Audacious attempted bike theft in Elephant and Castle

[Andrew_Culture]

I received an alarming text from @dktd last night telling me that someone had just tried to steal his Singlespeed. Apparently he had just unlocked his bike and was looking at a map on his phone when some yelled 'that BLANK is stealing my bike', when he turned around there was a group of young men running towards him. He jumped on his bike and sprinted to 35mph to make good his escape (Strava was running!).

I don't mean to make light of what must have been a horrible experience. I thought I would share as this is a bike theft method I've not heard of before.

 

[Cycleops]

Sounds like an extension of what they used to call 'steaming' I think, when a group of thugs would surround their victim and rob them. His phone and everything else would have gone as well.
If you leave your bike anywhere around there you're asking for trouble. If you wanted to give South London an enema this is where you would stick the tube.

 

[Deleted member 35268]

Beggars belief

 

[Drago]

I had a similar experience at a cashpoint one night at an undisclosed location a vague number of years ago. I nutted one, tried to punch another but misjudged it and clotheslined my forearm across his face, and ran for all I was worth before they came to their senses and regrouped.

It was a bad piece of judgement on their part. It's not like I look like Norris from Corrie, or Justin Bieber, but I guess if they were that bright they wouldn't be in that line of work in the first place.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Apparently the bike was locked up in secure storage, the attempted theft took place when @dktd had made his way to the street and was already sitting on his bike and clipped in with one foot!

 

[400bhp]

I received an alarming text from @dktd when some yelled 'that BLANK is stealing my bike', when he turned around there was a group of young men running towards him. .

Don't really understand this? Someone yelled at him that someone was stealing another bike, or something else?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Don't really understand this? Someone yelled at him that someone was stealing another bike, or something else?

I read it as a bunch of, er, locals, claiming ownership of dktd's bike as a preamble to a theft.

 

[jefmcg]

Sounds like an extension of what they used to call 'steaming' I think, when a group of thugs would surround their victim and rob them. His phone and everything else would have gone as well.
If you leave your bike anywhere around there you're asking for trouble. If you wanted to give South London an enema this is where you would stick the tube.

I think a bicycle is a form of transport. It's not much use for that if you can't park it in the places you want to go. It's getting a bit wearying, blaming the victims.

(and of course, as it turns out, the bike was securely parked. This is more of a bike jacking or a mugging, than a casual theft. Are we still blaming the victim?)

 

[vickster]

Elephant & Castle is on the tube, two lines in fact

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Don't really understand this? Someone yelled at him that someone was stealing another bike, or something else?

It was more of a bike-jacking I guess.

 

[Blue Hills]

I remember a few years ago stopping on a street corner in hackney, one of its trendy cool bits. A police car pulled up and i thought they were going to tick me off for being over a line or some such rot. But they had stopped to advise me to keep moving. I was amazed, but they said there had been a few bike jackings in the last few weeks. I was on a nice looking 'dale.

I can see that this could be a real problem for some folk with flash bikes - maybe an easier theft than angle grinding a lock or two.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I remember a few years ago stopping on a street corner in hackney, one of its trendy cool bits. A police car pulled up and i thought they were going to tick me off for being over a line or some such rot. But they had stopped to advise me to keep moving. I was amazed, but they said there had been a few bike jackings in the last few weeks. I was on a nice looking 'dale.

I can see that this could be a real problem for some folk with flash bikes - maybe an easier theft than angle grinding a lock or two.

definitely. With all due respect to my dear friend, his singlespeed is far from either smart of valuable