Spotted on our BBC Local News Site (at 18:29)

Police are advising people not to take “matters into their own hands” after a Bristol woman stole her own bike back from thieves.

Jenni Morton-Humphreys spotted her stolen bike for sale on Facebook.
Posing as a prospective buyer, she arranged to take the bike for a “test drive” and sped off with it instead.

There’s an interesting quote from the local plod suggesting that they’d worked their fingers to the bone with an exhaustive investigation before drawing a blank (posts on here suggest that the police aren’t even interested when folk contact them with an Ebay listing for their stolen property).

We’d advise against people taking matters into their own hands due to the risks involved and the fact it provides criminals with an opportunity to destroy evidence before we can investigate them. In this case we’ve carried out a full investigation into the theft of the bike and exhausted all current possible lines of enquiry pending new information.

Spokesperson
Avon and Somerset Police

Translation from A&S spokesman:

“Don’t take matters into your own hands and do a better job than us as it makes us look incompetent and disinterested”

Was in the local paper. Police didn’t come across especially pro active. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/woman-tells-dramatic-moment-stole-203259

If it’s the woman with a blue bike, I read a similar report today, and the way it was spun is police basically told her they didn’t have the time, despite a conviction being handed to them on a plate.

So she had no choice of she wanted her property back.

She was on radio 5 this afternoon, gave the impression that the Police gave every excuse not to have to do anything. She also said that she shoved some unwanted keys and something else of no value in his hands so he’d let go of the bike, jumped on it and rode off.
Also her friend who was looking out for her said the scrote stood there for a while until one of his mates (the scrote) shouted that she wasn’t coming back.

There was an article a few years ago (in the Guardian I think) where a journalist got his bike coded at his local police station, a scheme which thy ran. A couple of weeks later he reported it stolen, and another journalist handed it in the the same station saying it had been dumped in his garden and he though it was stolen. The police just sent it to auction.

Thankfully we also have examples where they do try http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/34-people-charged-in-connection-with-aberdeen-bike-thefts

Was in the local paper. Police didn’t come across especially pro active. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/woman-tells-dramatic-moment-stole-203259

cross chaining!

Quality polis.

A mate of mine, who is now a police sgt but wasn’t then, had his bike nicked out of my garage in broad daylight. I put some feelers out & word got back as to who’d nicked it. Mate went round to perps house & asked where perp was, he wasn’t in but on his way home saw him sitting with 2 mates in a car nearby. He stopped & went over, knocked on the window & said, ‘I want me **** bike back, now’, perp says, ‘I haven’t got it’, mate says, well go & **** get it, if your’e not back here with it in 30 mins I’ll smash your head in, & I know where you live’
20 mins later he had his bike back.

‘I want me **** bike back, now’, well go & **** get it, if your’e not back here with it in 30 mins I’ll smash your head in,

A police officer, that explains a lot.

That Bristol Evening Post article is a crappy piece of writing.

My brother had a canoe stolen from his place. Being in a small town and thieves being generally a bit thick it didn’t take long to arrange to meet them to buy it. Turns out they had stashed it by the river in a field not 300 yards away..

My brother phoned the police and explained the situation and asked if they could be at the field gate at 19:10, a few minutes after the meeting was to start. At 18:30 they turned up at his place with the canoe. “We recovered your stolen property for you” Bravo, well done, some quality law enforcement there. They just couldn’t be arsed with catching thieves with stolen property, wtf?

On the flip side they weren’t interested in the assault that occurred half an hour later either..

West Yorkshire fuzz didn’t feel bothered when we lost a bike. Nor were they bothered to follow up the forks turning up on scum-tree site. Two weeks later
‘we called be he says they’re sold nothing we can do really’
Feckless arseholes imo. Take care of your own stuff cause the cops don’t care.

nickjb – Member
Was in the local paper. Police didn’t come across especially pro active. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/woman-tells-dramatic-moment-stole-203259

😆

Wife had her bike Stolen (from inside a church no less) a few years back, rang police and reported stolen and told an officer would be with us the following day to take a statement.

I went out riding round the local ‘dodgy area’ and within 30mins found it propped up just inside the front gate of one house, I quickly took it and rode home with it.

Called the police back to tell them it had been recovered and asked if they wanted the address of where it was found, they weren’t interested at all, just wanted to confirm that it was no longer missing and almost implied they were grumpy I’d reported it stolen in the first place since it was so easy to find! They just wanted to confirm it was no longer missing so they could close the call ref. Even had the cheek to end the call with “If there’s anything else we can do for you please call”

Else! Else!? you didn’t do anything at all to tack an ‘else’ on to!

Grrrrr

Just stealing the bike back is for amateurs – this friend of my OH gave the bike thief a strong talking-to as well 😀

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-40553876

^^^^ Good for her!

A police spokesman said: “Always use 101 in circumstances like this. Let us know what’s happening and let us deal with the confrontation side of things.”

Really?

A police officer, that explains a lot.

LOL! This was about 10-12 years before he joined the police force. I think he’s probably currently the shortest male Sgt in the UK police at 5′ 4″ & a bit. (with a titchy bit of ‘Little Man Syndrome’)

But as I said…he got his bike back from a scrote.

I had a Turner Flux stolen from outside a COOP in Reading.
I didn’t lock it, my bad.
I did though report it on 101 to Thames Valley Police
I also went back and viewed the footage from the CCTV of the store.
Good footage of the guy following me in, having a look around to see where I was, all good footage, somebody in the police would recognise him.
Good footage of him actually taking the bike from the bike stand and riding off in a particular direction.
Anybody in the police or general people that deal with criminals would probably have known him.
Police say there was not a camera overlooking the bike stand.
Got a senior police officer involved; nope; not a camera looking at the bike stand.
They don’t understand or care that I actually saw the footage and they are lying that there was no footage.
I would gamble on the fact they didn’t even attend.
She person I spoke to said I could make a complaint but where would that go?.

Did I mention ‘good footage’?
I was never good at compiling a letter