Between the crashed cars and stripped mopeds, there are nine shiny e-bikes in the courtyard of the police station in Zaandijk. Thanks to a tracker that was in one of the bicycles, the bicycles were found in a garage box in Zaandam, but there is still no trace of the owners.
“The bicycles are expensive and in demand,” says Joey Brink of the North Holland police. He sees a huge increase in the number of stolen e-bikes. The owner of three bicycles has been found, but six of the luxury e-bikes have not. Sometimes a report is made, but people often forget to provide the frame number, which makes it difficult for the police to find the owners.
One of the bikes had a tracker that the thieves forgot to remove, allowing the police to track down the stolen e-bikes. A 31-year-old suspect from Zaanstad has been arrested for theft. The police investigation shows that the bicycles may have come from Amsterdam. “The bikes are worth between 600 and 4000 euros,” says Brink. If the owners are not found, the bicycles will be sold or destroyed.