Stolen bikes

Thanks for the report, James. Clearly a distressing experience, and I hope you get luckier soon, perhaps if the forum manages to put a bike together for you.

Seconding Señor Bear's request for better pictures. I can't see three of your pictures at all, as they are in the Apple-proprietary format HEIC.

On the theft itself:

As I had so much stuff to carry back, I left my bike locked up at the Montfichet Rd / Station entrance to Westfield, where M&S is. It was attached with the Abus lock you can see in the images. Right outside No.1 Stratford Place and the escalators up to the first-floor entrance to Westfield. I spotted two cameras in the ceiling (see images) controlled by Westfield and one on top of the traffic lights on the opposite side of the road.

[snip and re-arrange]

Within 24 hours, the response I got from the police was “An investigator from the Metropolitan Police Service has looked carefully at your case and we are sorry to say that, with the evidence and leads available, it is unlikely that it will be possible to identify those responsible. We have therefore closed this case.”

There were 2 Westfield Cameras facing the rail and one camera on top of the traffic light of the pedestrian crossing. So, I know they haven’t even bothered to check footage as only 1 day had passed before I’d received this e-mail and they’d have had to check 4 hours of footage!

I take it that it was here that you left it?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5427288,-0.0040168,2a,80.3y,323.09h,89.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sni9fEpra-1fh-06PGY9enA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

My suspicion would be that at the moment thieves are able to make creative use of the recommendation to wear face masks, making it largely impossible to use CCTV for clues as to their identity. That's not to excuse the police response, by the way, but you should never rely on CCTV for security. As for whether or not the police actually did review the CCTV footage, I found this report from February:

https://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/crime-court/plaistow-cctv-down-ahead-of-newham-wide-refurb-1-6506938

I can't find a report on whether or not the work was completed before the crisis hit. (It may well have been continued in spite of it, of course.) If it was, it is likely that the police would be able to review the footage very quickly. If the work wasn't completed, it could also be the case that at least the public camera may still have been out of action. I don't expect that the Westfield cameras will be affected by this. Since it is a comparatively new development, I expect that there will be some level of cooperation with the police, i.e. an agreement to share CCTV quickly and easily. That's just speculation, though. You could ask the police about what the case actually was with it, but as I say, CCTV would most likely not be crucial here.

I locked it up at 18:15. By the time I did all the shopping, walked back home and put it all away and walked back to my bike, it was 22:30. The bike was gone. The lock wasn’t cut open. But the rail bar had been bent. I’m still uncertain exactly how they managed to get the frame and wheel through the lock.

When you say 'the rail bar had been bent', do you mean the bar of the stand (assuming ylou locked your bike to one of the Sheffield stands there) or the lock?

If the former, presumably it had been cut, too? Or did it look as if it was levered? Thieves would normally have to use something like an angle grinder for this and this cannot fail but to attract attention, so really if anyone was around, someone might have called the police.

If you mean your lock was bent, and it wasn't cut, then I, too, can't see on the face of it how they would have been able to remove the bike from it, assuming you'd locked the bike correctly? Was the stand loose in the ground?

If the thieves damaged the stand, then there may have been witnesses, and you could look for them by means of a notice.

So, I’ve made a list of all bike stores in the area and have contacted them all with the details of the bike and images, in hope someone tries to sell it to them.

Thieves these days very rarely offer stolen bikes for sale to shops. It used to happen a lot (and I know of shops that were suspected or even convicted of handling stolen goods, including one that's still in operation), but not so much in recent years. As you may have read in other threads, bikes often show up at markets, e.g. Brick Lane or Nine Elms. Most markets are closed, of course, but some are open (Stoke Newington Farmers' Market is, for example), but as there must be far fewer than 'normal' that are open where bikes can be sold, you might be able to visit them. I'm afraid I don't know where to look to find that information; perhaps someone else can help. If there are currently no markets in operation where bikes can be sold, perhaps bikes these thieves are taking are being shipped elsewhere or kept somewhere.

None of this is very hopeful, but perhaps there are some things you can do in addition. Good luck, and with any luck the forum can get a bike together for you.