or stepped-up patrols?

If not, I will be glad to head up an ad-hoc comitee. Anyone want to get involved? Sting operation?

did he report it ? That's the first thing to do. I bet 75% of thefts in the Wiss are not reported to the police.

We talking about our buddy?

That just sucks so big, especially after such a blast of a ride today.

Its been mentioned to FOW, perhaps we could have them join us in a united front...

Np, different rider, but I will ask him to reort it.

Report everything! Even if you see shady characters hanging around. We need to get some attention down there that is more than just giving out parking tickets to park users. Really ticks me off when I see them down there writing parking tickets to people who want to use the park and there is nowhere else for them to park. It's not like they're parking along the fence out of spite, there is no where else to park. Matter of fact that's the only time I see police down there is when they are giving out parking tickets. Where are they when these scumbags are scoping out peoples cars!?

I 100% agree with you Tom. I know a few people who had never been to the park before and came to an event, or had a special day out, and it was ruined by the parking tickets. DD had defended the police in this action, saying, "it's a safety issue", etc... but people don't realize. They figure there is no parking available, everyone else is dong it, so therefore we can do it. And it totally ruins their day out, if not their weekend. And it turns them off coming back to the park.

The solution is much better signage up at the top of Wises Mill, and along the drive in those sections.  The the conventional "No Parking" little red and white signs might be the law everywhere else, but not on a beautiful summer day with 5000 people showing up and nowhere to go.  Livezy's only 7 min walk away from V.G.

Or better yet, maybe if the cop stopped at the top to educate drivers, instead of running to to educate them with a ticket.

Anyway, hijacking the theft discussion here. But these issue are important, and more so to us now. I'd hate to invite riders to the RivT and then have a bunch get tickets and worse, get their vehicles broken into.

I know it's an impossibility at times, but I'll say this again: You can't leave anything of value in your car when you park at the Wiss. Not your cell phone, not your wallet, not your bike swag, nothing. If you have to leave it, certainly don't leave it visible.

Anyone have friends in the press that might be able to run a story on the thefts down there?  It seems to be big enough of a problem and that would def cast unfavorable light on to the local police districts.

Yeah, I know there are daily shooting in this city and much worse problems, but for these districts that's not the case....

From past experiences, I know sometimes just writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper will spark a little investigation up.
Maybe we could write to the press & submit ideas for helping out in safety issues along w/the parking issues? 

Fortunately, I can ride to the park b/c I live in Rox.  But we were having some car break-in issues in the neighborhood that seem to have been solved.  First, call the council person for the district, Curtis Jones, who is also vice chair of parks and rec.  Tell his office about the problem.  They will call the captain of the 5th district police.   We actually got a call from the captain at the 5th to say that they were going to have some plain cloths survielance.  The problems stopped almost immediately.  Use your council person; he is there to help you. - might as well get something out of that wage tax, eh.  I was pretty impressed how everything got handled.  Might work for VG too. 

That's excellent information Sweet! I think your idea has the most potential to getting some action and handling this situation. Let's make some calls everyone...

That parking thing is funny.  A couple of years ago my wife and I flew out here to check out apts. and went to the park to check it out.  Well, there was no place to park in the lot and a bunch of cars were parked along the road......you know the rest of the story.  I was so pissed!  There actually was a sign but you had to clear half the forest to find it.

The parking lots were filling up yesterday and people were starting to act a bit crazy. As we started the ride I remember looking up and saying "hello" to a cop all before it dawned on me that she was writing tickets for illegally parked vehicles.

Wow, they didn't waste any time at all! A break in and they don't come to take the report, but the lot fills up on the first warm weekday they are there.

I'm hugely pro cop, so it pains me to see that though they are doing their job, this is a public relations fiasco.

It would be pointless to argue our points with the cops on the ground. So we need to do what Sweet suggested, and approach the police district chief and our local representatives. We should probably form a united front with FOW, and come to them with ideas, like suggesting signage and better communication for the parking issues, or even volunteering to help man a surveillance operation, or help raise some money for lot cameras, etc...

I hate to delay this but let's plan to put something together after the RiV, perhaps have a mini meeting about it during the following TMD?