a white KTM Chicago MTB 2009 version, 19inch frame was stolen from outside the post office in Quay Street, Ammanford, Carmarthenshire this afternoon approx 3.20pm.
The street was quiet, and apparently a male approx 35-45 years old took it and the cctv has captured him. apparently quite tall, medium to large build with receding hair.

John- I’ll look out for it I’m in Garnant) and post this thread on the Mynydd Do MTB FB page for you. Hope you get it back soon.

siwt mae ambrose.. hey yes you are close. cheers.

i can’t believe it happened., and it was quiet in town.
he headed back up to the square direction, but it’s unkown if he went left at the square or went left at the square and crossed the road by the square pub and cut across the park.. or went straight up college st, or right and headed up high st.

not many ktm’s around which should narrow things down a bit.

he is on cctv but the police can’t get access to the tape until monday as the cctv belongs to a 3rd party company, something to do with the post office

Bad news. When you get it back come and join us on a Weds PM ride. There’s a trail on Mynydd Betws I’m keen to ride- if I could only find it!

Fair amount of chavs around there I’d say.

ambrose the only mynydd y betws trail i can think of it the windfarm access roads. but i doubt if they let anybody on there.
then again there is a track where people go for a walk, that’s around the baran chapel

i can’t go far anyway or anything strenuous because i use my bike for getting to the shop and town because it’s more or less my mobility bike, osteo arthritis and all that. without it i am stuffed big time

michael, even though it’s a small town, there aren’t really many bike riders. in the daytime regulars, it’s more or less you can count them on two hands if that. then again there might be someone riding a bike right now when i’m sitting at home so i don’t see.

probably there are more bikes sitting at peoples homes so you don’t really see them as such

Will keep an eye if it comes lampeter /aber direction,but more likely some chav who will sell on .
Call to local cash converters etc might be wise idea.

paul.

I’m in gorslas, i’ll keep a look out.

I’ve posted on the MTBPigs website. We’ve got plenty of riders in Swansea and surrounding area.

John, it could be worth you calling The Hub in St Helen’s Rd, Swansea to ask them to keep an eye out. They occasionally get people taking stolen bikes in to try and sell them.

yea the hub aren’t open on sundays. there’s a place in station road in llanelli but i can’t remember their name. some place where they sell all sorts. Not sure if there’s anything in carmarthen similar.

why have i got a feeling i’m going to be checking ebay, newspaper ads etc everyday for the next couple of months.
I’m not banking much on the cctv, if i don’t recognise him and could be someone who’s moved here, i doubt if the police will…but you never know.

According to his actions, it looks like if he has done this kind of thing before, and knew what he was doing… if they catch him, maybe he could be linked to other thefts.

No sign of the police today, they said yesterday they’ll see me tomorrow which is today. I’d like to suggest something, whether they will do it or not is another matter.
If this guy is basically walking the streets, how did he get here. either walked, had a lift, bus. Maybe he had went into a shop like argos, but he didn’t have anything in his hands. Lloyds bank have a cctv and maybe he called at a cashpoint earlier. and that would give a name and address. Or if he had been in a pub, most of them have cameras now. so there’s always a way of tracing someone a bit

the bottom end of quay street has a chunky steel tower with a camera heading up, but that’s never been on as far as i know for years. Plus the one heading down quay st which sometimes is on.. laughable that, but soon as you pass the square that’s it.

If he came by car, hardly likely to put it in a back seat. Maybe he stashed it somewhere and rang a mate with a van. Unless the mate was already in the town parked.. doing that doesn’t make too much sense as there is no telling if anyone at all is riding… one thing, i’m set in routine but i was in the post office earlier than usual. ithe post office closes at 12 but the shop part is open til 7, and i normally go for a quick chat and say hello and i can see the bike from where we’re chatting. well, the front half.

