Image by Flickr user Craig RodwayImage by 20080926bike.jpg

In what is essentially an annual tradition, the George Street Observer has written up a story about the problems of bike theft in Charleston. What should you take away from it? Always use a U-lock and always lock it to the bike's frame.

They say, in part:
Bike theft is a recurring problem around the C of C campus. The number of bikes stolen this year is up from this time last year, and, for every ten bikes stolen, an average of two or three are recovered, Sergeant Larry Walton said.

And it never hurts to register your bike with the city, and the city says you should do it anyways. If you register your bike you'll have some way of proving it was yours, if it gets recovered.

The George Street Observer also has some tips on using bike locks properly, don't wind up like Junior Maggie Lyons:
I locked it to a meter, and they literally just lifted the cable up over the top of it.

Bryce Donovan's weekly column in Preview also highlights this issue in an a humorous fashion - he's now had three bikes stolen in Charleston.

A commenter there recommends signing up at Stolen Bicycle Registry which has helped in the past