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So last night I was in my usual teleconference marathon with the US (8pm - Midnight)
Wife out at circuits, as usual for Weds night. Girls tucked up in bed.
Dog starts going nuts about 9pm. Not unusual - I think "Foxes in back garden"
Few mins later door bell rings many times. It is my neighbour. He says "Can you check your bikes are ok? Think I just saw someone riding your Nicolai & pushing your HT down the road."
I check, they are kept in the house, out of sight in a cupboard off the kitchen. Open the cupboard and they are both gone.
Try to give chase in car but needless to say to no avail.
Bit freaked out that they had the sheer brass neck to walk into the house knowing someone was in, steal the bikes and then close up all the doors behind them. Had it not been for the neighbour I may still be none the wiser. I also think Weds night was no coincidence???
Bikes are insured and replacable. My big concern is family safety. How far will they actually be willing to go?
After our last theft (~ 6.5 years ago) our house is like Fort Knox over night & when we are out. Given they are in the house & out of sight I thought we would be ok whilst in the house. Upping the anti (whatever that will entail) through the day is not an appealling thought.
Bikes are
2012 Large Black Nicolai AM with CCDB shock, Marzocchi 55 RC3 forks & 1 x 9 mix and mash drivetrain, XTR brakes, Reverb, White Charge saddle. Flat pedals
HT is 2008 ish Cove Hummer with Gravity dropper XTR drivetrain, XT brakes & 2013 Black RS Rev forks. Time ATAC pedals
Keep an eye out 🙁
How did they get in???
sorry to hear about your bikes....not to many Nicolai's about hopefully it will be recognised
😳
Which area of Bristol?
BLIMEY! That's some front. Sorry to hear that fella. They obviously knew exactly what they were after. You been followed home?
The same thing happened to my sister when she lived in Leeds. She was working upstairs, came downstairs and someone had cleaned her out. Telly, DVD player, Camera and everything they could carry. While she was upstairs!!! 😯
really sorry to hear about that
Does anybody in Bristol have a bike now? 🙁
the number of time I've heard of bike thefts in Bristol specificity is astounding!
Bikes will be replaced, but I really hope you can secure the house so you and the family feel safe again.
You mean they broke into your house, ignored the dog, & knew where the bikes were kept?
It's a friend of a friend.
*insert expletives here*
Speculation aside, it's really common for thieves to come back for seconds, usually a few months down the line when they know you've got your insurance replacements.
I would ask to be put in touch with the priority crime team as I understand they're allocating extra resources towards bike theft now. At least they should be - about £20k's worth went walkabouts in one week recently. 🙁
sheeeeeet.
Guys we were in the Lakes with came home to find their shed cleared out in Berkshire -
Salsa big momma 29er
Lynsky rd bike
Lightspeed rd bike
Lapierre Xcontrol 510
SurlyCX
Got any photo's?
Which part of Bristol were they taken from?
How on earth did they know to go to that cupboard!
Even just a simple wall anchor/lock might of prevented the theft, a pain yes but worth the extra effort each time storing the bikes away.
Although they would almost certainly come back tooled up at some point.
Something similar happened to me 10 years ago. 4 people in the house. No one heard or saw a thing. 2 weeks later I saw the bike and got it back.
Have you got any photos as riding around Bristol all the time so will keep my eyes open. Can't be that many Nicolai AM's in Bristol.
As a resident Bristol biker we really need to club together and do something about all these thefts. Not sure what but it is getting a joke now
That's awful 👿
Im interested to know how they got it. Was your back door unlocked?
Personally I'll make sure ours is always locked if we're sat in the front room you could easily sneak in.
Sorry about your bikes, not a nice feeling though.
F***! that's bad.
To know your movements that well
It's a friend of a friend.
Even if you were followed home how would they know you kept them in your kitchen cupboard.
How did they get through the door was it unlocked?
If the doors weren't locked, I'm not 100% certain your insurance will cover it... 🙁
I've got to ask here - do we all really lock the doors of the house when we are in?!
I don't. As a Dad with 3 kids we always thought it safer to have the doors unlocked in case of fires etc (while we are in and up and about obviously). Now the kids are grown up - 2 strapping lads amongst em - it would'nt occur to us that anyone would try and walk in while we are all around.
This does sound like someone who has knowledge of you, which makes it worse somehow. Hope you find the bikes and the b*stards that took em.
Sorry to hear your news. Glad you and yours are ok, but bet you are not sleeping sound after that!
