Photography by Marisa Howard

Christina Crow had her arms full. She was walking a four-and-half-year-old home from preschool on Southeast Woodstock Boulevard when they decided to poke their heads in the door of a Safeway supermarket just to see if the store sold lunchboxes. Crow left her beloved red Cannondale (nickname: Fast Lips) leaning against a bike rack, unlocked.

Minutes later, Crow emerged from the store to a terrible sight: her bike was gone, her helmet still wobbling on the ground where the thief dropped it seconds before.

Despite loving her bike for four years, Crow hadn't written down its serial number. The police took a report, but told her not to hold out hope. Fast Lips was MIA.

"At first, it felt worse than my last serious breakup," said Crow. "I was crying about it. I was dreaming about it. I was looking at old photos of it on my Flickr."

Clearly, a tragedy. Unfortunately, a common one.

Portlanders have reported 2,300 bikes stolen in the past two years. Without a known serial number, bikes are nearly impossible to reclaim. But even owners who keep their serial number close to their heart know their bikes can be eviscerated, stripped of their well-loved parts and sold like chopped liver to used bike shops.

That's likely what happened to Crow's sleek red cycle.

"Not everyone steals a bike for the same reason," explained Portland police officer Greg Stewart, who keeps track of bike theft from Portland's East Precinct. "We have kids who steal bikes, 10-, 12-, 14-year-old kids who are just looking for something to ride around the neighborhood. We find the bike just a few blocks away from the house, dumped in the bushes."

But joyriding is not the big issue driving bike theft. "In general, the vast majority of cases where we find property being stolen and resold, that theft is being used to support a drug habit. Right now, the big drug that's driving the trade is heroin," said Stewart.

The best safety tip for keeping addicts from turning your bike into their next high is to simply lock your bike. And lock it well. Every time.

A 1991 University of Wisconsin study revealed that 22 percent of bike thieves will leave behind a locked wheel in order to steal a bike. Other bikes are stolen from places that don't make good hitching posts: chain-link fences, young sapling trees and poles that bikes can be lifted straight up and off of. Strong locks (like a U-lock or hefty chain) are worth their extra cost: they can be much more difficult to clip or snap than a thin cable lock.

Police use a curious acronym to explain bike theft: CRAVED. Bikes are considered to be "Concealable" property, since the thief can just ride away. They're often "Removable" thanks to quick releases and poor locking. They're "Available" (biking in Portland has increased 180 percent since 2000), "Valuable," "Enjoyable" (in the UK, thefts of sporty and BMX bikes are double that of other bikes) and they're easily "Disposable" (roughly 300 bikes are offered for sale daily on the Portland arm of the online classified listing, Craigslist).