Up to 250 bikes go missing every week from Google's HQ - and the search is on

Bicycles for use by employees are lined up at the Google campus near Venice Beach, in Los Angeles, California January 13, 2012. The 100,000 square-foot campus was designed by architect Frank Gehry, and includes an entrance through an iconic pair of giant binoculars designed by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Around 500 employees develop video advertising for YouTube, parts of the Google+ social network and the Chrome Web browser at the site. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS SOCIETY) - GM1E81E15HW01

The company which promises to build ‘secure’ browsers and keep user data safe apparently is unable to protect the bicycles inside its campus from thieves. Tech giant Google loses up to 250 bicycles every week from its Mountain View campus.

The company maintains roughly 1,110 bicycles or as it is called GBikes in Google colours — yellow frames, red baskets and green and blue wheels for its employees to get around its sprawling campus.

The GBikes which are leased by local residents as well as employees of the company end up at local schools, in neighbours' lawns, at the bottom of the town creek and on the roof of a sports pub.

"The disappearances often aren't the work of ordinary thieves, however. Many residents of Mountain View, a city of 80,000 that has effectively become Google's company town, see the employee perk as a community service," the Wall Street Journal reported on January 5.

When Google installed GPS devices on a third of the GBikes and tracked their movement, the internet giant found that thieves were taking them as far as Mexico and Fairbanks, Alaska, said the report.

The data-obsessed company also found that the two-wheelers take an average 12 trips and travel six miles a day. Image: Reuters

Google has hired as many as 30 contractors and five vans armed with waders and grappling hooks to recover the bikes. However, the company has not been able to retrieve all of them as yet.

As per the report, Google recovers between 70 and 190 bikes a week, or roughly two-thirds of the GBikes reported off campus. The company, though, has no concrete idea how many bikes it has lost outrightly.

Now, Google is considering to lock the bikes which can be unlocked only by apps on smartphones of its employees.

Google was the first company in Silicon Valley to start corporate bike programme. The initiative has been followed by at least 16 other companies in the US, including at Apple, Facebook, and Walmart.