Bike Thiefs

Bike Thief's - Day 43

A few weeks ago ( about nearly 2 weeks ago ), There was a school police on duty that was warning pretty much all bike people to be careful about your bikes as there was a thief that was going around the school stealing bikes. One bike was already stolen and two locks were found broken, but luckily those locks didn't break, but the unlucky student with the the lock that broke got his bike stolen. One of the victim of a nearly broken lock was my friend. He checked out his bike after school but realised that his bike lock was all messed up. Since he had a number lock which didn't require a key buy rather a code, all of the numbers were all out of their lock area and instead were broken and messed up. He had to go back inside of assistance to unlock his lock as the lock numbers were jumbled up.

After this incident, the school police advised people to spend at least 10% of how much their bike cost onto their bike lock. So for example, if your bike had costed you £ 200 pounds, you would have to spend at least £ 20 pounds on your lock or better more just to be safe. The most secure locks for bikes are definitely D-locks, as they are thick and require a key code and also a key too, so there are two ways that you can lock it, which is really good and really secure.

Now I am mainly just paranoid that my bike will get stolen now, so that is why my dad told me that we should bring a third lock so that we could lock all of our bikes together, so therefore, to get one of our bikes, you need to get both of our bikes, and go through two locks instead of one. Since they need to go through more work and go through more complex designs, they won't go for ours. Another reason they went for my friends bike is also because his bike was expensive and was a high quality bike. My dad also went up to me and my brother and told us that a reason why they didn't want to go for ours was that our bikes were heavy and also that our bikes required a battery charger since ours were electric. So it would be very suspicious finding a bike that we had that was stolen on a marketplace like Facebook or Gumtree with no charger and just an electric bike.

I don't really understand as well on how these bike thief's even get away with taking these bikes, and how they plan on getting the bikes, because it is not like they can just get in the school facilities and take our bikes by smashing our likes with a loud hammer, without any employee hearing it. Not just that but also that when you enter the premise of the school, you can only enter through a gate that is only open when the person working at reception unlocks the gate and opens it for you. So for the robber to actually get in and take your bike, requires an employee to open the gate, unless they found a way to stay it open by potentially having a second person with them. This may be the reason why they tried to steal two bikes instead of one, and why they had broken two locks but were only successful on fully breaking and getting through one and stealing one bike only. A CCTV camera had shown a person in fully black clothes with a balaclava so that you could not see his face at all, but the teacher did not tell us if there was a person working with him, but from what she said, it was a solo person and he was just by himself, so it also could just be that he failed on getting my friends bike, so he went for a weaker lock bike.

Anyways, the main reason I am writing this is because I want to spread awareness on the situation that is spreading like wildfire through out the UK and also in mainly places in the world especially USA, and that you should really be careful with your bikes, especially if they are expensive like my friends bike and my dad's bike, as he got his bike stolen two times already, which is very costly and the police isn't bothered trying to find it and he hasn't found it online on a marketplace, so they must have sold it in a different way like through in person or to a friend that was unaware that it was stolen. 

I feel that there are so much ways to find a bike thief. Wouldn't it just be so easy to find a bike that was stolen on a marketplace or in public or just in the vicinity that the thief was in. Like there has to be many CCTV all around the place unless the area is just unsecure and there isn't any camera, but that is just dumb as the UK is a trillion dollar country, they should at least be able to afford security everywhere around the UK, or around public places like a school or a park where a lot of bike thief's mainly aim.

• Check Local Surveillance: Look for CCTV cameras near where your bike was stolen. Local businesses might have footage that can help identify the thief.
• Report to Authorities: File a police report with detailed information about your bike. Some bikes are recovered because police can identify them by their unique features.
• Use Social Media: Post about the theft on social media platforms and community groups. Include photos and details about your bike. The more eyes, the better.
• Search Online Marketplaces: Thieves often try to sell stolen bikes quickly. Check websites like eBay, Craigslist, or local resale apps.
• Visit Pawn Shops: Visit local pawn shops and second-hand bike stores. Thieves might attempt to sell your bike there.
• Monitor Bike Forums: Keep an eye on local bike forums and groups for any postings of bikes that match yours.
• Check With Local Bike Shops: Inform local bike shops about your stolen bike. They might see it if someone brings it in for repairs or tries to sell it.
• Set Up Alerts: Set up alerts on online marketplaces using keywords that match your bike's description.
• Organize a Community Search: Get friends, family, and fellow cyclists to help search for your bike, especially in places where stolen bikes are often abandoned.
• Use GPS Trackers: If you had a GPS tracker installed on your bike, use it to locate its current position. Even if you didn't, you might want to consider one for the future.

Here are some tips that I found online that should be make it easier for you to not get your bike stolen and to also find your bike back. As you can see it says to put a GPS which is very smart as you could just track down your bike back by using an app that the GPS is connected to, unless it is way too far away. As well with the pawn shop, like I said, sometimes the thief will sometimes not use public marketplaces like Facebook or Gumtree, but rather other ways like in person to people that are unaware that the bikes are stolen, just like pawn shops that may not even care that the bikes are stolen but are there just to buy the bikes for very cheaper and to make a big profit from the stolen bikes, so they may be even charged if they get caught doing that, as that is basically just laundering money and laundering a stolen bike. Anyways hope those helps and thanks for reading, Goodbye.