Sondos Zayed rode her e-bike to work at the General campus of The Ottawa Hospital daily.
Commuting on two wheels meant she didn’t have to worry about parking, reduced her carbon footprint and got a bit of exercise.
But as she left for home one evening earlier this month, the clinical investigator found her coil lock on the bike rack at the front entrance, but not her bike.
“I was very angry. I was upset. I couldn’t believe it at first,” Zayed said, adding that the bike was a thoughtful gift from someone she cared about.
“Then I started thinking about what I can do to try to get my [stolen] bike back.”
Zayed can track her bike’s location using an app on her phone and has a description of the person who stole it, but has been unable to recover it.
(Submitted by Sondos Zayed)
She traced her bike to a highrise on St. Laurent Boulevard, called 911 and was told she needed to file a police report.
Determined to get back what was taken from her, she requested security camera footage from the hospital security desk.
Zayed said the security guards reviewed the tape and said they couldn’t show it to her.
They told her the footage shows a man arriving at the hospital at 12:12 p.m. One minute later, that person rides away on her e-bike.
She passed along their details on his build, height and clothing to police and followed up the next day when the GPS tracker showed the bike returning to the same address on St. Laurent on three occasions.
Zayed said this time, officers knocked on doors and asked around in search for her bike, but came out empty-handed.
Since then, Zayed’s GPS signal has gone dark.
Police advice
Ottawa police Sgt. Stéphane Fournier said police are working on Zayed’s case and cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.
He said people should call 911 if someone is actively trying to steal their bike, but if the robbery has already been committed, like in Zayed’s situation, filing a police report is the better option.
He warns people against conducting their own investigation, confronting suspects or taking “matters into their own hands.”
Victims don’t know the person who stole their bike and whether or not that individual is dangerous, he said.
“Police officers will go through a door knock, talk to residents, ask some questions and based on all the different evidence and information, we can gather that bike after,” Fournier said.
Zayed’s police report outlined who to contact at the hospital for the CCTV footage. She thinks the force doesn’t have the capacity to investigate every bike theft case.
“I know everybody’s trying their best, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s a very common experience here in Ottawa,” Zayed said.
Fournier says that the success of investigations and recovering a stolen bike depend on the evidence. Sufficient evidence could lead police to getting a warrant to search a property suspected of having a stolen bike, but he said that’s uncommon.
Vast majority of stolen bikes not recovered
Reported bicycle thefts have been decreasing slightly in Ottawa since 2020, according to available statistics from the Ottawa Police Service’s open data portal.
The portal shows 1,674 bicycles were reported stolen last year, compared to 1,871 in 2024 and 2,189 in 2020. That’s still an average of four or five bikes a day.
Fewer than 15 per cent of stolen bikes were recovered by their owners last year.
An overview of bike theft in Ottawa between 2018 and 2025:
Zayed explained that she found the Stolen Bikes Ottawa Facebook group, an online community of victims and witnesses of bike theft in Ottawa.
“There was a lot of support,” she said. “They have been through very similar experiences and that my story really was not unique at all.”
Prevention preferred
Florence Lehmann, a board member of advocacy group Bike Ottawa, said you have to act fast when your bike is stolen and that there’s not much you can do once it’s gone.
“Prevention is better than a pound of cure,” she said. “You want the best deterrent possible.”
Lehmann said that good bike locks and racks are key to making sure your bike is secured.
She explained that coiled bike locks are not the best option because they can be easily cut and that metal U-shaped locks are more difficult to break.
Lehmann personally carries two locks, securing her front tire to the rack and back tire to the frame.
Most bike thefts are crimes of opportunity, Fournier explained.
He recommends registering your bike with 529 Garage, an app where cyclists can create a profile for their bike with details such as its serial number and the rider’s contact info.
Ottawa police work closely with 529 Garage program, and when police find a stolen bike they can possibly pull the information from the app and return it to the owner.