AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Amsterdam police will use bicycles equipped with hidden GPS [= global positioning system] transmitters to bait thieves and track them down in the latest effort to stamp out rampant bike theft, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

Cycling is a way of life in the pancake-flat Netherlands, which boasts more bicycles than its 16 million inhabitants. In Amsterdam alone an estimated 80,000-150,000 bicycles -- over one tenth of the total -- are stolen every year. "It would be great to get hold of the organized bicycle thieves, to track the whereabouts of stolen bikes and see if any end up in official bicycle shops," Amsterdam police spokesman Rob van der Veen said. Starting this spring, police will leave locked bikes with secret GPS emitters in Amsterdam's bike theft hotspots such as the historic city center. Bike theft is so widespread in the capital that rental shops won't let customers leave without giving them a crash course on locking bikes: attaching both wheels to the frame, and chaining the bicycle to a fixed object, such as a bike stand.

According to a website campaigning against bike theft in Amsterdam 40 percent of bike thieves are professionals, while 30 percent are drug addicts who sell stolen bikes as quickly as possible to pay for their next fix. The remainder are usually impulsive thieves, sometimes students or youths -- and very often drunk -- who steal a bike to get home after their own was pinched.
 
 
 
 
荷兰阿姆斯特丹：用GPS跟踪偷车贼
阿姆斯特丹:荷兰首都阿姆斯特丹的自行车偷盗十分猖獗,警方在新近开展的一次打击行动中将采用暗装GPS(全球卫星定位系统)发射机的自行车为诱饵,小偷偷走后可对其跟踪,本周二警方发言人宣布了此事。

在地势平如煎饼的荷兰,骑自行车是人们的出行方式。荷兰宣称该国自行车的数量比1600万人口还要多,而在阿姆斯特丹,每年有8万———15万自行车被盗,这一数量超过了该市自行车总数的十分之一。"制止有组织的自行车偷盗,摸清被偷车辆的下落,看看是否有被盗车辆最终出现在正规的自行车商店里,这可是件十分重要的事。"阿姆斯特丹警方发言人罗布·犯·德·非恩说道。

从今春开始,警方将把上了锁、暗装GPS发射器的自行车放在阿姆斯特丹自行车偷盗多发地段,如老城中心。自行车偷盗在荷兰首都是如此普遍,以至于租车店在没有给租车人讲完如何锁车的"速成课程"之前就不会让他们离开:要把前后两个轮子都和车架连在一起,用链子将车锁在固定的物体上,如存放自行车的架子上。

据阿姆斯特丹一个向偷盗自行车宣战的网站报道(www.fietsendiefstal.nl),40%的偷车贼是职业小偷,30%是吸毒者,他们把偷来的车以最快的速度卖掉,好买下一针毒品。其余的则是一时冲动而为之,其中有学生和年轻人,但更经常的则是醉汉,当他们自己的车被偷后就再偷一辆车回家。