There was a short piece on the local news about bike crime in Bristol stating that thefts of bike value at over £1000 has increase by 20%. There cetainly seems to be plenty of talk about bike theft on here with Bristol seemingly particularly bad.

Yeah, saw that as well this morning. I can’t remember if they said what the 20% increase was compared to (year-on-year, last 10 years etc….) and it was a complete non story in the sense that it was a statement of a statictic followed by a metaphorical shrug of the shoulders in a kind of ‘well, there you go then’ way.

It then went on to repeat the usual mantra about the extra CycleCity money (read: there will be more facilites to park bikes in the open around town, so tea-leaf’s come and get ‘um!!!)

it was a complete non story

Sounds like one of those “read between the lines” deals to me – i.e., take it as a warning to look after your stuff.

I went along to one of the initial Cycling City meetings and the question of crime was raised, but they were pretty clear that it’s aimed at improvements to infrastructure and getting people commuting, rather than subsiding the police.

I wonder who buys all the bikes – cyclists presumably?

If anyone living near Southmead (which seems to be where a lot of nicked bikes turn up) wants to try and get this issue up the police’s agenda, there’s a community/police force meeting on 28 May 2009 at 6:30 PM at Horfield Sports Centre.

Bimbler, I bought my own stolen bike back off eBay! When I spotted it the seller had already just flogged a nice Marin full susser for £350. Some people are being blinded by a bargain. 🙄

Some people are being blinded by a bargain.

Knowingly (?) receiving stolen goods in other words

I’ve just sold one my bikes to a friend who lives just off the Southmead estate…. I went white with fear when he said his was ‘…just going to leave it outside…’. I’ve educated of what the bare minimum of security will need to be and to be prepared for it go missing fairly swiftly. He doesn’t believe me, so we’ll see who’s right 😉

Mr A – I’ve seen the signs in our local shops for similar meetings near me (Coombe Dingle/Shirehampton area). Is it worth going/do they do any good…. I know that absolutely nothing will happen unless you do something, but I get the feeling that they end up being just a talking shop where the local bobby ‘…hears your concerns…’ but ‘…budget restrictions prevent any targetted measures…’. Happy to be put right on this.

I’ve never been to one but it was mentioned at the Cycling City meeting as an action we could take. I do know that there are some police officers out there who ride themselves, are aware of the reputation Bristol has for bike theft and are really keen to cut it down. It couldn’t hurt to give them some extra justification for what they are doing.

Fair enough – maybe I’ll wander along to the next one and kick up a fuss! 😉

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/8062541.stm

“Those caught got anything from a £250 fine, to a 100-hours community order, to three months’ detention”

Is that really a deterant? <Daily Mail mode> Hanging’s too good for the theiving scum!!! </Daily Mail mode>

Three months in chokey would deter me from nicking a crappy £50 Halfords special, but not someone’s top end Spesh or Marin.

It’s good to see a bit more publicity being given to the problem but people need to do their bit too. There seems to be a lot of “my bike’s been nicked – gutted – what can I get with the insurance money?” type posts on this forum which just fuels the problem. If the scrotes get away with it they will be back in a couple of months for your shiny new replacement ones.

I wonder who buys all the bikes – cyclists presumably?

I often wonder this too, they’re not all being melted down for scrap value are they?

Maybe a bit of time on ebay, a knowledge of bike stuff and some police powers could result in some very easy detections for the old bill.

Crazy.

Ebay? I reckon they’re shipped abroad in some container.

And I wonder if the thieves flog these top-end bikes to a fence for £100 and use the money to buy smack/cider – or whether the thieving operations are more organised too.

There’s potentially a very interesting article there if a reformed bike thief was willing to be interviewed by STW or another publication.

Anyone ever seen anything like this published?

Well I know one guy in Bristol whose bike £1500 was stolen and sold for £70.

So it varies from stupid kids, crackheads and organised crime.

Watch Points West this lunchtime for a longer article!

eBay, Gumtree and Trade It are all potential goldmines for your jobbing fence. Like I said, mine turned up on eBay along with an assortment of other bikes, and a satnav from the same seller.

If you lose a bike save it as a “favourite search”. The police do have teams checking eBay but so many items are listed on there, and the clues as to whether an item is stolen are often so vague, that it’s not quite as easy as it seems.

had a customer broken into earlier on this week with his insurance replacement orange going missing from inside the house as his shed wasn’t secure (front door needed repaired), got there just minutes after plod, who took almost 10 hours to get there (i took 2 hours) when i told him about all the other breakins in the last week he suggested that i knew a bit too much about all these bike thefts.

i’m a locksmith for flips sake, i’m dealing with your ineptitude, muppet.