--What can we do to get the polis to treat this targteted bike theft as a serious and organised crime?
Maybe the new police commissioner can be 'targeted' and join this up with 'cycling city' = safe from theft!.
Bris needs a zero tolerance campaign, publicity with pics and/or collared felon's on an official bris stolenbikes site - add in some data gathering so true scale can be seen by all (great job on that by the way whoever does it).
People coming in the house when it is occupied is an 'aggravated' offence (isn't it?).
If different high value items were being systematically targeted in this way I could imagine more being done.
Hruumphh
for next time maybe?
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My sympathy. It's horrible that scumbags will just walk in and lift stuff like that. We had a laptop nicked when my wife was alone in the house a few years back, this was when we lived at the end of a farm track, the nearest neighbours were 1/4 of a mile away. Luckily they legged it when she came downstairs to see what the noise was. It's not so much the theft itself as the feeling of insecurity that you get afterwards - you think of home as a safe place, then suddenly discover that it isn't really that safe after all.
We even got CCTV footage of the burglars from the neighbouring mill, and very clear webcam pictures of them from our front door, but the police **** up the ID process somehow so the CPS let them off without even attempting to prosecute. Pathetic.
do we all really lock the doors of the house when we are in?!
I didn't used to but I do now! Wife gets yelled at if she forgets (and vice versa).
Everyone's assuming they targeted the bikes.
Could it have been just a random opportunist checking back doors and kitchen cupboards late in the evening who struck lucky ?
That's terrible. Hope you find them. I'm upping security right now!
Sorry to hear your news and glad no one was hurt. Defo sounds like a targeted theft - if they broke in and took only the bikes. I recently had my bikes stolen, which seemed to be done in a similar fashion from my garage.
Makes me wonder where these bikes end up... I mean you hear hundreds of bikes stolen and very very few recoveries!
motozulu - MemberI've got to ask here - do we all really lock the doors of the house when we are in?!
I don't.
I do after a mate went into his kitchen to get a cuppa and was stabbed by a junkie out on the rob.
Keys are kept by back and front door in case of fire.
Jesus wept. Right I'll keep a look out. I wouldn't move but I would relook at security.
bonchance - MemberBris needs a zero tolerance campaign
I agree but this is hardly the thread to discuss such matters.
I've got to ask here - do we all really lock the doors of the house when we are in?!
yes, the back door is locked at all times, even though we live in a very low crime area (touch wood).
We've always locked our doors when in partly due to a naughty dog and now a naughty 3yr old.
I wouldn't want mrshora to be in alone with a door unlocked.
How the **** did the thieve know where to go though? Has anyone been to the house- friends of children etc?
Whereabouts in Bristol?
Everyone's assuming they targeted the bikes.
Could it have been just a random opportunist checking back doors and kitchen cupboards late in the evening who struck lucky ?
You reckon they were looking for a packet of Frosties?
It doesn't sound like a coincidence that they just happened to pluck a Nicolai out of a cupboard on a Wednesaday evening whilst Taz is elsewhere in the house on his regular conf calls, the kids are tucked up and his wife is doing her usual Wednesday night activities.
Whoever it is has knowledge of the family's movements.
Ugh gutted for you. As per other posts, interested to know which area of Bristol to and if anything else was taken. Does seem pretty unusual to just target bikes that are out of sight inside a house with the owner in it.
Is the gas/electric meter in there? Maybe a tip off by one of the readers?... Sorry about the loss of the bikes tho. nothings safe!
Edit: Trust no one!
I've got to ask here - do we all really lock the doors of the house when we are in?!
I do, but my missus isn't great at it.
My parents got robbed (car keys, phones and wallet) when a little shite opened the backdoor and took the stuff.
If he had been brighter and just taken the keys he would have had their cars overnight, but they noticed the missing phones. He also did 5 houses in the road at the same time, unfortunately for him one was owned by a Copper so it became a priority case and he was cause in days after doing this for months.
Mind you I also have another reason to do it, as a couple of months ago, someone (who I have never seen before) let himself into my house to deliver the parish magazine and the dog heard him and escorted him out .......
Mind you I also have another reason to do it, as a couple of months ago, someone (who I have never seen before) let himself into my house to deliver the parish magazine and the dog heard him and escorted him out of the house ...
I've had this- knock and try the door with a cheery 'hello!'.
I imagine not all opportunist thieves come in teenager/spotty packages.
