Ladies Carrera subway stolen from garage in Bristol - read esp if you use a garage defender lock

[jaxbristol]

My 16" alloy frame Carrera subway was stolen from my garage in Bristol between 15 July - 4 August. We had a garage defender ground lock in place on an up and over door. They broke into the garage by removing the lock!

These things are meant to be incredibly secure! And when I say removing the lock, I mean by taking it off intact! They somehow managed to pick the lock, remove the lock from the ground, leave the metal plate on the floor intact and then prise open the garage door. The basic lock gave them the most trouble!

If anyone sees my bike please let me know as it's my pride and joy

And if you have a garage defender I would suggest an extra layer of security!

 

[jaxbristol]

Just a little more info - I was so incensed about the lock I didn't say much about the bike! It's a black 16" ladies Carrera Subway with purple detail on the logo. It has a dirt monkey mudguard on the back and did have a green cable lock wrapped around the seat post. There is a freshly mended puncture in the rear tyre and the inner tube is patched. The front wheel has a small hole from a tree branch but the inner tube was never punctuated. The pedals are really worn with hardly any grip and the handlebar grips are not the originals. The gear lever casing is a little worn and battered. Please let me know if you see anything.

 

[e-rider]

That's bad luck - sounds like someone knew it was in there. Although now and then you hear a story of someone being reunited with their stolen bike; 99.9% of people never see their bike again!

 

[jaxbristol]

It was a hell of a lot of effort to go to for a £250 Carrera! Maybe they thought it was better than it was or else thought there might be something better in the garage.

They also stole an old Mantis that was worth about £20! Hope they were suitably disappointed!!!

 

[jaxbristol]

I am pleased to report that I found my bike!!

I was incredibly lucky in that the person riding it was on the pavement next to me as I was making a left turn in my car. I spotted it and reported the sighting to the police, but as was on my way to work, couldn't turn round to follow.

I was only in the office for an hour so afterwards I did a loop of the area and found it chained up outside a shop. Called the police who were there in ten minutes with blue lights and sirens going(!) They were able to let me take it away after I showed them a photo of the bike, and they called the shop I bought it from. It was secondhand, the shop knew me and they had fitted some distinctive replacement parts on it that weren't part of the original spec. Considering I didn't write down the frame no or anything else, I was so lucky to have that evidence available.

Hopefully we'll also be able to find out who broke into my garage as the police are speaking to the rider who they think may have been a little naive about where it came from... we'll see what happens but the important thing is that it's back!!!!

 

[summerdays]

Congratulations ... I hadn't seen this thread before today and was going to tell you about http://www.stolenbristolbikes.com/ but I see you already knew about it.

I take it you have noted down the frame number since.... I still have one of the kids bikes to note down...keep meaning to do it but it is right at the back behind lots of other things.

 

[jaxbristol]

The other thing that the police advised me of is http://www.immobilise.com/

You can register the bike as yours through the frame number here and they also sell tracking and marking kits. That's my first job tomorrow! I cleaned the bike this evening and took loads of photos of distinctive markings and damage on the frame in case (god forbid) it ever happens again. They scratched my frame a little pulling it out of the garage but thankfully no serious damage!!

 

[summerdays]

I've had quite a few of the families bikes chipped by the police - they have done quite a few free tagging sessions in Bristol though it is usually quite hard to find out about it in advance. One of the times it was at the Biggest Bike Ride - don't know if they were there this year as it was rained off.

What are you going to do about your garage - as the thief got in once.... and know that bikes are likely to be stored there. Did the police give you any advice on improving the garage security?

 

[funnymummy]

Glad you got yourbike back Jax, what luck you spotted the twerp riding it
I had one of those Defenders fitted to my old garage, it was bypassed by some toerag reversing his van into the garage door buckling it, so they just twisted it, till the hinge gave way, leaving it still locked at the bottom!
As for extra security, I now have my bikes on wall mounted brackets with a large metal loop bolted into the wall which I can run a Magnum D lock & chain through.
I also bought a cheapo Yale 'student' alarm kit, it's only small but does put out quite a racket, which i'm hoping would be enough to give anyone a big enough fright so they legged it before even looking at the bikes. It's enough to wake me at 3am when #1 puts his bike away & forgets to unset it LOL!

 

[Pompey Princess]

Really pleased to hear you got yours back...my Ladies Carrera is still missing

What cheesed me off was we have CCTV footage with a pic of the guys face and they reckon it's not good enough quality...it's better than some of those looter pics published following the riots that they've manage to secure convictions from!! Oh, and another 3 bikes went missing in the same area at the same time...

Anyhow, I've resigned myself to the fact it's gone and I am very very unlikely to see it again sadly.