What to do if your bike is stolen

Why can't putting in a claim be done online these days.

It can if you're claiming on Co-op home insurance. As I've just had occasion to find out.

Hi guys,

Please share this around as much as possible I had my bike stolen from Highbury fields area at 21:00 13-5-2016!

A dirty little grey tracksuit wearing cunt rode away like the wind before I could even realise what was going on!

This bike is very distinctive and must be found ASAP

Please contact if found or seen!!

Thanks,

T
07850535497

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Hi Guys
My bike was parked in the subway at Hanger Lane Tube Station, I use a Kryptonite New York lock and a Kryptonite cable. They could not break my lock so this is what they did. Not sure if it was the same person but someone has taken my Brooks Professional and seat pin.

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That is one of the biggest problems facing cyclists and one of my biggest worries when I leave a bike parked somewhere, will it get vandalised? There is also so little secure bike parking in London. The train stations offer the most secure parking places and also near the universities as they have onsite security patrolling 24 hours. In central London the LSE and UCL campuses are the safest places to park a bike for a few hours. Many police stations also have bike racks outside too.

Hi Wqvm, late reply, sorry.

Here in the Met (along with other forces I'm sure) we do offer free bike marking at events (sadly only at these events and not at any police station front counter).

Visit http://www.bikeregister.com/events and enter your postcode.

With regard to making more effort, it's a sad fact of the times in which we live that resources are finite and getting reduced as time goes on. The most frustrating part (for me) is just how few people bother to make a note of their frame numbers or go on to register them on sites such as bikeregister.com I don't have the figures to hand, but there are thousands of bikes reported stolen each year and only a tiny number are traced back to their owners.

Recently my colleagues came across a chap who had 8 or so mid to high value bikes (£800 - £4000) and we have only been able to trace owners for around 3 of them. This is despite contacting the manufacturers and trying to establish which shops the bikes were shipped to. As things stand, unless we can prove the other 5 bikes are stolen, they will probably be returned to the suspect.

You are right to be cautious, given the nature of the offence, I would expect any thief to be carrying bolt croppers/screw drivers/cutters etc and many of them wouldn't hesitate to use them to make good their escape. If we tackle a thief in 'action' (so to speak) we carry enough equipment and are present in sufficient numbers that we are usually able to detain them safely. Also, think trapped rat.....

San Marco - MANTRA CARBON FX SADDLE
SPECIALIZED S - WORKS SL ROAD CARBON SEATPOST

Parts were stolen from my bike that was locked up between 5:50pm - 6:15pm on a busy Knightsbridge street on Saturday 26th.

The parts alone are worth £250 and have great sentimental value.

If anyone sees these items up for sale anywhere please beware and send a message or alert the Police.

Its shocking that we cant leave a bike locked up for longer than 15 minutes and are forced to walk for the next few days.

Very upset.

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Posting here as I had a chance to go down to Nine Elms market this morning to have a look for my own stolen bike. I found large numbers of fat blokes in tracksuits in possession of gear that was far too light and aero to be of any use to them. Carbon wheels, nice frames, complete bikes and a few nice components there so definitely head down there if your bike gets pinched. Much much bigger than Brick Lane and has an air of lawlessness that's hard to put in to words but possibly a good stop if you're trying to recover a bike.

Trusty beater got half inched in hackney last night.

Its a piece of shit, but it was my piece of shit. Would love to get my hands on it (or the thief).

Give me a shout if you see it for some street justice. only joking it will be official police based justice.

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Location.. updated

Someone not cool took my baby eyes open please chaps.
Silver and black loads of done London stickers, gusset highrise bars baby blue pedals black and white smiley face cinelli saddle rewards offered

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My GT has been stolen if anyone sees it then please let me know. Was locked up in Hackney and they've sawn through the New York Fahg.

Fuck :(

Yeah - going to call insurance company but not exactly an OTP replacement...

fuuuuuck

I've had my bike stolen several times now! I can use all the advice I can get on locks/ alarm systems! HELP!

Have you considered cycle lock training?

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/144109

Moved to the right thread - thanks Oliver!

Sorry to hear this, Mark--really hope it's recovered and it's just a clerical error or something. Should it remain missing, it would be the first case of this kind that I remember hearing about.

You should post it in the 'Stolen Bikes' thread, too--this one here is mainly intended for the London-specific advice in the first post and amendments to and discussion of it.

Have you considered the possibility that it may have been taken off the train at some intermediate stop, e.g. Ebbsfleet, Ashford, or Calais-Fréthun? (I don't know what stops the Paris train normally does, as I usually take the one to Brussels.) Or that it wasn't loaded in the first place? (Back to the possibility of despatch error.)

Good luck with it in any case.

Thanks Oliver, both for the sympathy and advice - I'll stop littering the wrong threads after this, I hope! I'll reply a little more in the stolen bikes thread.

Anyone have any advice on what to do if components get nicked from a well locked bike, I'm talking specifically about a ultegra chainset and some decent pedals that got removed from my otherwise security skewerd to the max bike outside the BFI IMAX in Waterloo last week. Have since found the items on eBay and reported to police but they said they can't do anything due to the 'low' value of the items and lack of resources. Decided to buy some dirt cheap pedals off the seller and now have an email address, and found him on Facebook, he must be 18 and lives somewhere in Croydon.

His ebay name is merchantcr7

The rest of his items are all odd parts and cobbled together groupsets, my ultegra cranks are on there right now as part of a 'groupset'

Might try and get hold of the local police station in Croydon and see what they say but ideally I'd like to track the fucker down.

If all else fails I'm going to message his mum on Facebook.

Any past experience from you guys or general advice much appreciated.

Going to get some hexlox for my crank arms now......

Ultegra cranks are very common. How can you tell they're yours?

Theyre scuffed just the way I scuff all my cranks, generally pristine bar scuffs on the ends of the cranks, also got nicked at the same time as the pedals, the pedals came on his profile and then subsequently sold a day ago for way below asking.

I've actually found him on Facebook from his PayPal email name and now have his dads email address, going to send his dad an email, the guys a pastor in a church in Croydon. Figure if the police won't nick him, eternal damnation is second best. The guy (18) really needs to up his game if he's going to sell that much nicked stuff on eBay, having your PayPal deets as your name isn't very clever if your trying to cover your tracks.

Try contacting the Roads and Transport Policing Command (see first post). @Kieran_Ferguson_PC_2224T used to work there, don't know if he still does, but perhaps he can provide a contact in any case. They may be interested if this is a prolific thief and his modus operandi has been recorded elsewhere.

NB if you contact his dad and accuse his son of theft, that's no guarantee at all of securing parental action and may just bring the shutters down. Speak to the police first. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice @Oliver Schick already reported and sent the ebay link etc to them, MET phoned back acknowledging the link but that they don't have the resources to deal with it, not enough value etc, I'll give your contact a shot and try and convince them with the contact details I have they should follow it up. Will let you know how it pans out.

Yes, I saw that you'd already contacted police. Hopefully the more specialised unit will have time for it. If anything, I can't imagine they won't find your info useful.