Got this e-mail from Avon & Somerset Police this morning so thought I would share the good news:

Four people arrested after bicycle thefts (Bristol and North Somerset). Police are investigating a number of bicycle thefts that have taken place in recent months.

PC Greig Difford said: “There were 28 such incidents in March 2012, where bicycles have been taken from homes in Bristol. The owners of these bikes had been cycling in the Leigh Woods or Ashton Court area in the weeks leading up to the theft. “Leigh Woods and Ashton Court now attracts many cyclists as it was voted the ‘best inner city mountain bike trail in the country’ and we are keen to put a stop to these thefts and bring the offenders to justice. “Some of the bikes stolen have been worth up to £5,000 and we have increased patrols in the area. I would ask anyone who notices suspicious behaviour to call us on the new non-emergency police telephone number 101.”

Four people aged 20, 19, 19 and 17 have been arrested on suspicion of burglary and are currently on police bail pending further enquiries.

Interesting – will be keen to hear the evidence in the court cases (assuming it goes that far) to confirm how they’re actually following people home.

I guess Bristol is perfectly sited for what they do with the suspension bridge being a point that lots of riders go though on the way home from a ride making it easy to pick people to follow – the smaller (thus far, I know it’s changed a bit recently) number of targeted thefts from South Bristol (Bemmie, etc) seems to back this up.

I’ve heard about a few of these incidents. My guess is they follow cars with racks and just see where they go. Other that that, perhaps they follow some people by bike as you’d probably never notice if they were a fair way behind you. I always check if I’m being followed now after what I have heard.

Great news. Let’s hope they manage some convictions.

I always check if I’m being followed now.

This

Cool. Unfortunately I drew a blank when I phoned 101 yesterday with info on the whereabouts of my stolen bike. So I’m on stakeout today with the intention of reclaiming it as mine if seen.

Had an interesting email from SteveL of Bristol Traffic a couple of days ago, reporting on an encounter a mate of his had on the way back from the trails. While crossing the suspension bridge he had a near-miss with a group of young lads on BMXes who then started pointedly following him. A week later his garage was broken into and four bikes taken.

Another mate was followed by a lad on a bike last year. A staring contest ensued and the would-be thief backed off…

Inner city? Ashton Court is to Bristol like the Peak district is to Sheffield. Anyway, this isn’t really the place for this discussion.

Hopefully some real pain will be handed to these guys. Bike theft at the moment seems like a no-consequences act.

And Bath police are on it too!

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/Dramatic-fall-number-bike-thefts-prolific-thief/story-15727427-detail/story.html

Good work all round.

Unfortunately I drew a blank when I phoned 101 yesterday with info on the whereabouts of my stolen bike.

Unfortunately it’s not uncommon for the police to be a bit lukewarm about street sightings of possible stolen bikes. I suspect they have good reasons for this – a single sighting could mean they send a couple of officers out who are then tied up for an unspecified time.

Would recommend getting as good a description of the rider as possible and maybe seeing if he passes the same place regularly, then going back to the rozzers. I wouldn’t advise getting physical with anyone to recover it, at the end of the day it’s only a bike. You might be threatening someone who bought it in completely good faith.

I live in hope of seeing my stolen bike locked up somewhere in Bristol, securing it with an additional extra-strong lock, then staking it out.

After alerting the authorities, of course…ahem.

. You might be threatening someone who bought it in completely good faith.

Yea I realise this and I will explain the situation clearly, any confrontation by me will be passive.

Good news. Lets hope some bikes get returned to owners.

In terms of being followed home I guess it pays to know exactly what time you cross the suspension bridge / some other point that definitely has cctv coverage – this information makes it easy for Police to spot vehicles regularly tailing bikes.

Inner city? Ashton Court is to Bristol like the Peak district is to Sheffield

Er, Ashton Court being less than a couple of miles from the very centre of Bristol, and adjoining the built up area. The edge of the Peak District being over 5 miles from the centre of Sheffield, with any decent trails significantly further away, and well away from the built up area. Lots of people ride Ashton Court starting from their front door in Bristol – how many ride Edale valley from their door in Sheffield? Totally incomparable.

As boxfish said. I haven’t driven, walked or cycled past a person on a mountain bike since my bikes were taken last year without checking to see if they are mine.

qwerty, I’d also recommend asking around mates to see if they know anyone on the force who cycles. It can make a big difference to the amount of interest they take – a lot of police officers just see a stolen bike as a relatively low value property crime, which is not entirely unreasonable.

I was told by an officer from Newfoundland Road station to call 999 (not 101) if I spotted my stolen bike. That’s what I’ll be doing if I see it.

This thread is good news, though I’m not sure it establishes a link between the majority of bike related burglaries (which most of these incidents are, not thefts). I would guess that most Bristol riders have benn “cycling in the Leigh Woods or Ashton Court area in the weeks leading up to the theft”. I was burgled in March, I reckon I’ve been to AC / LW once this year. However, I do ride up and down the Gloucester Road every day….

Get a postive ID on the location of your stolen bike and call 999.

They’ll be round in a jiffy!!

This is exaclty what we did, to great sucess a couple of weeks ago.

read on here stolen recovery

The edge of the Peak District being over 5 miles from the centre of Sheffield, with any decent trails significantly further away

Technicaly the national park starts within the city limits (probably by about 5 miles).