AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Amsterdam police will use bicycles equipped with hidden GPS [= global positioning system] transmitters to bait thieves and track them down in the latest effort to stamp out rampant bike theft, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

　　Cycling is a way of life in the pancake-flat Netherlands, which boasts more bicycles than its 16 million inhabitants. In Amsterdam alone an estimated 80,000-150,000 bicycles -- over one tenth of the total -- are stolen every year. "It would be great to get hold of the organized bicycle thieves, to track the whereabouts of stolen bikes and see if any end up in official bicycle shops," Amsterdam police spokesman Rob van der Veen said. Starting this spring, police will leave locked bikes with secret GPS emitters in Amsterdam's bike theft hotspots such as the historic city center. Bike theft is so widespread in the capital that rental shops won't let customers leave without giving them a crash course on locking bikes: attaching both wheels to the frame, and chaining the bicycle to a fixed object, such as a bike stand.

　　According to a website campaigning against bike theft in Amsterdam (www.fietsendiefstal.nl), 40 percent of bike thieves are professionals, while 30 percent are drug addicts who sell stolen bikes as quickly as possible to pay for their next fix. The remainder are usually impulsive thieves, sometimes students or youths -- and very often drunk -- who steal a bike to get home after their own was pinched.