Stolen bikes

Yes, sounds like it. It would be interesting to find out if there's a pattern in that area.

Bow Street is somewhere you'd expect to be covered by CCTV, too, not that any images would necessarily be usable or, indeed, actually looked at by real people.

Do by all means report it if you haven't already. I suspect that component theft has even higher levels of under-reporting than thefts of complete bikes, so maybe it's a deliberate method on the part of the thief to prevent action. Also, I remember once reporting a stolen front wheel to Stratford police station and the officer at the desk was really quite unwilling to take the report, which I found very odd.