A neighbor and West Philly Local reader, Brendan, emailed us that his apartment on the 4400 block of Baltimore Ave was broken into and robbed last week, on Thursday, Sept. 27. Brendan says that the burglar(s) got away with his wife’s new Schwinn Sporterra (2012) bike. It’s a size 52 black bike with white writing on it. They also got off with an old Playstation 2.
Brendan says that he and his wife are not very well off people by any stretch and that their apartment is mostly full of things of sentimental value. “The bike is what really broke my heart…because I just bought it for my wife this past summer after saving up and sacrificing a lot to give my wife a new bike… We’ve lived in this apartment for 7 years and have never felt insecure. We love this neighborhood and can not stand the idea that we were so brazenly violated like this in a community that we love so much,” Brendan writes.
Police suspect that juveniles might have been involved in this robbery based on what they stole and some other details.
This incident taught Brendan a couple of things about how to protect yourself in case your apartment gets burglarized – to get renter’s insurance and to write down your bike’s serial number.
October 1st, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Join the facebook group “Philadelphia stolen bikes” and other cyclists and shop owners can be on the lookout.
October 1st, 2012 at 1:30 pm
I am sorry to say it looks like the burglar may have watched your wife take the bike into your apt at some point prior to the burglary. This is another in a series of recent brazen thefts of nice new bikes!
So now, in addition to taking our bikes in, rather than locking them securely outside with the Kryptonite U-lock, I’d say we need to add to our precautions–be aware of who is watching you take your bike inside–and perhaps if you see someone watching you more intently than not, walk it around the block or make a detour BEFORE you eventually take it inside. Anything to throw them off the track of WHERE they could later get access to the bike!
October 1st, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Sorry about your bike and things. More then that, I am sorry that you felt safe in your living situation for so long and now you don’t anymore. It is the feeling of being violated that is even more heartbreaking then loosing out on something you have saved for for such a long time. We were broken into a few years back and it has been impossible to ever feel as secure as we did before that. Stuff is stuff and its replaceable whether it is easy to replace it or not, but the need to see if something is missing from your apartment every time you come home is just awful. It’s okay to understand why people steal and to still be angry that it happens.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:04 pm
So sorry to hear. If you need to borrow a spare for the meantime I have an old mountain bike in my basement. I wanted to ask how they got in? Was it a window or old door? Maybe it would help others protect themselves or let these criminals know that the neighborhood only gets stronger when this sort of thing happens. I hope your able to get over this, hopefully you have renters insurance.
October 1st, 2012 at 10:46 pm
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October 2nd, 2012 at 11:19 am
Sorry to hear this! Would definitely recommend renter’s insurance to anyone living in an apartment. It’s not too expensive (we pay about $150/year) and gives me peace of mind. I keep a list of all the big items it covers on a google doc. Hope you get your bike back!!
October 2nd, 2012 at 8:55 pm
Renter’s insurance is typically NOT a good deal. Remember that insurance companies are businesses and they always make a profit on the aggregate. That means their customers lose money on the aggregate. Most people recommending insurance rely on anecdotal evidence, which is not really evidence at all.
Renter’s insurance is not like health insurance, where one hospital stay can bankrupt you and ruin your financial situation for the rest of your life.
It is not like homeowner’s insurance, which covers something that hypothetically takes 5 years of saving for a down-payment and 10 years of paying a mortgage to own.
If you own a big-ticket item that you cannot live without and will take scrimping and saving for a year+ to replace, then look into insuring that item individually. You should only buy insurance to guard against catastrophes.
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:34 pm
@N
You have a point, but I don’t think you can make such a blanket assumption. No, it’s not worth it if your only object of value is your $400 bike. But it’s definitely worth it if you have more than $1,000 worth of electronics lying around, as those things are often the target of such robberies. Renter’s insurance costs less than the price of one dinner out a month, and we live in a high-theft area.
October 3rd, 2012 at 12:11 am
@N – its not a bad deal when you need it. I sure wish we had insurance at our old place, when our shitty landlords shitty contractor didn’t fix our upstairs neighbours bathroom right and our bedroom ceiling fell in. It destroyed our ac and my husband’s laptop. I thought renters insurance was useless and that we couldn’t afford it but it would have been cheaper than it was for us to replace that stuff and the other incidentals destroyed, the stress, the loss of revenue due to the work my husband couldn’t do w/o is laptop. At our new place, we got it right away and its nice to know that if any thing like that happens again it’ll be taken care of.
And as Ella points out, we do live in a high crime area. The stuff can be replaced, but its sure nice to be able to replace it with out getting fucked again.
October 3rd, 2012 at 9:18 am
I got renter’s insurance when i considered the fact that any of my neighbors in the apartment building could set the building on fire and my loss would be total — hundreds of books, cds & dvds, furniture, clothes, and then of course big-ticket individual items like electronics. It’s a bargain.
October 3rd, 2012 at 10:07 am
This discussion on the costs and benefits of renter’s insurance is very interesting. I would like to hear from those who had subscribed to a renter’s insurance and did get compensated for their loss in a satisfying manner when they got broken in. If such people are out there, I’d love to know the name of their insurance!
October 3rd, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Just a quick note for those of you who have auto (or other) policies – because many (most?) insurance companies offer a discount when you have multiple policies with them, the net cost of renter’s insurance may be negligible for you.
I assume that my case isn’t unique: because of the discount I receive on my auto policy for adding renter’s insurance, my total monthly premium is only about $2-3 more than it would be for auto alone. That policy covers about $25k.
Fortunately, I can’t speak to the usefulness of such a policy, and I hope I never acquire the necessary experience!
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Regarding renter’s insurance: about ten years ago I bought my first car. “For an extra ten bucks a month, would you like renter’s insurance?” Sure, what the heck. A few months later I come home to my apartment in Spring Garden to find shattered windows and a carful of stuff gone: computers, bike, CDs, electronics, etc. Filed a claim for about $5k. Got a nice check in the mail soon afterwards. Replaced all my stuff. Best deal I ever signed.