Discussion
To continue my crap week (3 penalty points!), I went for a short ride last night. A mere 10 miles in the pitch black and fog. It was the first ride in over a year and it felt bloody fantastic until...
...stopped at a shop to buy some milk (don't like dry shreddies) and locked the bike up.
On removing the key it snapped. Half a key in the lock and bike locked to a bollard type thing.
Hence a (thankfully) short walk home to get some tools. Ended up hacksawing the lock off.
Two couples walked past, a powerfully built taxi driver (with goatee)walked past and countless cars etc. Not one person questioned why a dodgy bloke* was hacksawing the lock off of a bike at 10pm in the evening.
Is it any wonder why so many bikes are nicked??
I feel better for sharing that. As you were.
...stopped at a shop to buy some milk (don't like dry shreddies) and locked the bike up.
On removing the key it snapped. Half a key in the lock and bike locked to a bollard type thing.
Hence a (thankfully) short walk home to get some tools. Ended up hacksawing the lock off.
Two couples walked past, a powerfully built taxi driver (with goatee)walked past and countless cars etc. Not one person questioned why a dodgy bloke* was hacksawing the lock off of a bike at 10pm in the evening.
Is it any wonder why so many bikes are nicked??
I feel better for sharing that. As you were.
- No lycra. Not powerfully built but I do have a small selection of chins.
I've had pretty much the same experience, except it was 11am on a Saturday morning and I was cutting through the lock on my daughter's bike - either she or my wife had somehow managed to change the combination to something random before locking it - with 3 foot long bolt cutters.
Again, nobody batted an eyelid. I just assumed it was so brazen that people couldn't possibly think I wasn't behaving within the law.
Again, nobody batted an eyelid. I just assumed it was so brazen that people couldn't possibly think I wasn't behaving within the law.
Not surprised - my son came out of a Tesco Metro store in Southsea - busy store, busy street, etc. to find a bloke half-way through his lock with a set of boltcutters. Luckily the bloke made off when challenged, and boy still has his bike - now equipped with a 'Sold Secure Gold' lock to replace the Bronze standard one that was damaged. No-one else thought to challenge a n'er-do-well with boltcutters quite obviously on the rob in broad daylight - luckily for boy the queue wasn't longer, or he'd have been walking home to look for a new bike.
On a brighter note, success in the Farnborough/Aldershot area for Hampshire Police. Three sentenced for bike thefts/handling offences after raids found 61 (yes, SIXTY ONE!) bikes or frames in a lock-up. Five people linked to one e-bay account had sold £200,000 worth of bike bits in the previous year. Three cheers for PC Richard Smith, and lets hope that this is the start of Police forces everywhere taking bike thefts more seriously.
For the full story, see page 14 of Cycling Weekly dated March 1, 2012.
On a brighter note, success in the Farnborough/Aldershot area for Hampshire Police. Three sentenced for bike thefts/handling offences after raids found 61 (yes, SIXTY ONE!) bikes or frames in a lock-up. Five people linked to one e-bay account had sold £200,000 worth of bike bits in the previous year. Three cheers for PC Richard Smith, and lets hope that this is the start of Police forces everywhere taking bike thefts more seriously.
For the full story, see page 14 of Cycling Weekly dated March 1, 2012.
yellowjack said:
Not surprised - my son came out of a Tesco Metro store in Southsea - busy store, busy street, etc. to find a bloke half-way through his lock with a set of boltcutters. Luckily the bloke made off when challenged, and boy still has his bike - now equipped with a 'Sold Secure Gold' lock to replace the Bronze standard one that was damaged. No-one else thought to challenge a n'er-do-well with boltcutters quite obviously on the rob in broad daylight - luckily for boy the queue wasn't longer, or he'd have been walking home to look for a new bike.
On a brighter note, success in the Farnborough/Aldershot area for Hampshire Police. Three sentenced for bike thefts/handling offences after raids found 61 (yes, SIXTY ONE!) bikes or frames in a lock-up. Five people linked to one e-bay account had sold £200,000 worth of bike bits in the previous year. Three cheers for PC Richard Smith, and lets hope that this is the start of Police forces everywhere taking bike thefts more seriously.
For the full story, see page 14 of Cycling Weekly dated March 1, 2012.
Great news!On a brighter note, success in the Farnborough/Aldershot area for Hampshire Police. Three sentenced for bike thefts/handling offences after raids found 61 (yes, SIXTY ONE!) bikes or frames in a lock-up. Five people linked to one e-bay account had sold £200,000 worth of bike bits in the previous year. Three cheers for PC Richard Smith, and lets hope that this is the start of Police forces everywhere taking bike thefts more seriously.
For the full story, see page 14 of Cycling Weekly dated March 1, 2012.
TBH I probably wouldn't challenge someone obviously opening a lock with bolt cutters. I'd probably take photos on my phone and drop them into local plod though.
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