Hmm i was at iceland in quay st not lom before, popped in quick for milk. then went to lidl for ten mins then came back.

coming to think of it, i did notice something a bit strange on thursday afternoon. or was it friday? normally i go to the butchers on wednesday but because i missed them, i went on thursday.
Someone asked me how’s the bike going? i briefly glanced at him as i didn’t have a clue who he was and wondered why he was asking.
or that could have been on friday when i went to the cashpoint. some shortish man, dark hair, maybe a bit of beard around 45 year old, but wasn”t the guy who took it.. maybe it’s unconnected.

I’ll have to have a think and try to remember if anyone else paid any compliments over the last few months. can’t think of any, usually youngsters are admiring. i know one chap who offered 20 quid for it and i said you are joking, then upped it to fifty

the amount of stuff appearing on ebay is an eye opener, every hour there’s a pile of new stuff appearing.

as my handlebars are mkateen, you can’t even buy them in this country.. then again, i did a search a few months ago out of curiosity if mine ever got bent, i wouldn’t even be able to buy them from europe.
From all the google searches i did, not once could i find kateen handlebars.. try it

someone would be mad to advertise it on ebay as a ktm.
creating alerts may sound a good idea, but there are a lot of permutations.

ktm chicago, white ktm, white ktm chicago. white mountain bike, white MTB. KTM MTB..

or just plain mountian bike. or mens bike. or mens bicycle grrrr.

if someone advertises a spare as kateen, then again how could i prove it’s mine. but it would be suspicious as i said, you just can’t buy them. no doubt another pile of stuff has arrived on ebay by the time i scrolled down

well, i’m disappointed in ebay. i mentioned a few years ago to keep ALL bikes as male bikes and female bikesand subcategorise them from there, as one single search should bring them all under one list. there are too many permutations and they don’t do much to help beat them. and only allow a listing to be called bike when listing.

you got mens bicycles, mens bikes, mens mountain bikes,

mountain bike and mountain bikes should show up in the same search but i wouldn’t put it past them.

but it drags on when used bicycles are also in the pile.

and i still cannot understand since the 1970s onwards, why on earth haven’t they ever issued a frame certificate system only allowing a bike to be sold on on condition that the certificate is supplied.

It’s simple. Name and address linked to the 1st buyer from new and passs it down the line.

no frame cretificate, no sale… simple system. and some sort of maintainace log. if someone changes the wheel, log it down.
No difference between a motorbike or a car really… no log book, i don’t buy

what i’m afraid of here is, if they do catch the person who stole it (it may well be linked to other thefts, you never know), is what if it is damaged or something
Would i be stuck in a situation where i have to prove that a mark or whatever wasn’t there before he took it? what if he’s ridden it rough and buggered up the gears. I know most nooks and crannies of my bike or would it be a case of my word against his.

at the end of the day, the bike is irreplaceable. you just cannot buy another like for like especially a 2009, unless by some quirk someone somewhere also has one for sale as they seem to be rare and the police are never interested in that kind of thing. just cold hard cash value is all they want to know.
Technically there could be one in a box somehwere floating about in the world in some warehouse, or some tiny bike shop in south africa.

I use my bike to get around because of a medical problem, and now some male has taken it, i can’t get to the town which is only 15 mins walk, the reason i got the bike in the first place is to alleviate the medical problem.. it was a life saver. and without it now, i am stuffed big time. i can’t walk without suffering uncomfort and pain, unless i grit my teeth and bare it.

I even asked the police if they manage to catch him, would there be an additional charge of hate crime or something, or crime against disability. The police asked me if the thief knew i had a medical problem? I said how would i know? It seems by what they told me is that a person cannot be charged with hate crime unless the person knows that the other person has a disability and intentionally uses it against the person.

personally i don’t like telling people my problem as it is my problem, and embarrassed in sharing personal information. maybe the person who took it had been watching the street and saw me limping when i was pushing the bike on the pedestrianised street or just about anywhere else. From the police point of view i guess is they have to prove he was watching me. And the only way to find that out is by catching him and asking, and the likelyhood he would deny watching even if he was.

having a car stolen is bad enough, some people don’t like having it back because they know someone else has been in it and intrusion. I guess it’s the same with a motorbike, or a cycle.

