If you go to the CVS at Georgia and New Hampshire, just south of the Georgia Ave. Metro, you may want to rethink biking there: there are apparently lots of thefts from the bike rack next to the door.
It happened to my roommate, who got more details. She rode over on Sunday afternoon and after being inside for about 15 minutes, she came outside to find her bike missing from the rack next to the door. Apparently thieves had cut right through her U lock.
She went inside to see if they had a security camera or if anybody had seen anything. The staff informed her the camera they had only looked at the front door and couldn’t see the bike rack (which is maybe 10 feet from the door along the building’s wall facing New Hampshire.)
Then amazingly, the staff told her that bike thefts happen there all the time. To me that’s unacceptable — if multiple bike thefts (or any kind of crimes) happen in front of your business, you should do something: put in more cameras or have the security guard walk by, or something. Although if they could steal he bike that quickly, maybe cameras are the best option.
Aside from being the right thing to do, it’s just bad business sense to not address frequent crimes in front of your establishment.
My roommate did call the police, who responded and said they’d keep a lookout. It’s also a good reminder to know your bike’s serial number — bikes do occasionally get recovered, and you have to know your serial number to get it back.
I’m going to do my best to contact CVS and the local neighborhood commission to see if they can do something about this issue. It seems crazy just to let it happen.
