Doubt they’d have been in an RX8. More likely a false reg number surely.

Some crime statistics here

86%* increase in middle class paranoia over the same period

*might be made up

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.

Don’t engage with anyone you don’t know until you have seen photo id, and take a photo of it. Not some silly in-house printed bit of card but something official. (Driving license is ideal).

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.

This. Even if you’re very careful about coming and going with your bike it’s likely that various people know about it, and word might get about to the wrong people.

Also the OP says the bikes on his ground anchor didn’t go, which suggests the scrotes weren’t fully equipped, which makes it less likely it’s some super-organised gang I reckon. Still sucks though.

just to throw some more anecdotal evidence into the mix, a mate of mine bought a new £3k bike from a large online mail order company, took it out of the box, assembled it and left it in his dining room from where it was stolen 4 days after delivery having never left the house. Thieves went straight in, took the bike and left the new 40″ telly in the lounge etc untouched. Might have been a coincidence but then again might not have.

just to throw some more anecdotal evidence into the mix, a mate of mine bought a new £3k bike from a large online mail order company, took it out of the box, assembled it and left it in his dining room from where it was stolen 4 days after delivery having never left the house. Thieves went straight in, took the bike and left the new 40″ telly in the lounge etc untouched

Curtains open?

Out of sight out of mind. Also my bikes are so dirty most people wouldn’t know if they were valuable or not.

Don’t think this is the case. My mate got done last week. They spent a long time getting in – crowbarred the padlock from the door, then crowbarred the door out of the frame as it was held in place with locking bolts. The door’s at the back of the garage, as is the only window. The front door of the garage rarely opens.

Once inside they specifically targeted the MTBs, taking all three yet ignoring the two (very nice) road bikes. They also took all the spare tyres, then went through his labelled spares boxes and took everything relating to Hope DIsk brakes

Make no mistake, this is not some amateur who’s wandering around and picking up anything left unsecured – this is a person / gang who know exactly what they are looking for and where to get it.

More likely a false reg number surely.

This, unless your neighbour actually clocked the car and positively ID’d it as an RX8. But even then, it could be a cloner. Not exactly difficult to get a false set of plates made up.

I once got a speeding ticket issued against a car that I owned – the offending vehicle was identical in every respect (make, model, colour), but as I was able to prove that I wasn’t in the area of the offence at the time, the 5-Oh took the approach that it was a cloned car.

Not sure about the trail centre/DVLA theory as I can’t remember the last time I drove to one – almost always get a lift off a mate. Maybe we were followed home but I certainly think my bikes were targeted.

There a 5 houses in a row with sheds on our terrace. We’re in the middle yet none of the others were touched.

One person said crime is falling in this country.
Sadly it’s not true the fact is its on the up but it’s just not reported as much now because the police do little to help and even if someone is caught they get off scot free to do it again.
HANDS OF WITH A MACHETE I SAY.

If it’s not being reported, how do you know it is on the up? Can you point to any actual figures, or is this just a hunch?

Sadly it’s not true the fact is its on the up but it’s just not reported as much now

Yep one of those my mate says lines really, stats there all bull what we need is bigger/more/national service

Best deterrent is to get a reputation as a psycho. Local baddies won’t mess with you then. If they are foolish enough to try, you can rape, murder and eat them, keeping their eyeballs as novelty air fresheners.

Yeah until the real local psycho wants to up his rep/sees you as a threat – crying isn’t going to save you then :p
Interesting idea though about using mail order lists, I suspect it has happened but I doubt it’s the routine way organised gangs work (and I also suspect for most thefts where organised gangs are mentioned they’re far from being as grandiose at that implies, more likely just a few chavs that know each other).

For you who post pictures of your bikes on here try to Google your own name. Look at the results for 192.com and see what it shows about you. It’s quite easy to find where you live from your name.

I run a blog where local riders can report stolen bikes, so I get a pretty good overview of what’s going on in the wacky world of bike crime. The mundane reality is that high-end targeted theft, while it does happen, is only a small part of the problem, and most bikes are nicked by opportunists from sheds, bike stands or “secure storage” (behind coded doors, etc).

If there’s one thing we can all do to help prevent bike theft, it’s to stop buying from anonymous sources like classifieds websites and Ebay. And sign this.

http://www.stolenbristolbikes.com/2013/02/petition-to-make-serial-numbers.html

Don’t engage with anyone you don’t know until you have seen photo id, and take a photo of it. Not some silly in-house printed bit of card but something official. (Driving license is ideal).

I wasn’t the home owner and promptly told him so before he could finish his introductory sentence. Waited for him to return to his car before going back indoors.

In reality he may of just been looking at the classic car as a lot of people do take an interest in exotic motors.

It is interesting to see when you could get caught out, or “spotted”, however. Certainly living in strange times when you have to be careful about people seeing your bikes..!

my GF was actually filling up the bucket round the corner at the time

Not sure why that ^^ made me chuckle to myself… 😀

The various theories above ranging from organised crime to local scrotes are probably all true. MTBs are easily shifted desirable items at the moment so are of interest to organised crime plus local scrotes need to fund their habits.

Can’t think who buys off them to make it all worth while though…

Certainly living in strange times when you have to be careful about people seeing your bikes..!

You don’t “have” to. That’s your choice. Personally, if I saw somebody peering into my shed and looking at my bikes I’d assume they were interested in cycling and have a chat to them about it. But then I naively swan through life assuming that everybody I meet is fundamentally decent. Surprising as that might sound it’s done me just fine so far.

Yes, of course, sooner or later some scrote will nick my bike. But you what, I can live with that. It will give me an excuse to buy a new bike and if I’m lucky the insurance company will even help to fund it. What I wont do is live in fear of these scrotes. They can take my bike but they can’t take my … Well you get the idea.

fear of crime is worse than the reality of crime

+ A LOT.

