Reno police blame bike thefts on Burning Man
Residents of Reno, Nev., are seeing a spike in stolen bikes, and police say Burning Man is to blame.
“It’s a timing thing,” Reno Police Sgt. Dan Thompson told the Reno Gazette Journal. “The only time we receive this volume each year is [the weeks] prior to the event."
The weeklong arts festival — which begins Aug. 25 — is held in the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles north of Reno, where bicycling is the main mode of transportation for the more than 50,000 participants.
Organizers of Burning Man acknowledge some crime occurs at the festival itself but are not ready to accept responsibility for Reno's bike theft.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham told the paper.
Graham and Kevin Campbell, a mechanic for the Reno Bike Project, say the city’s "emerging bike culture or favorable weather conditions" — not Burning Man — have led to the string of two-wheeled larceny.
Besides, Graham points out, Burning Man offers free bicycles to attendees through a community bike program designed to discourage theft.
"Through careful community planning we have created a city of thousands where serious crime is virtually unknown — certainly well below the rate in any comparable city," a note on Burning Man's website reads.
And despite its reputation for "radical self expression" and rampant drug use, Burning Man tallies relatively few arrests. According to Nevada's Bureau of Land Management, just six arrests were reported at Burning Man in 2013, down from 14 in 2012. However, the total number of citations last year jumped from 365 in 2012 to 433, including 309 for illegal drug use or possession.
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