Paranoia/ being followed with bike on roof

Hi,

MTB on roof rack on way home today. I turned into my street and there was a car behind me. I stopped and pulled in so car could pass me and I could reverse onto my drive. ( So far so 100% normal).

The car pauses. When it’s clear I’ve stopped it does a u turn and drives off.

The road into our street is a busy road, our street is a minor cut through. You can shave 40 seconds driving up out road by missing a couple of sets of traffic lights.

Two lads in the front of the car behind, an oldish fiesta with very tinted windows.

Paranoia, or reasonable caution?

I stopped 10 doors down my street, which is not normal because I got a weird vibe.

Some mates had their shed broken into a few years ago and the expensive bikes taken. As in the cheap ones were moved out of the way and the expensive ones were taken.

Your Spidey sense is probably correct.

Do some dog-legs and a stop short before getting home if you drive with your bike on display.

You’ll soon out people following you

I often ride past my own house if there is a car behind me and I don’t leave the bike roof rack on the car when it’s on the drive. The world we live in today. You are not allowed nice stuff ☹️

Might also be an idea to park the car a bit up the road rather than on the drive, or directly in front, as well as removing the rack.

If the car reappears, see if you can get a photo of the numberplate.

Fairly sure that’s what got our garage turned over. So many bikers coming into Shrewsbury that they sat on the main turn instead and followed. Bikes now travel in vehicles.

We had a spate of bike thefts in our village over the course of a month or so a few years ago. Eventually someone realised that all the bikes that were stolen came from a property that had a car in the drive with bike carriers fitted.

As per Dyna-ti and for a good couple of weeks.

We got followed last year from Gatley Tandoori of all places.  I ran an amber light on the way home  and clocked the car behind running it too -really late.  Then after another mile or so when we turned off on our road I realised they turned off too. I laughed and thought what the hell, surely not. But pulled in to park by the side of the road.  They went passed then next left out of site.  We waiting a while then pulled out and drove past the road they had turned into…. At exactly the moment they came back out of the road in the opposite direction ( having done a U-ey)

Cue lots of eyeballing of each other and emphatic photographing of car and number plate before they sped off.

I was soooo glad I had spotted them and not turned into our own drive.

We were followed riding home once. Lent bikes up to open door and do some faffing just inside. Realised that the car was turning round in our neighbours drive as one of its occupants was striding towards said bikes. Luckily we were between him and bike sharpish and he just turned round and got back in the car. We called the police. Car was nicked (they implied) and came back another day. We had told our neighbour who spotted it and followed it – it was just casing roads in the towns around looking for opportunities. If your spider senses go, they are probably right v

I’m sure I remember this being a bit of a thing around Glentress for a while – several reports of houses/garages broken into in a pattern of it being the same night they’d returned from a trip to Glentress, bikes on the roof or back of the car.

Do some dog-legs and a stop short before getting home if you drive with your bike on display.

You’ll soon out people following you

Full lap of a roundabout or leave a motorway and rejoin are both easy ways to spot anyone following. The old advice if you thought you were being followed used to be to drive to a police station but most of those don’t exist anymore!

Yes, the bike’s always the last thing to go on and the first to come off. Bike carrier off the car when I’m not using it. No photos of the bike on social media either.

Just checking everyone has their house hidden on Strava?

It’s the only advantage I can think of to living in a flat, yes, they could break in and get a few bikes but how to do that without waking eight households is the tricky part

The last time I left the bike rack on the car overnight a gang of lads ripped our garage door off. Luckily it was boarded shut with 18mm ply on the inside and they woke us up. They just walked away giving us verbal abuse with their masks and metal bars.

It was terrifying for us but it’s just another night out for them.

It’s the only advantage I can think of to living in a flat, yes, they could break in and get a few bikes but how to do that without waking eight households is the tricky part

Numbered parking bays

They just walked away giving us verbal abuse with their masks and metal bars.

It’s stories like this that make the Castle Defence sound like a good idea.

I posted about it on here when it happened. After we disturbed them and told them we were phoning the police they walked up the street, smashed the passenger window of someones car, reached in and released the handbrake. This car then goes flying backwards down the hill and smashes into another car.

One of our older neighbours had owned this MK1 Octavia from brand new and they destroyed it for a laugh.

Police did the usual. They’re still out and about every night making people miserable.