Thanks for the advice all. The violence angle is not really my thing. I like the "my kids are in danger" approach to the cops.
Make a call to your neighbourhod beat officer. He or she will like this one as it's an easy one.
Sadly it's pretty pointless threatening him, he won't give a shit and is probably more used to fighting than you and certainly has less to lose. CCTV/Insurance is probably your best hope, sure if you know a dodgy crowd yourself you could go down that route but you're just as likely to end up in the shit.
5plusn8, yesterday.
Again, get a decent ground anchor and chain, make things generally difficult and he'll pick a softer target. Anything else is just noise. He's an opportunist.
but I am not really confrontational, I’ll do it if I have to, but it’s not my default.
Preceded by I told him to eff off
He was probably watching to see when the builders left.
Where does he take all the bikes he nicks? perhaps they need to be told what is going on as well as notifying the police of his outlet.
No one to buy, no point stealing.
The only options I can see are:
1) Accept that this is part of life and make sure you have insurance to cover it.
2) Make getting at your stuff more hassle than it's worth.
3) Confront him in the hope that he bumps you down his mental list of soft targets.
4) Physically assault him so he thinks you're a bit nuts and not worth annoying any further.
1 & 2 are worth doing anyway, preemptively assaulting the fella would be out of the question for me which leaves just having a word.
If i was going to do that then it would have to be very specific and clear. Telling him to "Eff off" probably just registers as a close call but one he got away with. I suspect that until he's caught he'll be thinking that he's going about his business below the radar and your message to him needs to be that you have noticed him and that if anything of yours goes missing or is damaged then you'll know who to pin the blame on. Something along the lines of "It looks like you've been thieving, if I get robbed then I'll know it was you and your details are going straight to the police." You could close that with "I'll know who to come looking for" type comment instead of the police thing but that's only got weight if he's likely to be intimidated by you.
I can't guarantee this will be effective as there's also no telling how bothered he might be by any consequences that will eventually catch up with him but it is adding to any physical security you might add by making robbing you a little more hassle than the average punter.
Where does he take all the bikes he nicks? perhaps they need to be told what is going on as well as notifying the police of his outlet.
No one to buy, no point stealing.
Contrary to popular belief they don't just end up at Smack Converters, someone will buy them for a paltry sum (in the region of £20 - £50) and then shift them on to someone else further up the chain. The bikes will end up as bargains on Gumtree or eBay miles away or just sold wholesale and shipped abroad. There is no "outlet", the black market isn't a physical thing.
On a vaguely related note, I wonder if the likes of Ofo etc will reduce the market for nicked bikes. There are two borked Ofo bikes dumped in our street at the moment which have been there for ages as Ofo don't maintain their fleet anymore....
In my past experience they very often end up in smack converters, there will be a local outlet, he isn't retailing stolen bikes on a street corner.
If its anything like some of the thieves Edinburgh, he will just be hoarding them and nae selling them.
Placing a "sacrificial lamb" on your property, with strategically loosened components, would be funny, especially if you are able to video the carnage when he tries to whizz around a corner with a loose stem etc. Some pos/bso from Gumtree, would probably do the trick?
He might just knock out his teeth, assuming he has any left?
Just lock up the good stuff and wait for your trap to be sprung...
Place this in a prominent place in your garage.
Contents are up to you...
can't you just keep the bikes in the house rather than the garage until the builders have finished?
There's plenty of ideas if you just type "Bait bike thief" into youtube of how you can get some revenge on him.
Contrary to popular belief they don’t just end up at Smack Converters, someone will buy them for a paltry sum (in the region of £20 – £50) and then shift them on to someone else further up the chain. The bikes will end up as bargains on Gumtree or eBay miles away or just sold wholesale and shipped abroad. There is no “outlet”, the black market isn’t a physical thing.
When I was young you just had to know the right police officer, slip em some cash and hey presto... your bike got taken out of the shipment (rumoured to be transpennine in both directions) and magically found.
Of course this was before t'interweb thing... but begs the question how STW ended up in Hebden Bridge. 😀
Keep the bikes in the house till the work is done??
you Could then give him time to go in see there is no bikes before catching him inside, own him with bombers/call the police or what ever, if he knows their no bikes he prob not bother you much after.
A shotgun mine with the trigger wire fixed to part of a bike that is not noticeable, as soon as he moves it you'll hear the explosion then you can run outside and beat the ****ing shit out of him with whatever is lying around (you did leave a spade lying around didn't you?) - he had a screwdriver clearly visible in his hand (not one that matches any of yours and not a new screwdriver) and you feared for your safety/your families safety.
