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Comment by chrisin2d | Hacker News Reader

I have a VanMoof bike with both a GPS and a Find My tracker.

The first time it got stolen in Berkeley, I recovered it. It hadn't gone far, so the police were able to locate it and the thief.

The second time it got stolen, I couldn't recover it. But I had already bought the Peace of Mind coverage plan, so VanMoof replaced it — and lent me a bike of the same model in the 2 weeks it took to deliver.

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Are you able to keep using the Peace of Mind coverage plan once replaced? Or did you have to buy a 2nd plan? Asking out of genuine interest. It seems to be some of the value of the plan is that you get to worry less about the stress/fear of your bike being stolen -- but if you are off the plan once it has been stolen once...seems like a loss of value.

> We’ll recover or replace up to three times within your three-year coverage. If by some freakish bad luck your bike is stolen a fourth time, we won’t be able to recover or replace your bike, but we will provide you with full tracking information so you can hunt it yourself.

From: https://www.vanmoof.com/en-US/peace-of-mind

That's going to get someone killed

More people probably die riding the bikes.

Do you know how they were able to steal it without the alarm going off?

The alarm bell and lights were set off. When the police recovered the bike, they found that the thief had duct taped over the lights and speakers.

Interestingly, both incidents happened in busy areas in the SF Bay Area. I guess that the bystander effect was strong.

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