HARROWBEND, Ohio — Riverloop Bikes has closed its riverfront station while technicians audit the dock and nine bicycles that have repeatedly returned there after riders left them elsewhere. The city's other 14 stations remain open, and customers will not be charged for time recorded after a disputed return, operator Denise Orr said.
The first report came September 23 from commuter Lena Brooks, who ended a trip at the courthouse station and received a green return light. Her account continued adding minutes overnight. At 6:12 the next morning, the bicycle registered at riverfront Dock 7, about two miles from the courthouse, where a maintenance worker found it properly latched.
Riverloop treated the event as a dock-communication error and removed the extra charge. Similar records followed for four bicycles over eight days. Two had been returned to other Riverloop stations. One had been locked by its rider to a rack outside a grocery store after the nearest dock was full. Another was placed inside the operator's fenced service yard for a brake adjustment.
In each case, the bicycle was gone from the place it had been left and present at Dock 7 before the morning inspection. Locks belonging to riders were found closed and undamaged near the original racks. The service-yard bicycle left behind a coiled steel cable that remained secured through the fence post, Orr said.
The bicycles are standard pedal models without motors or powered steering. Their small batteries operate lights, location beacons and the lock interface. Technician Emmett Goss found no alteration to the frames, drivetrains or electronics. The location logs show the bikes at their reported destinations and then at Dock 7, with no points recorded between.
A riverside path slopes toward the station for its final 300 yards, but reaching it from the courthouse requires two uphill blocks and a signalized crossing. Goss said a bicycle could roll down the last grade if left unsecured. It could not cross town, steer around the floodwall gate and lift its locking pin into an open dock without a rider.
Three customers initially believed their bicycles had been stolen and contacted Riverloop before the operator located them. Brooks missed a morning meeting while searching the courthouse rack. Another rider paid for a replacement cable. The operator has refunded the cable cost and placed temporary notices on the app and the closed station.
The dock itself passed electrical and network tests. Its 12 locks opened and closed on command, and no unauthorized account access was found. Overnight video from a nearby flood-control camera shows the path but not the station. On Thursday, two bicycles enter the edge of the frame several minutes apart. Both are upright and moving slowly. The image is too distant to show whether anyone is beside them.
Riverloop moved the nine bicycles Friday to a locked depot and disconnected Dock 7 from the rental system. Orr said the operator will leave the station closed through Monday, review the location modules and add a camera facing the locking rail. The city is not treating the matter as a traffic or theft investigation because no bicycle remains missing.
Several regular riders have asked that Dock 7 reopen because it serves the riverside apartments and Saturday market. Orr said the operator may reinstall the bicycles at other stations after each receives a new lock controller. For now, customers are being directed to the library dock six blocks north.
One of the nine bicycles was secured inside the depot Friday with a hardened chain through both wheels and the frame. At opening Saturday, the chain remained locked on the floor in the same three loops photographed by staff. The bicycle was latched at Dock 7. Its front basket contained the depot key, which Orr had kept overnight in her desk.