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?

Lad a work got his bike (and kids bikes) nicked. Replaced nicely by the insurance company. Plonker then proceeded to leave the bike box out the front to be collected with the rubbish. Funnily enough, with the 5′ x 4′ “I’ve got a new bike” sign outside, his new bike got taken pretty quickly too. Insurance paid out again, but I’d hate to imagine the premiums next time.

Can’t think who buys off them to make it all worth while though…

That would be you, me, and anyone else who has ever bought bike stuff off someone they don’t know via a classifieds or auction site.

Crime may or may not be on the up but awareness of it certainly is. Be it via local news online or twitter or forums we hear about it a lot more. I used to follow my local police on twitter for their crime updates, quite frankly it made me a nervous wreck.

most criome

Irish crime?

Anyway, re the stats thing I’m very doubtful about reading too much into those. A firend of mine who works for the police was explaining to me the other about prior to the crime stats his force get instructed to break down a few doors/carry out a few outstanding warrant arrests etc etc so as to massage their perfomance figures in the annual stats.

EDIT:

The various theories above ranging from organised crime to local scrotes are probably all true

I’d err on the side of very organised IMHO. More anecdotal evidence here but a firend in Bristol had his lovely Marin full suspension stolen. It was secured via ground anchor in the concrete floor of his garage. They actually sawed the top tube to pinch it leaving him with a small 2″ ring of his frame. I can only presume it was taken for the parts and they knew exactly what they were after.

The fewer people know about your bikes, the less chance they’ll be nicked.

Keep the garage door shut as much as possible, even when inside it.
block your home address on strava
don’t leave a bike rack on the car
don’t have stickers all over the car connected with cycling.

lock them up inside the garage, cover them with insurance have the garage alarmed.

There is only so much you can do.

One person said crime is falling in this country.
Sadly it’s not true the fact is its on the up but it’s just not reported as much now because the police do little to help and even if someone is caught they get off scot free to do it again.

No, the BCS is independant of police statistics, it’s carried out as a survey (i.e. ask 10,000 people if they’ve been a victim of crime, then extrapolate to the population as a whole). Therefore in includes everything that may or may not appear on the police reports even if it was not reported or investigated or otherwise manipulated out of the statistics.

Crime’s falling (long term trend)

HANDS OF WITH A MACHETE I SAY.

What punishment for cheeky trail poaching then? Hack the tyres off?

I’ve never understood why people drive around with bikes displayed like trophies on the roof or boot rack. Mine go inside the car where they’re safe from road salt, damage, theft and prying eyes.

I often see people driving around in empty cars with bikes on show and I’ve even seen vans with bikes on a towbar rack. How stoopid is that?

I’ve never understood why people drive around with bikes displayed like trophies on the roof or boot rack. Mine go inside the car

Four Adults, + bike kit + four bikes

Won’t fit inside a vauxhall vectra

Hope that helps 🙂

So how many of us remove bike racks from the car I wonder ?

I do, for the reasons discussed. And it doesn’t take that long – I’ve got 4 bike carriers attached to two bars on the roof, I unbolt the roof bars and take the whole thing off as one (a helper here is handy if you want to avoid scratching the car roof though). It really doesn’t take very long.

I’ve never understood why people drive around with bikes displayed like trophies on the roof

Perhaps they need or want to transport them from a place to a different place? That’s generally why I do it.

Plonker then proceeded to leave the bike box out the front to be collected with the rubbish

Thing is all but the dimmest of thieves realise stuff is often covered by insurance and replaced soon after so repeat burglaries happen quite a bit regardless of whether you leave evidence out.

I’ve never understood why people drive around with bikes displayed like trophies on the roof

Well this is currently the top candidate for the retarded statement of the day award…

I think the point being made is why have bikes on the roof/boot if they will fit in the car from the point of view that ‘advertising’ them increases the chances someone will steal them.

Top marks for stealth if they were using an RX8, I would imagine they would have just been going though sheds looking for engine oil.

I’m kind of cynical about bike crime – I remember it was fairly common practice for teenagers to sell a bike, hacksaw a cheap lock and report it “stolen” as a natural part of the upgrade and wear replacement cycle. Sometimes their parents would be perfectly complict. I bet this is still commonplace and skews the stats.

I’ve never bothered insuring my bikes for more than the maximum on a normal home insurance policy, despite knowing that the garage was burgled burgled at least one before I moved into the house. (do have an alarm and bloody good chain though). I reckon I saved enough in insurance over 5 trouble free years to buy an acceptable used replacement.

I think the point being made is why have bikes on the roof/boot if they will fit in the car from the point of view that ‘advertising’ them increases the chances someone will steal them.

Small risk versus almost certainlly ruining the interior and causing hundreds of pounds worth of depreciation on your Audi.

Small risk versus almost certainlly ruining the interior and causing hundreds of pounds worth of depreciation on your Audi.

+1 I’ve a 7yr old Ford and the mess made of the rear door cards and boot plastic is probably enough to put anyone except another outdoorsy person off it! Not to mention the kilo upon kilo of mud that can accumulate if you ride more than a coupl eof nights a week anywhere other than a trail center, and then causes condensation inside the car every morning.

I’ve just fitted a towbar as I couldn’t be bothered with all that anymore. I’d put them isnde if it’s just me or a couple of us in the car, going a long way and taking a dirtworker, but for everything else they’ll be on the towbar.

All you need is a name, internet and access to 192.com and caboom all they need right there.

I’m sure things like the op suggested happens, people do all sorts of dodgy stuff with a link inside any business.