Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 76 total)
  • my wifes theory on targeted bike theft
  • theendisnigh
    Free Member

    If you worked at a mail order bike shop, like CRC, you’d have access to thousands of addresses that order bike stuff.

    My shed (in midlands) was broken into last week. My ground anchored bikes didn’t go. I’ve just had the police here, the car that was used (neighbour got plate) is registered in Aberdeen, its a Mazda RX8 04 plate. Not exactly what you’d expect.

    It turns out that the vehicle has been used in other crimes in the midlands. Police reckon it might be a ‘pool’ car used by criminal gangs.

    So my assumption,that the thieves are just local scag heads was way off the mark it seems. Leads me to wonder why they targeted my shed. Were they just patrolling looking for an easy target? Or did they know I was likely to have bike stuff? How would they know that? A popular theory is being followed home, I don’t buy that one. Yesterday I was riding 3 hrs away from home. I am usually an hour away at least and I am quite extremely vigilant regarding my bikes. I’ve never been followed.

    I had a theory that thieves might note reg plates at busy trail centres and then have a contact that could access DVLA databases for addresses. But the mail order address lists makes a lot of sense.

    Candodavid
    Free Member

    Don’t ride trail centres, go more natural, or ride out from home

    Northwind
    Full Member

    My theory- fear of crime is worse than the reality of crime, I just get on with things and in the unlikely event I get robbed, I’ll get more bikes with the insurance, bikes with less dents and inexplicable squeaky noises.

    nickc
    Full Member

    you were right the first time, scrotes in a nicked car.

    DickBarton
    Full Member

    Why would the plate on the car not be cloned? Not a pool car or anything just a car reg of a similar vehicle from elsewhere?

    hh45
    Free Member

    Don’t ride trail centres, go more natural, or ride out from home

    you dont have to go to a traiil centre for someone to clock your number plate!! And riding from home will hardly help.

    Sadly, you wife’s theory probably has much merit although i expect you under estimate how many people (neighbours, casual mates down the pub etc) know that you are a keen rider either with or probably with some tasty bikes and they either know or it can be found out where you live.

    I’m always v quick to scuttle from house to car with my bike to minimise how many people see it but you cant hide it from everyone, year after year. but then mine is in a mid terraced house with a burglar alarm and not in a shed out the back. I never start Garmin or Strava until i’m well away from the house either.

    mattjg
    Free Member

    If you worked at a mail order bike shop, like CRC, you’d have access to thousands of addresses that order bike stuff.

    So do the courier/delivery companies of course. And the payment services.

    I totally buy the ‘followed home’ theory, though perhaps it’s not applicable in your case.

    remoterob
    Free Member

    Strava/Geo-tagged photographs/leaving the bike rack on the car/riding to the shops on the £5k mtb/tinkering the garden/buying & selling from ebay gumtree etc. – I can’t believe it when people put the reason for selling as “just upgraded to carbon blah blah blah”

    flap_jack
    Free Member

    trail centre / DVLA theory more likely IMO. If you broke into my shed from a CRC link you’d find about 30 part worn tyres and a load of 8 speed spares. Crims would know that. However, a reg of a nice new Audi at a trail centre, much more valuable…

    theendisnigh
    Free Member

    I hope I got followed home from the trail centre yesterday, it was a 3hr drive 😆 (Climachx, well worth the journey, thats my new favourite trail. I pity these ‘superior beings’, that won’t ride trail centres, its absolutely brilliant there.)

    richmtb
    Full Member

    My theory- fear of crime is worse than the reality of crime,

    This, very much so.

    Crime in the UK has been falling steadily, yet more of us fear crime. I often wonder why.

    willber
    Free Member

    They use all kinds of tactics – somethimes you’ve got to give these shits a bit of respect with regards to the way they conduct thier business. They are always looking, clocking etc.

    But sometimes peoples ignorance astounds me – last week I drove home from work and followed an open back jeep through a shit hole estate as it carried 3 very expensive DH bikes – i took a pic on my phone it was that stupid. I’ll try n post it – but I couldn’t believe how dumb they were being.

