‘People step up’ to help reunite Yellowknifers with stolen bikes

A houseboater rides their bike across the ice during breakup and leaves it locked up in Old Town. A week later, they find the lock cut and the bike stolen.

It’s a familiar story for Yellowknifers.

The houseboater – who asked not to be identified because they feared being targeted again by the thief – said their bike was a “fairly expensive electric bike” locked using a cable lock.

Because the owner didn’t get to shore much, he had taken precautions by placing an Apple AirTag – a form of tracking device – in the frame of the bike. 

Finding the AirTag on the move downtown, the houseboater “started racing around town” and enlisted the help of RCMP when he could not find it. He and a police officer eventually stayed up until 3am staking out the bike’s location until the officer found it.

RCMP say there were 62 reported bike thefts in Yellowknife in 2024, 51 in 2025 and only one so far in 2026.

While those statistics suggest bike theft is decreasing, a different story is told online. 

Almost daily, people in the city use social media to share photos of lost bikes ditched on trails, stories of bikes stolen from backyards, and bike parts on the roadside. 

Becca Denley, founder of bike lending and advocacy initiative ShiftNWT alongside her partner, said she has noticed “quite an increase” in bike thefts in Yellowknife.

“A lot of people use bikes as their mode of transportation and without that bike, it limits them,” said Denley.

“I had people reach out to me who felt a little bit of trauma from [bike thefts] happening.”

Denley said some RCMP officers and municipal enforcement officers are “really helpful” and recognize the importance of the thefts to people but, institutionally, police forces can think of bikes “more as a recreational tool, a toy, so they don’t put as much effort into it.”

To Denley, Facebook plays a surprisingly large role in the city’s bike community as a place to which people can turn for help.

“When I see people posting on Facebook, there’s almost instantly a comment under it saying, ‘I saw it here,’” she said.

“I think it’s a saving grace for sure. That community effort helps with the emotional part of it, it helps people recover a little bit better.”

Bait bikes

Michael Vautour, a manager at Yellowknife outdoor adventure store Overlander Sports, said “there’s a lot of people who step up” to help when bikes go missing.

While he admits that civilians retrieving bikes from thieves is dangerous, Vautour said people have grown tired of such petty crime.

At a public safety town hall on May 25, an RCMP representative said police have partnered with a Yellowknife business selling high-end bicycles, which keeps a list of purchased bikes with the owners’ information. 

That store is Overlander Sports, and it has been keeping this database for more than seven years.

Any time the store sells a bike, a sticker with a serial number is put onto the bike and filed into a system under a customer profile. A hard copy of the receipt and serial number is kept in store as proof of purchase. If requested, the police are able to access this database to identify the owner of a bike. 

Vautour says on average, six to 10 customers come in each season to report a theft and ask the store to supply the serial number.

RCMP also introduced a bait bike program, in which police placed bicycles around the city and monitored them, hoping to catch or deter thieves.

“For would-be bike thieves, be aware that bait bikes could be anywhere in Yellowknife. Thieves could be facing theft charges and even jail sentences,” said Insp Byron Donovan, Yellowknife RCMP detachment commander, in a May 21 news release announcing the program.

Given Yellowknife’s small geography, locating a bike within the city can be relatively easy – they are often found ditched on the side of the Frame Lake Trail, for example.

But they aren’t only stolen for to use as transportation. Residents like the houseboater have said bikes are often found with parts missing, or painted over in an attempt to disguise them.

The wheel alone on some luxury bikes can fetch $200 to $300. “There’s a bigger market than you would think” for second-hand bike parts, Vautour said.

Ways to protect a bike

For anyone looking to purchase a bike, Vautour suggests you buy two locks.

“The scarier locks are better,” he said, pointing to a U-lock and chain lock as suitable options to secure your bike.

Denley and the RCMP offered advice to residents trying to protect their bike from thieves: 

• don’t leave your bike unattended;
• make sure to lock it;
• don’t leave your bike in the dark;
• park your bike somewhere the general public can see it;
• remove the seat or a wheel as an extra deterrent;
• if you’re at home, store your bike in a safe location like a locked shed; 
• record serial numbers; and
• take photographs of your bike.

Alternatively, similar to the Overlander bike database, cyclists can join Project 529, a digital bicycle registration and recovery service.

If you register, you can report stolen bicycles to other local cyclists, law enforcement and bike shops, improving the chances of the bike being found.