A doorbell camera outside an apartment on Monroe Drive NE caught a man walking off with someone else’s Trek bicycle on August 26, and Atlanta Police are now asking the public for help putting a name to his face. Investigators say the theft happened at 1145 Monroe Drive NE, and officers who responded spoke with the victim at the scene after the bike disappeared.
Tipsters who help lead to an arrest and indictment are eligible for a reward of up to $5,000, per the station’s report. That reward ceiling isn’t arbitrary — Atlanta Police Standard Operating Procedure APD.SOP.6142 was updated in April 2026, raising the maximum Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta payout for anonymous tips from $2,000 to $5,000, a change Hoodline detailed in recent coverage of a Midtown vape shop burglary.
How to Reach Investigators
The nonprofit itself runs independently of city tax dollars, funded through private donations and fundraising events like the annual Atlanta’s Finest 5K, in partnership with the Atlanta Police Foundation. It’s a system that has been busy lately in this part of town: on August 26, Atlanta Police released surveillance images seeking a suspect who stole an e-bike outside Krog Street Market in Inman Park, roughly two miles south of Monroe Drive, also offering a $5,000 reward in that case.
Where the Investigation Sits Geographically
The Monroe Drive address falls inside Atlanta Police Zone 6, an eastside patrol area that covers Virginia-Highland, Morningside-Lenox Park, Inman Park, and Old Fourth Ward. It’s a zone that has generated more than one recent micro-mobility theft appeal, underscoring how bikes and e-bikes left outside apartments and retail corridors in this stretch of the city have become a recurring target.
Whether this particular theft is charged as a misdemeanor or a felony will hinge on the bicycle’s value. Under Georgia Code § 16-8-2 and § 16-8-12, theft by taking is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 12 months in jail when the property is worth $1,500 or less, but it becomes a felony carrying one to five years in prison once that value is exceeded. It’s not yet known what the victim’s Trek bicycle was worth, and that detail remains an open question in the case.
A Common but Underreported Crime
Bike theft is far more common — and far less reported — than official numbers suggest. A January 2025 academic study published in Transport Findings, conducted with researchers from UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and Bike Index, estimated that roughly 2.4 million adult bicycles are stolen in the U.S. each year, yet only about 37% of victims ever report the crime to police. Separately, an analysis of FBI crime data released in 2025 found that nearly 150,000 bicycles reported stolen or lost to U.S. police in 2023 accounted for more than $148 million in losses, averaging $833 per bike…