The police said on saturday they will visit me tomorrow (which was yesterday) and never did. The cctv images are clear and the only person who can access the machine is the post office technician. how long that will take is unknown. It could be today, tomorrow…next week.
They said that they would circulate the pictures. From what i can see, they may circulate the pictures to other police stations and one or two maybe off on leave or sick and they won’t see them them at all.

Jeez it would be much quicker to put the image on a police website or police facebook page in case a member of the public recognises him, and facebookers pass on info much more quickly than the police ever would.. probably they wouldn’t like that sort of thing just incase it upsets the thief or rile up the public.
It seems a bit harsh but what can you do in exceptional circumstances.

I thought the police were saying a couple of years ago that they are going to be taking bike thefts more seriously.

I hope you get it back – sounds like there’s a better chance than normal if there is cctv footage.

Just in case you’re searching on ebay, I think the KTM own brand components are marked “kateem” rather than “kateen” (I have a kateem seatpost on my road bike, thanks to LBS who where KTM dealers)

Sounds like an opportunist to me which means if his mug was caught on CCTV then the Rozzers might be able to find him.

Unfortunately a bike can be moved on pretty swiftly (for a fair bit less than its legit value) with very few questions being asked…

yes, it’s kateem .. i must have pressed the n next to the m.
yea, kateem seatpost and handlebar.. where can you buy them as a replacement though? i know i did a search over year ago out of curiousity and came up blank. even the ktm handlebar grips i won’t be able to buy as a seperate if i ever needed to replace them through wear

yes, it’s kateem .. i must have pressed the n next to the m.
yea, kateem seatpost and handlebar.. where can you buy them as a replacement though? i know i did a search over year ago out of curiousity and came up blank. even the ktm handlebar grips i won’t be able to buy as a seperate if i ever needed to replace them through wear

I’m pretty sure that you can’t buy kateem stuff, unless it pops up on ebay or so on.

But on the bright side it seems to be fairly low-end stuff (strong but heavy), so pretty much any replacement would be an upgrade!

that’s what i thought. they must be making them as one offs.
i remember now why i looked it up, we were having a chat and i thought what if it crashed the bike and the handlebar went. so i started looking and came up with nothing

as for opportunist, i’m not sure on that one… if there was a gang around, the first thing they would do is survey the area and check out the cameras.

what is bugging me is the way the man rode off. either he was dim or didn’t know the other cctv was there a bit furher up. if anything, he didn’t bomb out of the street..but why did he go straight to the end.
If he turned left after the postoffice, he would have avoided the cctv and gone down the backlane into a small carpark and the area behind the shops. then again, it is common knowledge that the main town ccctv sometimes is operated.. either he knew this or chanced it.
or as i said, didn’t know they were there. can hardly miss the soddin thing, tall tower with cameras on it

as for opportunist, i’m not sure on that one… if there was a gang around, the first thing they would do is survey the area and check out the cameras.

Surely that’s not opportunist.

Opportunist = man wanders up thinks ‘hmmm, bike’ and pedals off, with nary a care in the world about CCTV.

Hope it turns up, I really wouldn’t worry too much about the lack of Kateem stuff, OEM finishing kit is rarely available after market, but it’s rarely any good, so no great loss!

in the early 90s or late 80s, i often wondered why people were walking around with a front wheel in their hands. i used to think they’ve vandalised someones bike when in fact they were taking the front wheel off to deter a thief.. i used to think that was weird, but what was the country coming to. you never heard of much bike thefts much.
i used to think who the hell would want to steal a wheel, but it takes allsorts.

why do people steal a bike? there can’t be many reasons. either they want it for themselves, want it for parts, steal it to use as a part exchange, sell it on, or to spite someone.

alarming as it sounds, maybe agovernment in the past didn’t want to start a better protection scheme because a bike theft is beneficial for them. when someone buys a new bike, they pay tax on it.. when a bike gets stolen and someone buys a new bike to replace, they pay tax again and that benefits a government. maybe that tax is used to pay the police.