    Scapegoat
    Full Member

    I hate to say it willber, but the sort of person who carries three expensive DH bikes on an open top 4×4 on a rough estate is likely to be the local crime baron, therefore unlikely to become a victim. 😥

    theendisnigh
    Free Member

    Crime in the UK has been falling steadily

    bollocks

    allthepies
    Free Member

    Is your bike carried in the car or on the roof or a rear carrier ? If it’s externally visible then the scrotes don’t need to follow you from a trail centre/wherever, they can pick you up anywhere.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    I like well reasoned posts on crime rates backed up with evidence but hey if not that then a rude word works just as well

    My theory- fear of crime is worse than the reality of crime, I just get on with things and in the unlikely event I get robbed, I’ll get more bikes with the insurance, bikes with less dents and inexplicable squeaky noises

    THIS

    I have new for old so it would be shit but not that shit

    as for paranoia about being followed,DVLA on line stores etc i imagine [for most] it is just paranoia as I assume most criome is done by a local rather than an national gang who travelled to your house after tracking you.
    I am not going to stop riding from home, using a tow bar mounted rack or rush from my house only over cover of darkness but each to their own.

    fasthaggis
    Full Member

    Trust nobody, suspect everybody, lock things up tight.
    Nothing may happen, but worry and worry and worry that it might 😀

    dobiejessmo
    Free Member

    The way crime is reported is falling not the actual crimes.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    1 how many bikes were they going to put in the rx8?
    2 crime rates have been falling
    3 fear of crime outweighs the risk.

    The targeted things I have heard of were a few cases of following home in the forest of dean and someone stole a petition sheet from a bike day/event.

    After that the services on the way out of dh races and some guys from wrexham way targeting dh races there.

    My thought were I’d rather they didnt come into the house and left quickly. I do what the insurance company asks and I was never stupid enough to advertise by leaving bikes on show outside.

    theendisnigh
    Free Member

    I think its massaging the figures that makes crime look like its falling. The prisons are full, there is little deterrent, high rates of youth unemployment. Why would crime be falling?

    My bikes are insured when in the shed (money I’d rather not be parting with), but what happens if they are stolen? Does the premium not increase? And if they come back and nick them again, as is often the case, will the insurance company just keep paying out?

    robhenry85
    Free Member

    post man might know as well 😉

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    theendisnigh I suggest you google
    BCS – British crime statistics
    and
    Recorded Crime

    philfive
    Free Member

    I think your spot on. There was a well known case in my area of cars being stolen and some of the guys got caught. In the end it came out that they had been passed info from an insurance broker and also some main dealer garages of addresses and security systems.

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    It’s hard to connect serious criminal minds with bike theft ISTM – isn’t it too small time? If you were part of a larger criminal organisation, a full time BAD MAN, you’d surely have bigger fish to fry than turning over people’s sheds looking for mountain bikes.

    There’s no doubt the local scrotes are a creative bunch when it comes to nicking your stuff, and will selflessly dedicate themselves to this task. But anything larger than this, involving more coordinated activity, seems a bit unlikely to me.

    lapierrelady
    Full Member

    I had a very odd encounter on Monday when I was on my way to pick up a friends bike with two bikes already on the roof. 4pm, rush hour, gang of 5 chaps on bikes gawp as I drive past and immediately swing round and follow me. I pull up into work to collect friends bike. Chaps loiter round the entrance, hiding behind trees etc, then when I pull out start following me again.I guess they were trying to follow me home, but I was actually driving to Wales. Unfortunately they gave up after two miles!

    Slightly unnerving…

    muddyfunster
    Free Member

    I have a theory about your wife….she’s part of an organised criminal network that involves people at mail order bike shops, delivery companies, post men and roving gangs of trail centre spies. She takes a 40% cut of the profits from the sale of your bike which she uses to fund her addiction to crazy pills.

    Or, most likely it’s idle chatter. Probably a friend, or neighbour, or even your wife innocently mentioned to the wrong person that you have an expensive bike….this wrong person knows some dodgy blokes and bish bash bosh. You get robbed.

    Personally I struggle to believe in any grand criminal conspiracy. If you steal even an ultra high end, say £4k bike in decent nick it’s worth what 2.5k – 3k max after some use. Even meticulous stripping and ebay selling will incur fees that’ll make it difficult to get £2.5k for.

    Rather than setting up surveillance at trail centres and following cars all over the country and paying off insiders at mail order orgs I could just steal any mid price car from anywhere and sell it to my local unscrupulous breakers. Or I could break it and sell it myself and weigh in the chassis….

    martinxyz
    Free Member

    You can strip a bike to bits real quick but try getting rid of a car or a motorbike as quick.

