Indego bike theft posed an ‘existential’ crisis. The solution: Repo men.

A block off Kensington Avenue, two unarmed security guards jumped out of a black pickup truck, pulled down their balaclava masks, and knocked on the door of a nearby home.

Despite the face coverings, their gold-colored badges lent an air of official business, as did the six-point sheriff’s stars on their hats. But the guards were not there to serve a court summons or eviction notice.

“You know who lives here?” one of the men asked a group of neighbors.

He unfolded a paper that showed a picture of their target: a royal blue bicycle with “Indego” emblazoned on the frame.

Philadelphia’s bike-share program hired the duo to track down a stolen bike — one of a dozen listed MIA that afternoon last summer — and a GPS tracker had led them to this block near McPherson Square.

Bike-share programs nationwide reckoned with a surge in thefts during the pandemic. But the problem got so bad in Philadelphia that, by 2023, it threatened financial ruin for Bicycle Transit Systems (BTS), the city contractor that runs Indego.

The company lost at least 550 bikes between 2021 and 2023, valued at more than $1.3 million, according to Indego records. Thieves nicked 14% of the entire fleet in 2022 at their peak, three times the budgeted loss rate.

“It’s existential for us,” said Nate Bowman-Johnston, general manager for BTS.

In May 2023, BTS contracted a private security firm to address the rash of thefts. The “asset recovery program” has since returned hundreds of bikes, limiting Indego’s loss rate to 4% and 6% over the last two years.

The repo contract underscores a growing reliance on private security firms amid understaffing at the Philadelphia Police Department. When the theft spree began in 2020, police conducted dragnet sweeps to reclaim stolen bikes.

But thieves proved relentless.

“It was so large [a problem] that we needed additional support,” said Waffiyyah Murray, Indego program manager for the city. “The police are busy, they have a lot of things going on.”

Indego hails the asset recovery program as a success at a time when revenue loss has forced other urban bike-share programs to shut down.

But Indego’s repo men have also stirred concern over their tactics. When no one answered the door in Kensington last August, an Inquirer reporter observed the two men use an electric saw to cut through a backyard gate to retrieve the bike from the private property — without legal permission.

Alerted to the incident, Indego said it was a one-time occurrence. JNS Protection Services, the contractor at the time, said it promptly addressed the trespass.

Within months, BTS hired a new firm, Tactical Response Security Consulting, to assume the contract. Owner Luis Torres said his two-man team goes out three days a week, and the team is told to avoid confrontation and not enter private property.

“We’re not going to strong-arm nobody,” Torres said. “Some bike is not worth a lawsuit.”

It wasn’t until 2020 that Indego installed geolocation tags so the city could track missing bikes. The e-bikes, introduced two years prior, were the most targeted — and costly to replace, at $2,700 per unit.

While bikes go missing across the city, more than half are recovered in Kensington. Most are found discarded on sidewalks or stashed in alleyways.

But others are spray-painted and repurposed for a second life.

Legend Jackson, owner of JNS Protection Services, which ran the initial asset recovery team, said her employees wore face masks for their safety. People would become angry when confronted about a bike, claiming they bought it.

“People will buy or trade them off other people,” Jackson said last year. “We probably [had] to call the police two or three times.”

Once the battery dies, riding an e-bike is like riding a “brick,” Bowman-Johnston said. So people will sometimes affix a new power system. Indego technicians keep photos in the warehouse that document various modifications.

“It’s just crazy what people have done to them,” the BTS manager said. “We’ve seen some creative mods where people have figured out how to wire up batteries. It’s kind of a death trap.”

Torres said his repo team does not confront anyone who is riding a missing bike. His team reclaims six to 10 on any given day. Once the black market rides are returned to Indego, bike techs can strip them down and rebuild them for public use.

Indego officials said the savings are considerable but declined to provide financial details about the repo contract. An open-records request seeking that information was denied.

Company officials also declined to provide a detailed breakdown of stolen bikes since Indego’s inception in 2015.

Even as the asset recovery program improved the loss rate, thefts themselves continued at a troubling clip.

BTS has sought to improve the docking stations in recent years, adding new security features and multifactor authentications to prevent fraudulent checkouts.

The company is now adding hardened steel and striker loops to docking station locks. But it’s not foolproof, Bowman-Johnston said: “If somebody is really determined, they can find a way to get a bike.”

There have been benefits already: Decreasing the loss rate helped Indego bring back its single-fare ride last summer, long discontinued due to fraudulent checkouts.

Indego continues adding hundreds of new docking stations to its system as part of a long-term equity plan to expand ridership outside Center City.

Last year, the bike-share program also hit a record 1.3 million rides, breaking its previous record in large part due to increased usage during the Eagles playoff run.

By the end of 2025, BTS aims to have more than 3,000 bikes and 5,800 docks.

“We’re riding a big wave right now,” Bowman-Johnston said. “It’ll dip down and then come up, but the asset recovery strategy has allowed us to get through it.”