Was just hunting round on the net for parking info in London and picked this up from Motorcycleparking.com and relates to a theft earlier in August…
2 weeks ago a biker had his 05 plate Fireblade stolen from the bike bay at Suffolk Place off Haymarket, SW1. CCTV caught a very organised group of 3 guys at 4pm picking up the motorcycle and loading it into a blue transit van. The van had no plates and despite 8 witnesses the bike has not been recovered. The PC assigned to the case indicated to the Fireblade owner that this van is part of a well known gang of 8-10 vans operating in the area!!! He indicated bike thefts were up 100% in the last month. The biker wanted to let people know as his colleague had his VFR stolen yesterday (9 Aug 06) from a bay in Charing Cross - CCTV showed the same guys and same van! He and Motorcycleparking.com would highly recommend avoiding parking expensive motorcycles in non ground anchor parking in this area for the time being. (10 Aug 06)
Bike theft has been at epedemic levels for a few years now mate. We strongly recommend to everyone not to use public bike bays, instead keep expensive bikes off the roads and in private car-parks, and use proven security devices like Almax chains & ground-anchors, and Tracker devices.
I don’t understand why people think they can leave a ten grand bike in plain view in this city and not expect it to either get damaged or nicked. This isn’t 1950’s England anymore…
pretty much, but there aren’t enough people in the city to watch every camera 24/7.
They only get reviewed after something happens unless it’s extremely lucky!
I suppose if someone spotted something and called the police it would still take them a while to finish off the Krispy Kremes and into the cars, adjust the heating and make sure the seat was so/so, argue about the radio station and then get underway to the scene, by which time a 30sec bike lift is well over.
How many coppers in central london? how many ‘community policemen’?, how many traffic wardens,Congestion charge enforcers etc etc , how many police car,bikes, vans…and NOBODY thought to question a van tootling around with no plates on…
No doubt the plates are on velcro and are ripped off round the corner and the put back on after they get the bike…
So Look out for a blue transit with fast removable plates!!! ( of course the plates will belong to anothger Transit in Glasgow or summat…
Remember, if you see something like this happening, do not try to intervene, call the police, report the “suspicious” activity surrounding the van and the “Al Quida” looking people involved.
You may well get an immediate response!!
Aqctually it’s a pity you cant do this as I should imagine you will get into a whole world of trouble, but hey ho.
