Forum menu
When my bike was stolen from Edinburgh I was told that the police had a dedicated bicycle theft team - if that's the correct way to describe it...
Perhaps they do this, but I wondered why they don't actively try and catch the thieves. For example, it turned out that my bike wasn't the only one which had been stolen from the same place. Could they not set up a 'sacrificial bike' with tracking gear so that they could monitor it and track the thieves when they made off with it?
Use of a bait bike might be entrapment, not sure though
I think some sort of collaborative action would be a great idea. One consistent thing in this thread that's really surprised me is the amount of Edinburgh residents who've had the exact same thing happen.
dmorts idea of an FOI request is a good way to start it. As for the specialist team, they may be under-resourced, but they may not be the most effective either. Not necessarily through motivation, just in terms of proactively trying to catch them. An FOI request on how many they have caught could give some insight to this too.
There has to be some pattern to how they are offloading the bikes which could be identified too. If you could just make it hard enough to shift them it might be enough of a deterrent for them to move on to something easier.
I'm very much up for some sort of honeypot thing. Might be entrapment if the cops do it but if you actively caught them red-handed surely they could do something?
My FOI request idea is would be something along the lines of "How many thefts have been recorded where multiple bikes have been stolen, with a total value over £2K, and significant security, such as chains and locks, has been breached"
There has to be some pattern to how they are offloading the bikes which could be identified too. If you could just make it hard enough to shift them it might be enough of a deterrent for them to move on to something easier
Sorry, but a job like this, it's not a couple of scrotes chancing their arm. With a theft like this - proper equipment to get through serious locks/chains, enough people to shift bikes out of garage, van nearby to chuck them into - I'm afraid everyone keeping their peelers open will effectively be wasting their time. This is all properly organised stuff unfortunately. Usual modus operandi is to fill up a truck and shift them all to another location (maybe London, possibly even abroad) in return for a truck load of the same value for the Edinburgh mob. The bikes will then be broken down and sold for parts through a network of affiliates, as they're way harder to identify and worth much more that way anyway.
I'm ashamed to say that many moons ago in my yoot (1980s) I knew a guy who was involved in this kind of activity when 531 racers were the target of choice. They'd fill a truck up every couple of weeks.
Of course the profit potential nowadays, with the value of MTB parts, is enormous.
I've got mine in my shed with two of the oldest, heaviest, steel bikes I could find D-Locked to them with three separate D-Locks. Deliberately done to make the locks as inaccessible as possible from a cutting point of view. If they don't cut them they'll need to a) be weightlifters and b) make a new door for the shed to get them out. Whilst they're doing that, my large canine will be going mental at the kitchen window and I'll be downstairs armed with a powerful maglight (blinded thieves are much easier to deal with), a dog and a ton of righteous anger!
Really sorry to hear about your loss. In all seriousness though, the best protection you can have is a dog. Even organised thieves just want a nice, quiet, easy life. The last thing they want is to get attacked by an angry homeowner with a dog, or get nicked.
Just out of interest, found the thread below from a load of motorbike owners, regarding security. Worth reading for the gifs about 2/3 of the way down the first page!
http://www.ktmforum.co.uk/general-discussion/190407-best-security-chain.html
Funkrodent, I did wonder this. A network of further flung affiliates makes sense too. In that case the best bet is to catch them in the act, so the honeypot style thing would be best.
Shame you can't get some sort of taser device that would stun them long enough until the police arrived. Would love a dog with a young business and a 1 yr old I don't have the free time required to look after one properly.
As for the gifs was expecting some thieves-get-their-comeuppance type things. But the disappointment wore off fairly quickly 🙂
If these bikes are indeed being stolen to order, it makes me sick to think fellow mountain bikers, who enjoy riding are happy to source their bikes this way.
Second hand bikes never go for much on ebay/gum tree, so its amazing there is such an active stolen bike riding posse out their wanting these bikes to enjoy.
OP i've posted the bikes on the buy sell groups on FB and they are now getting shared by other group users...hopefully it will make the bikes easier to spot and harder for the thieving scumbags to sell
I have said on here many times that there are a lot of very high end bikes being ridden around pilton and muirhouse by thieving scrotes. I shall keep an eye out around here and will message you if I see any of your bikes.
Unfortunately the law protects the thieves to some extent,the police can see a stolen bike advertised on say gumtree but if they contact seller to "view" the bike it seemingly would be viewed as entrapment and then inadmissible!
The van thing seems to be the way at the moment,about a year ago a mate had three bikes stolen in the Dalkeith area one of which was recovered in a pile of not so desirable ones less than a 1/4 of a mile from Dalkeith police station, he was told by officers the following morning he was the 16th to report cycle thefts that day! 6 in his street alone!! Advice given was good locks,alarm and removing car bike racks as they see them and have a go! The Edinburgh SART team are unfortunately fighting a war which at the minute they can't win!
Just had a call form the police regarding my recent attempted theft. They're going to approach local businesses and see if any CCTV camera's picked them up. Supposedly my neighbour got pretty good descriptions. Fingers crossed!
Any update on this?
Shocker! Gutted for you. Have shared on fbook with my Borders / Edinburgh chums!
Sorry to hear about the theft 🙁
I saw some kid on an Orange 5 the other day down by the Water of Leith and it all looked a bit suspect. Sure enough on the stolen bike Facebook page someone had one missing so got in touch. Seems a huge problem in Edinburgh.
On another note saw some buzzfeed thing about Edinburgh being great to live in saying how you could ride your bike across the city in an hour and no one would nick your bike. Dream on!!!