I won’t link to them and in my defence I only found the story through a work news email. If you have to read the story, find it yourself.

Rise of the smartphone leads to boom in ride-by muggings with 3,394 mobiles stolen by bike-riding crooks in London last year

Thefts committed by criminals on bicycles in London triple in three years
3,754 thefts by cyclists in 2012 – up from 2,563 in 2011 and 1,214 in 2010

Robberies committed by cyclists rose to 879 in 2012, up from 765 in 2010

CCTV in January showed mobile phone theft in two seconds by a cyclist

Bet they’re all on nicked bikes too.

Or alternatively-

Thieving swine turn to efficient and swift means of getting away from the scene of the crime

See – its a good news story now…

160 (possibly up to 300) phones taken per day in London, or 58,400 in a year, less 3,754 by “cyclists” = 54,646

presumably that’s thefts by walkers or runners is it ?

Here’s the thing. Those are cyclists with a small c. Someone on a bike. Surely most people on this site are Cyclists. Is that a legitimate distinction?

Just because someone is on a bike doesn’t make them reflective of the cycling movement. I know its the mail and they love this sort of linking of one thing to another. But its an association that happens all over the place. Someone on a bike did whatever, that reflects all cyclists. Pretty sure I’ve seen picture of Hitler on a bicycle FFS…

Next headline

Cyclists are Genocidal ****-heads

EDIT : Oh yeah, Godwin in 4.

“…In related news, motorists were found to be involved in 87% of bank robberies and 99% of ram-raids. The 1% of ram raiders not using a car or van were caught after knocking themselves out.”

At least the youths are getting some exercise. 😀

The terrible journalist’s guide to writing an article about bicycles

Seems this is prescribed reading for any “journalist” (I use the term loosely) at the Daily Wail.