all they had to do in the past, even if it meant a couple of pounds added onto the bike cost, all the manufacturer had to do was issue a certificate with the frame number on it. and if anybody tries to sell a bike with no certificate, the buyer doesn’t buy. some sort of v5 system. or something like a swipe card. something with a hologram on it that confirms the serial number. that would be a real detterent surely.. the only drawback with this is if someone forges a certificate. but it won’t make sense for someone to forge a hologram just for the sake of one bike. it may not prevent the theft but at least they can’t sell it on as a whole… which goes back to the parts. the only purpose for a theft under a v5 system would be solely for parts. if a thief robs someone’s certificate, that could be a problem, but if a change of ownership is also linked to the certificate in exactly the same way as a v5, there shouldn’t be a problem.

so, who’s got the b@lls to impliment it?

a drawback is, how on earth will it be possible to prove an existing bike that needs to be registered actually belongs to the rider. One thing for sure is, only a receipt is the evidence that a bike belongs to that person. it’s the same with a car, a v5 is not proof of ownership, it just says you are the keeper.
It will be no good if a stolen bike slips through the system when registering for a certificate.

They should have done this years ago, and people would have thought twice if a police officer approaches a rider and asks have you got your certificate on you sir? if you haven’t, produce it at your local police station within five days.. probably the police will end up complaining that would take up too much of their time and cost the government money.

i hope you get your bike back; but

some sort of v5 system

no.unenforceble and adds to new/ second hand & tax cost.

wouldn’t work anyway; components are worth too much. like the bikes in the farnbough area theives sell components and ditch the frames

http://www.nhampshirectc.org.uk/pages/Stolenbikes.html

that’s true as well. if someone is opportunistic and doesn’t give a flying one if he gets caught on camera. i’d call that a psychotic opportunist then. or just didn’t think about the consequence of been filmed… then again, he may have thought about the camera and thought haha the police won’t catch me cos they haven’t a clue where i’m from.

if the fine system is pants, why don’t they do owt about that too? if this guy is working and thinks nothing of being fined £100, that’s a quarter of my wage, i can afford to rob people and pay a fine, fine them £500… then again, civil liberties will come in and say oh you fined my client £500 but the bike was only worth £300 or whatever.

I know what it’s like being pulled over when i was on a motorbike. pain in the backside when on the way to work.. i remember being issued a take your docs to the police station within 5 days thing back in the 80s.. five or ten mins later, a different police car comes and asks me if i got any documents on me. i said no so he issued me a ticket to take my licence and insurance to the police station within 5 day.. i said to him you’ve got to be kidding me.. i told him and showed him the other ticket, and he said that doesn’t matter. serious?

i suppose the point is, would cyclist become a target in the same manner as motorcyclist are and were? it would be a nuisance being stopped every five minutes, even though the intentions are good

how much would it add onto a new or used sale? i would have thought it would cost much to implement.. all that would need to be done is put it on the first sale from new.

otherwise the only other option when selling is provide the receipt.
then again if the frame number isn’t on the receipt they are stuffed.
the only other thing would be the store provides a printed out certificate then.

if you buy a mobile phone from carphone warehouse, they print out the imei number on the receipt. that would be evidence that the phone is not stolen if i sold it. if a phone shop can print that info out, surely a bike shop can do it as well? but all the smaller bike shops that don’t use a computer system can’t do the print out.

the only people who can do it is the manufacturer then, and the dealer stamps it. unless someone puts in the wrong certificate in the box by mistake and end up in a hell of a mess.

it won’t be possible to do much on the spares side. if the police raided someones house and found a stash of cassettes, would they be able to trace that back to the manufacturer then and be able to tell what bike it was fitted to? if there was a component number on the sprocket during the sprocket manufacture, then that gets sent to the bike assembler. the factory scans the barcode and links it to the job number. i can’t remember seeing any sort of product number on the handlebar and even if it did, it would need a batch number to link it into the job number. then again, how could it work when something needs replacing? the job number would need updating.

