Stolen bikes

Two cheery stories (for a change) from LCC mailing lists today.

1

I had a happy bike theft ending last weekend too. I was at a party in a flat on De Beauvoir estate, and had locked my bike carefully with two D-locks to a signpost in the square. I could see my bike from the balcony of the second floor flat.

After a couple of hours I heard over the din of the party someone asking if anyone had a red condor bike and I sprinted to the door to see my bike being carried in by a friend of mine, locks still intact.

He had been walking to the entrance when he saw a hooded youth running carrying a bicycle and another one running carrying a step-ladder. He thought it looked pretty suspicious and called out - 'That's not your bike -stop - police' and ran after them. They couldn't run far carrying a bike and dropped it. They had used the step ladder to remove the sign, and to lift the bike over the post. The guy and his girlfriend got a description of the youth, who were almost certainly from the estate as they were running into it, but the police were not interested.

As a bonus, the host at the party decided to carry out some emergency repairs on my bike as he noticed a lot wrong with it!

So another lesson according to my friends - never cycle when you can walk.

2

i thought i'd share my happy tale...
the other day i got back to finsbury park after work to find my bicycle gone. i reported it to the police, distressed and depressed. later that evening 2 policemen knocked at my door to tell me they had caught the culprit red-handed and had my bike in the police station. they had traced me because i had had my post code etched on the bottom of the bike at Finsbury park cycles.

A few days later I went to collect the bike from Islington police station, they took me to a warehouse at the back filled with hundreds of bikes. they told me that these bikes were picked up just in the last month but they had no way of tracing the owners. they would all be sold at auction. they led me to mine. being reunited with my bike was the most wonderful feeling. i felt like i was cycling on air!

So the moral of the story is...stolen bikes don't just vanish in the ether, it might be sitting abandoned in a drafty police station warehouse, -- Get your bike postcoded-- it works!

you might have a happy ending too one day!