A Promising State of Affairs

[Lozz360]

Six days ago I replied to the thread by @Psycolist "A Sad State of Affairs". In sympathy of what appeared to be his frustration at a lack of police interest when an acquaintance of his had his bike stolen, I asked the question "Do we actually need a police force?" From the few replies, the answer was unanimously, yes. So I don't want to debate that one again.

I suppose by asking such a provocative question I was showing disrespect to police officers both former and serving. I now regret inferring any disrespect. Reason being is last night I myself had a bike stolen and the local police have been great!

Out of my two bikes it was the pub bike that got nicked. (I have a road bike as well as recently a pub bike). Anyway, pub bike got nicked from outside the, er, pub. It's a folding bike, an Argos Challenge so probably only worth about £50 second hand. It was locked to a bike rack with a cheap coil cable lock which the thief managed to just pull apart. I reported the theft to the police by dialling 101 this morning and it only took about 5-mins at most to log all details. I kept the broken lock and guess what? I was contacted by the police forensics who want to see if they can get fingerprints from it! OK there is probably little chance of me seeing the bike again, but I'm just reassured and pleased of the service so far from the local police just in dealing with the report and receiving the only evidence I had.

So in hindsight, I shouldn't have posted what I did less than a week ago criticising the police as I end up calling them after a sort of ironic Karma sort of episode.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I suppose by asking such a provocative question I was showing disrespect to police officers both former and serving.

No need to apologise.

And be assured that many are or were bellends.

 

[Drago]

Doesn't matter if they find dabs on it. "I was walking along, saw something on the ground, picked it up to see what it was..." Their solicitor will tell them to say that, threshold test won't be met, refused charge. You want some evidence that they committed a bike theft, not that they touched a padlock.

 

[steveindenmark]

Doesn't matter if they find dabs on it. "I was walking along, saw something on the ground, picked it up to see what it was..." Their solicitor will tell them to say that, threshold test won't be met, refused charge. You want some evidence that they committed a bike theft, not that they touched a padlock.

But at least the police have done what they can, which was the complaint from the previous post.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

The Police do the best they can and most of them are handsome.
They deserve better bikes!
All of them I mean, not only the handsome ones

 

[winjim]

We live in a democracy. Criticising the police is not only permissible but necessary.

 

[mjr]

Doesn't matter if they find dabs on it. "I was walking along, saw something on the ground, picked it up to see what it was..." Their solicitor will tell them to say that, threshold test won't be met, refused charge. You want some evidence that they committed a bike theft, not that they touched a padlock.

Will it be enough to search to see if they've kept hold of the bike, though? Then the bike might be recovered and the bike is the most important thing, isn't it?

 

[Dogtrousers]

They just did this to make you feel bad because they saw your post.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Not completely on topic, I know, but obviously in every Melbourne locals' mind the last day or so:
http://www.news.com.au/national/vic...d/news-story/44a14994486d72e60fd7bb27f7a1bf1f

I feel sorry for the police officers who had to deal with the aftermath of this. It wouldn't have been one of their nicer days on the job.

 

[raleighnut]

One thing that has always puzzled me is that police forces send 'Recovered Stolen Cycles' off to auction regularly but, can they really not be arsed to find out the owner if they know that the bike was stolen?

 

[Globalti]

Here's a possible reason: when I found a (presumably stolen) Specialized Roubaix dumped off the bridge near my house I took it to the Police station. The clerk there laboriously filled in a report in a big ledger, then took out a ruler and tore off half the page to give me as a receipt. As I watched the process I thought "There's no chance of this being tied up with any report on the Police computer of a stolen bike!". Sure enough, a month later they handed the bike back to me and that's how I started my new life as a road cyclist. When I took the bike in the clerk just said "Oh yeah, another bike? We'll chuck it in the shed at the back with all the others." My reply was: "No don't chuck it, this is a thousand quid bike!" They didn't check it for chips and although I posted on several web fora and stuck an ad in the local newsagents (my first instinct being to reunite the owner with the bike) nobody came forward.

 

[Lozz360]

Doesn't matter if they find dabs on it. "I was walking along, saw something on the ground, picked it up to see what it was..." Their solicitor will tell them to say that, threshold test won't be met, refused charge. You want some evidence that they committed a bike theft, not that they touched a padlock.

You are correct of course. I don't hold much hope of even seeing the bike again let alone the police being able to successfully prosecute. My point was I was expecting at most to just be issued with a crime number, instead they appear to be doing whatever they can with what is little evidence.

On a separate point, it has been mentioned on here many times, how cheap bike locks can be easily overcome by a bike thief. What surprised me was that this lock was broken without the use of any tools, apparently. There were better bikes than mine parked in the same location that didn't get nicked, but their locks were better than mine, also. So lesson learned for me.