A shotgun mine with the trigger wire fixed to part of a bike that is not noticeable, as soon as he moves it you’ll hear the explosion then you can run outside...
...into the garden revving a chainsaw like a teenager in a barry'd up Corsa, whilst your mates hold hands and do a "ring a ring of roses" around him in full clown suits to a background symphony of Apocalyptica, Mad Capsule Markets, Coldplay and Sepultura, all at the same time and strobe lights, gotta have strobe lights, but with varying speed and see if you can get a midget to ride a tricycle in a PVC pony fetish suit and, and...
...if that doesn't put him off ever coming back to the bad trip house I'm all out of ideas.
He's close to homeless, how good can his home security be? Also, if he really is on Heroin he'll likely be out of it while you walk in and rob all the bikes back from him, then start a local re-distribution process to give them back to their owners.
Alternatively get a nest camera, some firm evidence of him breaking and entering your property and then share this with the police.
Final option, flyer the local area telling them he's a kiddy fiddler, he'll soon need to move home.
Sorry I don't think I explained clearly enough. The bikes are not at risk really, they are now secure elsewhere on the property since the theft of two years ago. Which I strongly suspect him of, hence his the renewed interest in a property that was rich pickings int he past.
However I still don't want this dude poking around, it's kind of like become his hobby, I guess until he scores something.
It feels kinda stalkerish too. Either way I wish he would **** off.
Some real Walter Mitty stuff coming out of this.
@squirrelking: I was right with you up till Coldplay. That's just sick man. No one deserves that.
I had a situation recently where some Facebook 'vigilantes' took it upon themselves to setup a protest outside our next door neighbour's (by that time empty) house. The upshot of it was that I went out to one of the police sergeants who were monitoring the crowd (Four of them were eventually arrested and charged with threatening to burn the house down with everyone in it. I can only assume they thought we were fireproof next door), and told him that both my wife and I were feeling extremely intimidated and threatened by this crowd of low life oxygen thieves.
As far as I understand, this was enough for the officers to act on and they moved the crowd away within a few minutes. For all that people are coming up with hard man tactics and jokey remedies, it's not a nice situation to be in when you actually feel under threat in your own home.
Make the police aware of what's going on, and keep making them aware. Someone else mentioned a screwdriver? If this guy is coming onto your property to do mischief, then he'll be tooled up. Phone the police, tell them someone's outside your property again and you think you saw something in their hand. Could be a screwdriver, could be a knife, could have been the light catching his mobile phone, but you're feeling threatened and intimidated.
Tell the builders you're pretty sure you saw him carrying some DeWalt boxes the other day. That should result in them taking locking up the site a bit more seriously...
he’ll be tooled up
In all seriousness, a mate of mine used to be a copper. One night in 2001 around 9:45 pm he saw a youth that was trying to break into his car outside his house.
He went out and gave chase. He ended up being stabbed multiple times in the chest with a screwdriver for his trouble. Came very close to death and was only saved by blind luck and a skilled surgical team.
This was in a sleepy Northumberland village in one of the lowest crime areas in the country.
He is now affectionately known locally as "Colander Bob"
However I still don’t want this dude poking around, it’s kind of like become his hobby, I guess until he scores something.
It feels kinda stalkerish too. Either way I wish he would **** off.
If he really is a hard drugs addict then I doubt threats of any kind will be effective for long (including the police threatening to keep an eye on him). The police would probably love to be rid but would need something conclusive as they are probably equally aware of this bloke.
I'm more of an opinion that other than extreme actions for which you'd potentially serve a lot of time setting him up on video is viable option.
Why don't you flip it around - keep him in your house and your bikes on the drive?
Then get a dog. Nobody is going to mess with a German Shepherd that wants to make itself heard (and it will). Plus, the kids would love it.
Get some of those cat scarers that use shotgun cartridges
<i>D</i>ont get into a confrontation with him physically... Even if you managed to kick the shit out of him you will most probably end up being covered in his hep c infected blood..
I’d suggest he has seen the builders and was just hoping they had left some tools about he could make a few quid on. Don’t escalate it, cctv plus make sure you have a big D cell mag light by the door in case you have to run outside in the dark.
follow Beagleboy's advice...
Add in mention of children/wife/peeping if needed.
cctv plus make sure you have a big D cell mag light by the door in case you have to run outside in the dark.
The only people that can control them are their dealers.
Solution there, become his dealer 😀
Buy a dog .... a very barky one
