Slightly dismayed at the lack of interest from the police about a friends bike that has gone missing. A beautiful panagale, stored in an underground garage in Earls Court London. Apparently able to stroll into the garage, cut the disc lock off and jam the tracker, pop it in a van and away they go. The garage security won't allow him to look at the security footage, only the police can do this, but they're not interested. Apparently the tracker was traced to the wrong location so no joy there, still no police involvement. My friend out of desperation posted the theft with a picture on instagram, only to have his image lifted and used to advertise the bike on the same site. No incriminating evidence on the advert as to the whereabouts of the bike. Still no police interest, either with the security footage or instagram. So here we are weeks later, waiting for some rubbish insurance settlement, a true biker wondering if he can ever own a decent bike in London again and some little shit earning thousands from his ill gotten gains with apparently no interference from the law. Any ideas anyone?
Welcome Dave. How about his local MP rattling plods cage? Failing that the local press could shame them into action.
Really sorry and disgusted to read this. The police really must be forced to react to these crimes, with increased resources if appropriate. This is a total disgrace. GRRR it makes me so angry!
It's as if there's insurance then it's all ok. My friend will have to shell out on the excess and suffer higher premiums because of the claim. He will also make up the difference between the insurance payout and a replacement bike. He is then at risk of it all happening again with the replacement bike, especially if the security are happy to look the other way. If the police took this stuff seriously and there was real punishment for such crimes, it may impact on these little shits who think this is alright. While we let them get away with this stuff, it will continue, guaranteed.
I hear this "No police interest".... Has he gone to the local police station and asked to speak to an officer? A Panigale is well above the value which they investigate.
This sounds like an article I read in a Bike mag. Andrew Dalton (bike solicitor) was talking about a bike being stolen from a security managed area and that the security company could be liable!
He has gone to them more than once, on the initial theft, with the security company and their unwillingness to share the tape then with the instagram posting.
I think the feeling is the kid knew how to confuse the tracker, it was picked up in SE13 but not with the bike
You're right but what do we do, lobby MPs, more public awareness, vigilantes, moan at the police, needs a big national campaign to change things. Have a look on youtube to see how these kids operate. They couldn't care less
Maybe we should all proxy-post the shit out of it as a gesture of group defiance on behalf of the bereaved
As mentioned I would look into taking legal action against the security company cos they obviously aren't very good at what they are paid to do.
I'm so sorry to hear it. In actual fact I'm currently in the process of developing an app, that crowd watches bikes. Is it perfect or guaranteed? No, but nothing else seems to be right now. Whatever measures we take, we're on our knees as a biking community so maybe if we help eachother we can chip away. As soon as I have a working prototype ready, I'll share it with a group of us and maybe we can do some beta testing between us. My condolences to your friend.
Thanks for your thoughts. There must be a way of linking your bike via an app to check on movement whilst you're away from the bike, a bit like the home apps.
Simple enough solution would be to get together with a group of local people you trust. Set a Biketrac movement alert email addy that simply forwards to that group. That group can then pounce far quicker than an individual may be able to. Also, that individual may not be the closest.
That sounds great, at least using a group someone may be able to respond. Is there nothing on the market like this? Could it link in to a tracker?
