Did you ever have your bike stolen if so what happened?

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Anonymous1502

Well-Known Member
If so, do you think there was anything you could have done to prevent the theft? What was the location that your bike was stolen?
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Near London Bridge, outside a bike shop while I was inside. Gone within 15 minutes. Cable lock, so my own fault I guess. Home Insurance paid out.
D lock would have prevented
 
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Tom B

Guru
Location
Lancashire
Left my dad's bike outside the papershop I was delivering papers for and it was stolen. Found a few months later hung up outside a local second hand shop and reclaimed thanks to the really distinctive bullbars it had.

I could have locked it up. I did after that. I wouldn't be surprised if my Dlock that i ost the key for is still locked around their gas pipe 25 yrs later
 
Location
Essex
1) Left in college bike shed too long (i.e. about a term), never to be seen again

2) Brompton leaning in doorway of Chinese takeaway in Bow, East London with me sat on the chair next to it, within touching distance. In the time it took me to step up to the counter, collect the takeaway and ask for plastic forks, it was gone.

It's an early one, with several distinctive features and I'd had it resprayed so it was easy to identify from the website and fortunately, as I use it for work I had lots of recent survey photos with it in shot.

Reported it stolen straight away, got a crime reference number, then spent the next few weeks searching eBay and Gumtree and sure enough, it came up for sale in Cambridge. Reported it to the Police who went and got it back. So it was nicked in Bow, retrieved by Cambridgeshire (from the well-known fence/aunt of the well-known scrote/nephew) and collected by me from Buckingham Palace Road nick, so it had had quite a journey! Couldn't have been happier with the service from the Police forces involved. :smile:
 
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Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
Outside Woolies in Prescot in 1962 (ish). Left my Hill Special, my first road bike (and fixed as well) unlocked for about 10 minutes and when I came out it was gone.

I was a very naive and trusting 12 year old and it was a time when you would leave your front door open.

Lesson learned and now I NEVER leave my bike unattended.
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
Near London Bridge, outside a bike shop while I was inside. Gone within 15 minutes. Cable lock, so my own fault I guess. Home Insurance paid out.
D lock would have prevented
Was that the shop in Tooley Street (On yer Bike)? Spent many a lunchtime walking round looking at bikes in that shop. And one day surprisingly saw Tony Gowland working there.
 

Julia9054

Guru
Location
Knaresborough
My son has had 2 bikes stolen since being at uni in Manchester. The first, he used to keep in the back yard of his end of terrace house. One day, he realised he had forgotten the key to the yard. In the < 20 seconds it took him to go through the house and open the yard from the inside, the bike had gone.
Replacement provided by a very nice member of this forum.
Lasted 18 months.
He left the replacement locked up overnight outside Lidl due to torrential rain, running late and the offer of a lift into college. Unsurprisingly, when he went to retrieve it the next morning, someone had cut the lock and it had gone.
Lessons in the big city life school of hard knocks when you have grown up in sweet little Tiny Town!
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Was that the shop in Tooley Street (On yer Bike)? Spent many a lunchtime walking round looking at bikes in that shop. And one day surprisingly saw Tony Gowland working there.
Yep! Now behind Southwark cathedral

no idea who Tony Gowland is :blush:
 

PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Location
Hamtun
I had an MTB stolen from outside the front door of B&Q, under the gaze of security and security cameras. I was only inside for 10 minutes.
No D lock, but two other 'decent' (!) locks, 'secured' to metal railings.
I reviewed the cctv footage with their security staff and it was 4 scrotes. It took them 30 seconds, if that, to wander off with my bike.
B&Q didn't seem to care, and I never saw my bike again.
Now, if I ride there, I lock my bike up inside the shop, by the security desk. Maybe, just maybe, they'll spot a theft taking place! Possibly..
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
Had a bike nicked at uni. Was locked inside a secured padlocked bike shed and a chain lock and padlock to a Sheffield stand inside. Scrotes climbed over a fence and lifted it over never to be seen again. Took them less than 5 minutes.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I had my bike stolen from the bike sheds at school when I was 13. I had a little chain and combination lock at the time so that was probably what I'd used. No use, obviously! It would have been possible to cut it off pretty easily and those combination locks are very easy to unlock by feel anyway.

It was insured but I made the mistake of spending the money on music equipment rather than a replacement bike so it was 20 years before I cycled again!
 
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