    How many folk keep the serial number of their fox 40’s? How many have their vin No of their car..

    theendisnigh
    Free Member

    stealing from a shed is considered a minor offense regardless of what was stolen. Stealing a vehicle is considered a more serious crime.

    Muddyfunster, why say that about my wife? Is that not a bit weird and spiteful?

    muddyfunster
    Free Member

    theendisnigh .

    Muddyfunster, why say that about my wife? Is that not a bit weird and spiteful?

    It was a joke. Why would your wife accuse people working in CRC of being part of an organised criminal network of bike thieves? Isn’t that weird and spiteful and libelous?

    theendisnigh
    Free Member

    And I suppose you’d make that joke if you weren’t anonomously hiding over the internet? Coward.

    muddyfunster
    Free Member

    theendisnigh

    And I suppose you’d make that joke if you weren’t anonomously hiding over the internet? Coward.

    No, I’d be too afraid of your wife and her criminal connections.

    bwaarp
    Free Member

    Buy a land shark (German shephard) or a Newfie/Saint Bernard if you have a family….put it’s kennel next to your bikes.

    If you get targeted for another break in, the police will be able to trace them through testing their blood and bodily fluids that will invariably be strewn all over your house if they aren’t armed and come face to face with your new loveable doggy.

    satchm00
    Free Member

    Your wife is reading to much into it.

    They just pick an area, go for a walk and come back with whatever they can. I nicked a lorry driver few months ago, caught this person with someones garden hedge trimmer. They just went garden hopping, found a poorly locked shed and off they went.

    Takes all sorts.

    butcher
    Full Member

    Seriously, an RX8? You’d be lucky if you could get the wheels in there.

    greeble
    Free Member

    turn up at a trail center on any given sunday. walk the carpark noting all the numberplates.
    have a bent mate who has access to the dvla system – its not hard to find someone who has access.
    there you have the address where more oftent han not the bike is kept.
    had it done to me and thats how they got the bikes

    plyphon
    Free Member

    The other day my GF was washing her car using the hose from the garage.

    We live in a very quiet “locals village for local people” kinda place, so this is normally totally cool.

    However we were cold called from a sales team for Apple Home Improvement out of the blue (as the nature of cold calls are, ya kno) – my GF was actually filling up the bucket round the corner at the time so when I came to the door I caught him eyeing into the garage, looking at my MTB, BMX, and my fathers classic motor.

    I noted the number plate down. Debating also moving the bikes indoors for the next few months just in case. The garage is attached to our house and alarmed, tho.

    Am I being paranoid?

    mildred
    Full Member

    They use all kinds of tactics – somethimes you’ve got to give these shits a bit of respect with regards to the way they conduct thier business. They are always looking, clocking etc.

    Yes they are – its their job. The sooner people realise this the better. Just as you & I try hard at work etc. they do too at their work. They’ll employ whichever method they can whenever they can. They plan things well but are also willing to take any opportunity that presents itself.

    Best method is to not advertise the fact you’re into your bikes (amazing how many cars have sport/manufacturer stickers on them which act as an advert). Then make it as difficult as possible for them to get into whichever building you keep your stuff. Then make it as hard a possible to remove the stuff from that building with MAHOooosive locks, ground anchors etc. Then finally, ensure you’re adequately insured and that your insurance company knows the lengths you’ve gone to to prevent theft.

    The old saying is that if they want it, they’ll take it. Your job is to make as bloody difficult as possible so they make as much noise and take as long as possible which then give the Police the best chance of getting there in time or obtaining something of forensic value.

    iainc
    Full Member

    So how many of us remove bike racks from the car I wonder ? I have 3 Thule carriers on the roof and use them twice a week. I remove them once a year to lube and grease…. probably yes, I am advertising I have bikes but realistically what is the alternative ?

    mildred
    Full Member

    I am advertising I have bikes but realistically what is the alternative ?

    Errrr, taking them off.

    [daily mail] Even though its a pain in the arse it’s easier than having to periodically make an insurance claim and replace your bikes, not to mention the spiralling insurance costs as you make more claims.[/daily mail]

    iainc
    Full Member

    Taking off 3 sets of carriers from aerobars at 1130 at night, refitting in a rush after work for an evening ride – yes, definitely better security wise, but time consuming and a lot of faff. I don’t disagree that it’s sensible, its just unlikely I think for many people

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