They are getting clever.
You were so very happy with your super duper titanium, kryptonite laden, double sneaky, theft protective contraption that was guaranteed to protect your $3,000 bicycle.
Now your bike is gone.
How in the world did a thief cut through this fortress in just the one minute it took to go into the store?
Well, they took all the time they needed cutting through the steel. Not your lock, but the rack you locked onto. Then they pieced it together with some tape.
(NEWSER) – On Friday, a police officer tweeted photos of a bike rack that had been sliced through and then taped back together to hide the cuts from the city’s unsuspecting cyclists, per Boing Boing. Sarah King, a councilor for South Camberwell, tells the Evening Standard that she locked her bike to such a rack before a meeting in the London borough on Thursday. She returned to find her bike was missing and figured out the trick when she noticed the tape and gave a push.
A police rep says she’s never heard of the trick before, notes the Huffington Post, which describes collective online reaction as one of “reluctant admiration.” Others are less impressed. “It is appalling that the growing cycling population in the borough are being targeted by these cunning thieves,” another local councilor tells the BBC. “The more publicity that can be given to this, the better,” a rep for a cycling charity adds. The lesson for cyclists, then: Beware public racks with tape.
Thieves use all of their brain cells figuring out scams, but they can’t see far enough ahead to realize that getting caught is going to be a lot worse than having to work for an honest living.
And it’s hard to handle tape without leaving finger prints, too hard to work with while wearing gloves.
This is not a new trick, although this particular thief may have come up with it independently. The first time I saw a gimmicked bike rack was over 50 years ago.
Not a PC thought crime. It won’t get any investigating.
I hope they caught the thief, otherwise they blew a perfectly good opportunity to set the culprit up and catch him in the act.
Being London they probably have the guy on surveillance video all the way back to his flat.
How about this-buy a cheap bike? One that works but doesn’t scream “steal me”?
Isn’t it hard to pedal in a burka or a caftan? 🙄
If the thief was an “Asian”, aka Muslim, he will be left free to steal. After all, it is against the law in Britanistan to ” offend” them.
Dr.Tar, you are so right.
My rental car was broken into in Dublin, Ireland.
The police had my property back a few days later.
They had cameras everywhere.
I don’t like big brother but this time it worked out for me.
If I had a bicycle this valuable I would put a GPS tracker on it.
Back in the 60’s when I rode a bike, people knew how to chain one up so that even if it could be separated from what it was attached to, the thief would have to carry the bike away rather than ride it.