This is what I just posted on The Met’s Facebook page and what I told to the officer who visited me last night to get the details of the latest theft…and I mean it.
“Six motorcycle thefts in the last 18 months. Three from my front door and the rest within a mile of it (all in North London). Two of them in the last four weeks. The last one, I caught the thieves in the act, at 2.30PM last Saturday outside of a busy pub garden in Islington. All the Police ever did is send me letters/emails telling me that they will not be investigating as the thieves were not kind enough to leave their name, address, DNA evidence and some video footage of them doing it. One of my bikes was used in Selfridge’s raid last year. At the time, the police told me that they knew who was stealing these bikes and that they are being stolen to use in robberies by a number of known gangs operating from Islington estates but that investigating it is not a priority. Well, as protecting myself and my property is my priority you leave me no option but to do something about it myself. Thanks Met Police.(My latest Crime Reference number is: 2714632/14 - I’m sure you’ll be able to find the rest in your database)”
its easy to blame the police on the beat so to speak but blame the more senior officers/home office & government they makes the rules the thin blue line has to follow
David Cameron made a promise that front line police numbers would not suffer budget cuts
what he didn’t say was that they wouldn’t have time to do anything other than show there face to reassure the public
recent events in Essex have put a ral strain on the police mrs wise has been told she has to work 12hour shifts last week she was working 15hours a day for 3 days she just cant up stiks & go home like we do
if you want to blame someone blame to GOV & senior officers who like to caress the figures so they look good and get a nice bonus
I have a few mates in the Police, and they say the same thing, they are embarrassed when they go to “Petty Crime” and know they won’t be doing anything!
next time you see/hear/disturb someone trying to/nicking a bike just call the police and say you’ve got one cornered and if he moves you are going to shoot him like his mate… you should get quite a rapid respone!:laugh:
It is clear that these scrotes ride around looking to steal anything that’s not concreted in and do it in broad daylight. We all know that the police can do a lot about this if there was willingness from the decision makers to tackle this type of crime.
Well, I’ve had enough - If I come across another scrote stealing my bike then I’ll deal with it, ring a newspaper and then go and present myself at a police station so that they can tick another box and resolve another ‘crime’. I said this to the copper last night and insisted that he includes it in his report.
Just out of curiosity, how are you securing the bike? I’ve read that Almax chains are the best and I had a friend who got one and was advised to chain it to the rear wheel of his RR (apprently, if a thief was to try to remove it from the rear wheel it would damage a part of that particular bike and thus render it a lost cause).
It sounds like a crap situation for any bike owner, these are obviously expect bike thieves, not opportunists, I cant understand why police aren’t investing more time into the problem.
Maybe wrap the whole thing in barbed wire coated in anthrax… :ermm:
I got mixed feeling now. Same as Sam, I have quite few mates in the service. They telling exactly the same. But then I’m going further with questioning. For example, how many times they have used discretion against simple road offence, like indicators or right lane hoggers and red light jumps. The response is that pretty much always.
So now we have situation that any crime between “not indicating at junctions” to “the theft of motor vehicle” is not pursuit. Wonder how far it’s going to go, where is the limit, or what offence is actually worth to spend time and investigate. Perdofilia? Rape? Or just this stories which get most popularity in the newspapers…
@ home I leave the bike in on the front drive with a daisy having free access to the grounds of the property she can get to the gate in three seconds can you ?
@ work its chained up in an unofficial parking spot covered by security guards & CCTV
when I move jobs in jJuly its a staff car park covered by security guards & CCTV with big daisy friends
all sort of things at different times…alarms, immobilisers,Almax III(through front wheel as it couldn’t fit through the back), ground anchor, Oxford Boss alarmed lock…
Ground anchor and Almax on rear wheel would be the next thing perhaps to try? Alarms won’t deter them, giving all they do is make a noise and since they are not opportunists and prolly have a fridge van waiting it won’t bother them.
Other than a secured location that they dont know of, theres few other options. A work colleague told me about a man he knew who used to work in a bike dealership years ago; he was allowed to ride some of the bike back to his home garage and store them there when they didnt have space (or something like that) since he lived only a few miles away, so he would often have about 3-5 bikes stored at his garage quite often. One day he rode home and came back to an empty garage. He discovered that he must have been getting tailed for quite some time by thieves who waited until there was a decent selection before breaking into his garage and driving off with at least 50k worth of bikes. I’m not sure what was worse, the fact that people were following him home and noting his bikes before making off with them, or the fact that none of his neighbours did a damn thing.
I had my fireblade stolen outside starbucks near liverpool street 12:30pm on a hot sunny day …I saw the CCTV footage…at least 15-20 people were there and not one person thought to call the police as four guys got out a white van and picked it up and put it in the van with alarm going off.
London really is a scummy place these days when it comes to people just helping themselves to other’s property.
We need a bait bike with 2 electrodes attached to the rear of a dummy fuel tank. Discreetly wired up to the mains to fry the nuts of any bike thief who dares to sit on it.
With cuts in the Police Force…sorry, Service and budget cuts when already stretched thin, it’s all about prioritisation; bike theft will never be the top of the list…Of course, if it was Chelsea Tractors and BMWs/Mercs being knicked on a constant basis in the posh parts of West London, I reckon there would be a slightly different approach…bikes are just a pain in the arse that cut up traffic and are all ridden by lunatics - move along please…no interest here. Christ, domestic burglary has even fallen off the radar.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but you (hopefully) get my point :crying:
I was once on the receiving end too. 4 chavs in hoodies with bolt cutters entered the compound behind my house and tried to steal my bike. First they tried to break the steering lock while the bike was still under cover but were stupid enough to not see that it was chained to a bike rack and had a disk lock on the front wheel.
Ended up leaving with nothing, only damaged the bike for no reason.
Policeman arrived, looked at it, wrote something down, mentioned he rode a Street Triple himself but said that they probably wouldn’t be able to do anything. Sure deal 4 hours later I received an email saying the case was closed due to lack of evidence even though we requested footage from the CCTV cameras overlooking the bike. Neither police bothered to follow up nor building management.
Hmm. The problem I find is that sometimes I trigger off my own alarm. Frying someone else’s nuts is fine but those Mr Bean moments do happen to us all!
It’s not just London. Thieves thrive on the anonymity of a city, as much as the remoteness of countryside homes.
I just don’t like leaving my bike anywhere parked on a main road where a white van can drive up to. Stick to barrier carparks, or gated locking compounds maybe if you can work out a way to make this your workflow?
Alarms are useless - the effect of hearing so many misfire has tuned people out to mine their own business. Maybe only another biker would really act like a decent citizen in that regard. Alternatively, a tracking device implanted is the only other way to catch the thieves…
