Hello,
Just to let you know two bikes (a R6 and I dont know what the other one was) were stolen Thursday 25th from the bike bay on Fore street behing Moorgate station. Its the same bay I park in every day, but didnt ride last Thursday as I was getting bike an MOT.
Same scenario as usual…white van, three guys jump out put bikes in and drive off.
And today found out I didnt get a parking space in the annual company lottrey 
I often wonder if its the same group of “men” that are doing this because the same white vans done it around essex the past few years now? They keep coming round the area and then someones bikes go missing…then it eases off then they come back and someone elses bike goes, and its always that white van that is being talked about, and 3/4 guys.
When they took ours apparently they had sat outside my house for about 4 hours waiting for me to go to bed? Soon as the lights were out, 3 of them came and took the Busa. They came back the next night for my one but we had moved it by then. But they tried to get my neighbours big BMW and gave up as it was too heavy and cumbersome, he had panniers on it the lot…so they left it on its side in the road…
mine was stolen from Sun street by Liverpool street in August 2008, lunchtime in full view of about 40 -50 people. Then over the next two weeks three more bikes went from same bay.
The police had this to say “you have insurance dont you”
Really really sorry to hear this. It always amazes me that so many bikes are stolen like this - in crowded areas, with CCTV and no doubt also a police presence (central London) - and it keeps on and on happening. Blokes lifting a good sized bike into a van - alarm no doubt going off - must attract attention, no matter how fast they are. Don’t they ever get challenged? Does no one see them? Is CCTV footage just routinely ignored? In some areas I read that communities started having street patrols with regard to tackling anti social behaviour - not in a vigilante type way - but simply to reclaim play areas, parks and places from the local gangs. This scheme ended up being backed by the police. It’s a pity there can’t be some schemes like this in central London with regard to the commuter motorbike bays - having some kind of system of monitoring these bays. There must be some way of making it more difficult for thieves - and not just down to the individual to cart an almax around and try and lock their bike to a fixed object.I’d be interested to hear some thought on this.In Blades case that’s a different story as there is very little you can do if they decide to target your home in the middle of the night and you don’t have a garage or secure lock up. You must have been gutted about that.
if the police actually did follow up, maybe more people would get license plates, give witness statements/information?
It is annoying that no one stands up to these people but I know I personally wouldn’t try and stop 4 guys in a van stealing a bike, just little old me!! I would be scared of what might happen. I also very much doubt that even if you did get the reg number of the vans invovled that much could be done as I would assume that they would be using false plates or stolen vans.
I wouldnt expect anyone to stand up to these people…but how hard is it to ring the police ? especially in the City their response times are pretty quick and they have CCTV up to their eyeballs, sure it would not have been hard to track the van.
When mine got taken the alarm was going off and they put a skateboard under front wheel to get around the disc lock. The bay is outside of a starbucks and you could clearly see people drinking their Lattes and relaxing in the lunchtime sun …not difficult to work out that the bike was being stolen ?
Yeah, if you called the police I think they’d be there pretty quickly and if you thought one of them had a gun the area would be swarming within seconds.
The other option is to tail them for a bit at least, they probably go back to the same place each time and in the end someone will find where they go.
Some pictures of faces would probably help as well.
We have had the police in my store in Barbican twice a week listening to residents concerns about the city,might be worth having a chat to them about this.
I was told by a friend copper that if you was to say you saw a knife or gun, you automatically jump to top of list, and like you said, area is swarmed.
I too had my lifted into a van. Gutted to say the least. Neighbour said he heard a van and scraping but decide he was too lazy to stand up and look out the window! :hehe:
Makes me glad I parked in my secure garage today, was wanting to get into work quicker and could’ve parked on the street. Bad news about the bikes. One of the main reasons I park and walk 15 minutes to my office safe in the knowledge my bike is protected.
But those fake plates are still driving around with your bike inside the van!! If the cops can put out an APB straight away it could be eyeballed (too many US cop movies damnit!), there is also CCTV that could track it. And, I agree, say they were waving a gun around by all means!
Damn it!! Without doing something, nothing will ever happen! We gotta start somewhere! If we cant be arsed, no wonder no other f0cker does.
blood…boiling… 100C:blush:… and breeeaaaath…
The van is probably stolen too. It’s actually really surprisngly hard to stop a stolen van unless there’s a sting going on or they end up crashing it.
I’m very worried about keeping my bike in London and I move on thursday. I got alarms and almax chain though, might help a bit.
Of course the van probably does have fake plates on, but that doesn’t make things impossible. I someone posted up the the registration I’m pretty sure that it would get spotted within a short period of time. Lets face it they are not likely to change the plates every day unless they were aware they had been rumbled. If someone was to spot them driving around all they would have to do would be discretely tail them until they made their move and be ready to call the fuzz - done.
Bit of a circular argument this. No investigation can be made with decent leads to follow, so no plates and no statements = no investigation. No investigation = less people willing to hang around and give accounts the next time etc…
This story is old, I know. But it goes on.
If police went out to the trackers on bikes very quickly, surely it would be impossible to find them?
Well next time someone see’s a bike or 2 being loaded in to a van just call the police and say the men in the van threatened to shoot at you, they’ll soon be out in force looking for them and when they do the bikes in the back will be found 
I agree, the point is someones gotta start the cycle. Might as well be us.
in my case plate regs and CCTV was given to the police (I got the footage for them, they said they didnt have time)… last I ever heard
When my bike was knicked I got stung by the cops for a pick up fee of £120 for a bike that couldn’t be started in the middle of no-where. Absolutely lously.
If someone could just prove a link between bike theft and terrorism…