stamping a batch number on the seatpost will have room as it sits inside the tube. wheel rims would be the same. what happens when you change the wheels. if there is nothing stamped, they’re stuffed.

don’t they have a product number and a batch number on a replacement set? the buyer can always write down the batch number before fitting. but with a new bike, it’ll be a job to get the batch number anyway without taking things apart.

so, if someone steals a bike and strips it, and the police turn up not knowing what part is which, how the heck can it be proved that one in a pile of shifters that are all the same model that they found ‘may’ belong to you.

if the manufacturer does have some form of list of batch numbers even on some components, surely the common sense approach would be to supply that after assembly to the customer, even if that’s clutching at straws.. 🙁

You truly are over thinking this. None of that is even remotely plausible! If nothing else do you honestly think the police are going to track cassettes back to their individual owners?! Who’s responsibility is it to catalogue all the parts too? What happens if I change my cassette, do I have to register it? What about brake pads?

otherwise, the only logical thing i can think of is just like any other manufacturer does, supply a guarentee card, fil it in, send the part you need to back to the manufacturer, retain the portion you need, and use that as proof when selling, preferably with receipt attached

Seriously!? That’s insane. No one buying a bike wants a stack of paper for every part of the bike. What if you break a spoke, do you have to register that?

Just will not work. Move on.

There are some very nice carbon frames which may not have been reported to Farnborough Police or may have been reported to another police force as we are close to the border with Surrey Police and Thames Valley Police.

that sounds a bit suspicious of one of the police forces not working fully with hampshire. or if not that, other forces are not working with others. that could well be a bike stolen from oxford shire and if that’s the case, they aren’t working with their neighbours tames valley.. or some bikes are from mersyeside, or greater manchester… or even dyfed-powys hmmmm

WTF

i hope the guy gets the bike back but i can not believe i just read all that… it really is time for bed….

if my bike was stripped and the police found the frame, i’m not sure if i’d want it back tbh – not like that. the original parts are almost impossible to aquire – all or nothing – as a frame on it’s own is meaningless to me… but saying that, some people like to buy a frame only and build it up themselves.

if they find the frame on it’s own, what happens then? am i in a postion to reject it or am i forced to take it as it is?

then again, if he has scratched it or any other damage, am i in a postion to say look, he’s caused damage, it’s not going to be possible to respray because you cannot obtain the trims, or if he’s fecked up the forks. can the police say to me they found the bike but it’s damaged and force me to accept it back? or would it be a case of taking him to court, fine him… can a judge order the thief to pay the current value of the bike as a whole on top of a fine?

unless someone can come up with a system that will frustrate a thief and prevent a sale, putting it bluntly, it will just carry on forever if nobody has got the b@lls to do it.

even though a motorcycle is inder the v5 system, a thief cannot sell that on without it. but the unfortunate byproduct is stripping it down for parts – jsut the same as a bike.

a car is under v5 and impossible to sell it on without v5. if someone stole a car, the by product is parts again.

But i do not see a problem at all with the manufacturers issuing a ‘passport’ with the frame number stamped on, and you can only sell it on if this is passed onto the buyer. as long as this can be done, everybody would be a bit more happier and maybe a bit reassured and public confidence is restored.

what would happen after? unfortunately the parts will be the only option for them.

as for police spot checks, i would suggest issuing a card supplied by the manufacturer alongside the passport that can be carried along with them in a pocket. and they could well have done this years ago

make it hard for the thiefs..

John, what type of lock were you using?

unless someone can come up with a system that will frustrate a thief and prevent a sale, putting it bluntly, it will just carry on forever if nobody has got the b@lls to do it.

even though a motorcycle is inder the v5 system, a thief cannot sell that on without it. but the unfortunate byproduct is stripping it down for parts – jsut the same as a bike.

I’m not sure if you’re naive or just a little short-sighted… Cars have v5s and registration documents. Cars get stolen, lots.

‘passports’ for bikes is a truly mental suggestion, do Toys’r’Us have to supply them with all of their bikes? What happens if you lose yours? Who replaces it? Is it worldwide or UK only? What happens if you buy the bike abroad?

