Stolen bikes

Mate got jumped on Camden Road last week by about 8 guys. Struggled & ran into the road and managed to stop a taxi and get in. They got his bike (black beater with a rear rack) but more concerning was that they were trying to hold onto him

Hey LFGSS friends, been a long time since I've been on here! Hope you're well.

Sadly my beloved 2018 Canyon Inflite CF SLX 8.0 Pro Race bike was nicked from my flat's 'secure' bike storage facility over the last few days, E14 way so will be checking Brick Lane tomorrow.

Bastards got in with powertools and nicked bike, bike bag, seatbag and bottom bracket toolset insert thingy.

If you can keep an eye/ ear out that'd be awesome. Details are on Stolen Bikes

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Markfield park in tottenham. Lots of the same over the past couple of weeks, so best to avoid.

From Reddit:

"This guy calling himself "the peddler" wearing a velodrome helmet and balaclava is returning stolen bikes (including mine) from online sellers and patrolling the streets making sure bikes are properly locked up and registered online. He was just interviewed on the radio!"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p071yvmw

1 hr 16 mins in for his full interview

Grey Kona Paddy Wagon stolen - cunt nicked it from Shadwell Basin while I was swimming, as well as my bag. Lucky he left my clothes, I suppose. I was so busy making sure my clothes weren't blowing away I forgot to lock it.

That's a low blow. :(

Quite possibly not an opportunist but someone who had seen you swim there before and might initially only have been after your bag.

What do you do with your general valuables when swimming there? Do you have a watertight container for them?

I tend not to bring anything except my keys, fortunately. The bag was empty - it just has my towel and goggles. But I have gone on the way to work and left laptop/phone etc there while I was in - in the depths of winter when I don't swim too far from the edge in case I get hypothermic.

Several bikes were stolen from a Central London student hall bike rack. Thieves jumped a wall to get in and out, took multiple bikes before security noticed them via CCTV. Got in a fight with the officer who got injured and thieves escaped.
Two of the bikes I knew:

Specialized Langster 2017 61cm red
Fixed, Alex rims, flat bar, black avid brake lever, crud roadracer mudguards
Bike registered: permanent marking, QR code sticker, bike register sticker

Focus Culebro 56cm black/green
105 group-set, shitty white mango saddle and noname white front wheel (original parts were nicked recently)
Mudguards, phone holder

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Has anyone heard police defending stolen bikes (with a new owner who has bought from a 'market') as being bought in 'good faith'?

Eh?! No - was under the impression they were more 'letter of the law' about receiving stolen goods.

In this case the female officer decided to use an analogy about stolen TVs while were talking a stolen bike....she was a fucking moron!!! In her wisdom 'if you buy a tv at the market and later find out its stolen YOU did not steal the TV'

Handling stolen goods is a crime. Especially if the new owner now knows it’s stolen and doesn’t surrender it to a police station.

If you've bought in good faith you are very unlikely to be prosecuted for handling. Handling requires a person to know or believe them to be stolen goods and he/she dishonestly receives
the goods, or dishonestly undertakes or assists in their retention, removal,
disposal or realisation.

Bollocks. The police should ordinarily recover for the original owner.

I would have replied with the analogy of a stolen car sold to other thieves who buy in 'good faith'.

She must have been an idiot.

The guy said he bought it in Tottenham for £300. The original owner had reported it stolen to the police at the time, we had pictures of it to show the police, it's a unique bike...not a specialized allez.
Their suggestion was to take his details to pass onto the original owner so they could (potentially) sort it out amongst themselves. They were going to give him the stolen bike back, LoL!!
The only thing we could do to keep the bike was to give him the value of the bike. We paid him £300 cash, which he left with!!

That is total bullshit. You should have let the bike go, took all parties names and taken it to a higher level.

You paid for expediency.

A decade ago I worked in a relatively ‘interesting’ second hand shop. We would avoid blatantly stolen goods, because as the boss (who was only interested in money, not morals) put it - if the police seize it you won’t get your money back regardless of good faith.

So I’m quite shocked you paid out for the return. The person should have taken up the issue with whoever they paid £300 to, to retrieve their money there and not from you.

Indeed, if they had the details of the person it would be a trail back to whoever stole it.

Even a former neighbour in London had that. They spotted their bike on the street, person refused to surrender it, called police. Police seized it after some discussion, waiting for proof of provenance, and the person it was seized from? “Well at least give me the £30 I paid for the new rear wheel”... they’d chucked the high end wheel and put a Sclater St special on the back!

I'm aware of how ridiculous it sounds. Bare in mind this wasn't a calm or reasonable situation, the guy was kicking off throwing punches, he'd taken his chain lock out and was flinging that round, hit one of the guys a couple of times in the hand. Then we've got these dumb officers trying to figure out the law between the TWO of them and we had the owner of the bike on the phone. He asked us to pay for the bike for him, he then transferred us the money. He'd paid a lot for it originally so was just happy to get it back.

Sounds like a pretty horrible situation... why didn't the police arrest him for assault, never mind the bike?!

So the story and the cops get even more stupid at this point. So, the guy tore his shorts in the tussle, he told the cops we tore his shorts, and then when the guy who was hit with chain told the police he wanted to press charges for assault the officer told him 'but you tore his shorts'. Like it evens out somehow. But they refused to press charges.
They're genuinely the stupidest people I've ever come across

Lodge a complaint against the cops and spend £35 to cue up a small claims bid to return that £300.

I think you would have a good chance, this stinks.

Essentially the cops made someone pay to have their property returned, not a good look.

This is serious Evening Standard frontpage material. You should lodge all the complaints and contact the rags.

Make a compliant. This is madness.

We made a complaint and the owner also made a complaint and I believe he's going down the small claims avenue. We had a visit that evening from an investigating officer who apologised and admitted everything they did was completely wrong. Apparently the two officers were new, fresh out of Police Academy and will be retrained, which sounds pointless if they can't grasp basic law.
Anyway, just wanted to share this ridiculous story, thankfully nobody was seriously hurt and someone has beloved bike back....no thanks to the police.

Is the investigating officer going to investigate the initial complaint or are they related to the complaint?
New to role is no excuse for poor work.