A note to bike thieves.

Jo Burt once parked his bike outside the cinema in Brighton. He’d put drops on in an mid 90s burst of gravellitIs.

Two hours later, comes out to find all the controls and bars gone. Just cut cables hanging limply.

Next morning he’s helping Russell out in Action Bikes and a guy comes in with all the controls and bars and tries to sell them to Jo. Russell calls police while Jo engages the guy. As the blue lights arrive the guy doesn’t know whether to run, or hide, or what. Jumping from foot to foot……he is nicked….
 
Jo Burt once parked his bike outside the cinema in Brighton. He’d put drops on in an mid 90s burst of gravellitIs.

Two hours later, comes out to find all the controls and bars gone. Just cut cables hanging limply.

Next morning he’s helping Russell out in Action Bikes and a guy comes in with all the controls and bars and tries to sell them to Jo. Russell calls police while Jo engages the guy. As the blue lights arrive the guy doesn’t know whether to run, or hide, or what. Jumping from foot to foot……he is nicked….

I had the v-brakes and wheels - all xtr kit with rainbow rims stolen off my bike while it was locked outside of the railway station (and just around the corner from the transport police office - the bike rack was against one wall of it). I popped inside to report it and see if they'd seen anything. Of course, they had not and were uninterested in helping - hardly surprising since they were two of the fattest cops I've ever seen and actually chowing down on a plate of donuts each. It was like something out of the Simpsons.
 
I had a garage full of bikes stolen when I was at work. My garage roof was taken off and bikes winched out. I wish I could have Liam Neeson'd them (look for you, find you and kill you!) :D They must have been spying on me for ages, and well at that, because I truly had no idea. I never kept bikes in there again and was somewhat paranoid for a shortwhile after that.
 
Back in the 1980s bike theft was looked on as a big problem in York, so the cops had a dedicated team. One day we had a very distinctive bike brought in for a service about a week after it had been stolen so called them. They turned up to have words with the 'customer' and it turned out that he'd bought it in good faith via an ad in the Yorkshire Post from an address in Leeds - 25 miles away. It was shear chance that he'd brought it into the very place that built and sold it in the first place. The real owner was over the moon when he got his bike back.
 
Part of the problem.. nobody is investigating bike crime, when my bikes were stolen the cops couldn't give a f'kin shit, but i am talking about the pride of South Yorkshire here.. they were probably still busy covering their tracks after Hillsborough.. I'm happy to hear there is actual police work going on in other parts of the UK

I arrived at work a few months ago to find 2 police officers fast asleep in their car blocking the parking space at the side of my building,, i didn't want to beep my horn to wake them up because there are flats opposite and it was 5.45am so i flashed my lights.. still didn't wake them so i got out of the car and banged on their window, woke them up and congratulated them for solving all the crime in the area..
 
I dropped my son off at his new University Halls of residence: new bike bought from Evans stolen the following morning despite being locked-it's as if they were waiting for the newbies. University didn't provide any security: all open to the public. 2nd hand bike purchased for £50 and I superglued all the bolts etc, so no parts could be removed: Never taken in the following 2 years! Lesson learnt.
 
IME (I worked and studied at a university for six years), bike thieves do indeed target universities at specific times. Once I started working there, my bike was always carried into my office.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top