It just wouldn’t work.

Yes it’s a shame your bike’s been nicked, learn from it, buy a better lock, or don’t leave it in such obvious places. Get some insurance, but not implementing a bicycle ‘ID’ scheme is nothing to do with balls, it’s to do with being sane!

update: this is a bit contradictory. the police officer dealing with the theft in ammanford said that the cctv stills have been sent out to dyfed-powys police, and southwales police which covers swansea-merthyr-chepstow.
last night i rang to mention something and the officer is off for a week.. so much for progress and updates. how can i get an update if the officer is away?
anyway, the sergeant i spoke to last night said the cctv still maybe sent out to other stations. i pointed something out, what if you sent out the stills and somebody is on leave and won’t see them at all? and it could well be the person who was off on leave may well know who it is. no reply

i suggested for them to save time and effort, why don’t you just put up the photo of the bike thief in the police website, and issue the picture to the press so they can issue an appeal that way? or are they afraid that the public are doing something more than they are? no reply.

the police attempted to discourage me from doing an appeal. they said they are not going to issue cctv images to the media everytime a bike theft takes place. i said i digress from this because just how many cctv images actually capture a bike theft? a lot of newspaper websites publish a photo issued by that police force, what do the police here have to hide? why are they reluctant to publish? then again, i was told by the reporter that southwales police do issue photos to the media but dyfed-powys don’t… strange

i was told that ammanford is a relatively crime free area (whatever that is supposed to mean) or are they more concerned about their image, and they don’t want to cause a fuss?
A reporter mentioned this morning that if it is crime free then they have more time to investigate, and she was right.

so, which way did the thief go at the town square? either turn right, left or straight on as there is cctv there too, which may not have been manned. also there is cctv at the bottom of quay street which was installed around 2005. can’t miss it, a solid steel tower. wonder if that ever has been switched on. plus the new cctv at the new bus station. obvious the thief had to arrive at the town somehow. maybe he used the cashpoint. now that would give a clue who he is….bank account number, a name even. anything at all that could suggest movements prior to the theft and after.

the other policeofficer says they are not local. i thought what do you mean they? how many more are there. i thought it was just the one, but apparently it was said that a younger male was peering into the postoffice as a lookout. so, if the police cannot be arsed to look at the town square cctv to see which way he went, that gives the inpression overall they have downgraded bike theft.

why? if it was someone local, they know which way to go. so if the police are saying they are not local, how do they know which way to go? if they went straight at the square, they knew where they were going. i don’t think he turned right because i went round the back of the postoffice and emerged back in high st and he would have passed me.

i suggested to the police what if it’s a guy with a van? and the police say to me no it wasn’t a man in a van. well, they are hardly likely to stash a bike in ford focus are they.. so, if they had no van and there were two of them, where would they go.

an email was sent from ktm to me this morning as well, he said that i was the only person to buy a white ktm chicago 19 inch in 2009. and that my bike was more than rare… that sums it up.

as far as i’m concerned, my bike was the only one in wales.

since thieves use boltcutters to get through a lock whether it’s a thin lock or a 16mm one, they still get through it or simply carry a bike away. lock the back wheel and front wheel to the frame, they’ll still carry it away

at the end of the day, bike thefts will continue whether a bike is locked, snatched whilst tying their shoelace, locked in a garage on mounted frames which get hacked off.

one thing that can be done is make it impossible to sell it on. and if that means an extra tenner on the price of a bike, so be it.. peace of mind.

yes it will have to be worldwide.. if you want to stop the rot.

people should be free to do what they want with no fear of theft. people are actually allowed to walk down the high streets of britain freely pushing their bike, and if they like to pop in the butchers and leave their bike outside, they are entitled to do this and rightly so without fear of crime.

otherwise thieves are eroding civil liberties, and everybody will end up being a prisoner to theft.

actually, like i was saying initially, my bike is my mobilty method due to an illness. so parking it 200 metres away or whatever and experiencing discomfort and pain to walk to the shop from there aggravates the injury.