Really sorry to hear about the theft, I live in Bristol and will also keep an eye out. A chap living on my road got broken into 2 years running just for his bikes, 2nd time I was the one to find his front door kicked in and the alarm going off - locked doors and alarms don't stop the f*****s.
I've had this- knock and try the door with a cheery 'hello!'.
No knock, no hello. Whomever it was as I have no reason to believe he wasn't delivering the parish magazine legitly but he wasn't the normal person, just opened my front door which wasn't locked as it was Sunday afternoon and let himself in, ignoring the 'Caution Dog Sign'
First I knew about it was I heard a faint noise in my hallway, following by scrabbling claws as the dog heard it and picked up speed followed by shouting, and scrabbling and the man was taken out of the house by the dog.
By the time I got there he was outside holding his arm, shouting 'your dog attacked me', to which I replied 'who are you? and what were you doing in my house' to which he 'held up a single paper pamphlet'. I rang the editor of the parish magazine to apologise and they said they hadn't had a complaint, and b. if someone had gone into their house their dog would have done a lot worse.
In hindsight, it sounds much dodger than I thought at the time ........
NB: I used to live in Clifton, and I had a steel security gate levered off the wall, and front door of my flat kicked in. Luckily I was away in France with the my bike at the time, so they only got some 'other bikes' downside was front door was left smashed in for a couple of days and open as it wasn't clear from the street that it had been done, and my missus had ~ 20K of jewellery left by her grandparents to her nicked.
Makes me shiver that twice a row mrshora left the front door wide open all day absent-mindedly recently.
Will keep a good eye out for you.
Several good first points of call - Southmead is always a good bet, seem to remember hearing there was a well known face up there but the police never seemed to have enough to just land on him properly.
Also worth notifying all the Crack Converters type places around town too - East St in Bedminster has a couple, I work near there so when I pop to the post in a bit, will have a sneaky look. Saw a Scott Genius in there a couple of years ago for £700, so on that assumption, someone sold it to them for £400 tops. I reported it but not sure the police ever did anything about it......
From my perspective, the longer the police leave the serious issue, the greater the risk that as and when a bike thief is caught in the act, the outcome becomes very unpleasant indeed.
So has the OP still not told us where this happened? Or am I missing it on my phone screen.
The thieves are getting very bold. We've had a spate of thefts in our area whilst people are in the house and I've had the car broken into followed by an alarm activation in the middle of the night when someone tried to force the garage door (where the bikes are).
Since then we've installed a digital CCTV system which sends photo snap shots via e-mail to my phone if anyone (or thing - ****in cats !) walks into a zone at the front of the house. Since we've installed it we have got 2 really good images of scum bags trying the house car and garage in the middle of the night and the police are using them as evidence.
The most recent spate shows scrotes walking past our house to the neighbours with their hoods up and looking away trying to avoid the camera. Hence, it appears to be having the effect.
We're told by the Police that a CCTV sticker or a Police campaign sticker which states the house security and contents has been assessed by the Police are great deterrents. I'm told they surveyed convicted burglars and most said they avoided those houses with the cameras and stickers.
If anyone wants a camera I have a cousin who installs them. Just send me an e-mail and I'll pass on the details.
Here's one of the ****ers from about 12 months ago. This was 11:00pm on a Friday night when my daughter was up watching TV on her own. If the door wasn't locked I dread to think what he would have done.
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I got an eyespy247 camera for my house, which I would highly recommend
Hi All
Appreciate the comments & feedback. Been away all morning and then with CSI, Insurance etc hence no reply
This was in the Westbury Park Area just off the Downs
We usually lock the back door even when in but we don't make an absolute point of it. We will now.
I have no doubt this was targeted bike theft. There was other stuff they could have grabbed but chose not to. I ride locally a lot. I don't know if I have been followed home but it is certainly a probability. They knew what they wanted and where I kept it. I think the Hummer was a 'bonus'
I have pics of the Nicolai with BOS forks that I can dig out(Marzocchi's are only about 2 weeks old). Not sure if I have a recent Hummer pic.
Surely this is something we should be pestering our new Police Commissioner about. Online petition plus Friday lunchtime 2 wheeled protest outside the cop shop?
Sorry to hear of your loss - will keep a look out in Redland area.
Interesting piece on BBC Points West this lunchtime about George Ferguson wanting to make Bristol even more of a cycling city - might be a good start if the powers that be start taking bike theft as seriously as they do other crimes. Perhaps Bristols' cyclists should be getting a petition together to present to George and Sue Mountstevens (Police Commissioner) about increasing police activity in identifying and punishing the culprits.