The theiving little b*****ds!

Bassjunkieuk

For a change today as I was working at my most local site and didn't want to have to waste time taking the bike down to our main offices only to have to walk there and back morning and evening to get the bike I thought I'd just ride straight to the place I'd be doing most of my work. This happens to be the council offices for Croydon, which has bike racks right outside the public entrance. I roll up this morning, lock up the bike exactly as I would in town, being sure to remove anything that it's screwed down - that being the rear lights and the hand pump. Can't take the front light off and that is now superglued on due to the clip failing last year.
I've left my bike in much busier places in London without any issue so didn't think anything of it.

Get out of work a bit later then expected this evening and the street lights are on. Think maybe I should pop the lights on so go to put on the front one.........WTF??? Where is the front one??? Handlebar clip for it is bent right round underneath the bar and the light is fecking missing!!! Those little c**ts! What possess someone to steal (using some force as they've had to snap it off) something off someone's bike? I mean it was *only* a basic Cateye LD-120 (I think, the basic triple LED front light), but it still means I now have to go to a LBC tomorrow to get a new one especially as I'm on a late finish tomorrow I need a light for that so don't have time to rely on Wiggles normally excellent delivery services :-(

roger_merriman

indeed, some charmers nicked the lights of my wife's bike a few weeks back, so I had to pick her up as was dark.

Agent57

Yeah, people will nick anything, even if they can't then actually use it. It's one reason why I am adamant about leaving my bike somewhere secure at work, and won't leave it outside on open racks.

Roastie

I feel your pain. Had the rear rack mounted light stolen of my wife's bike outside our local gastropub - the b*stards had to rip it off and bent the alu bracket in the process. Gr.

Bassjunkieuk

Agent57 wrote:

Yeah, people will nick anything, even if they can't then actually use it. It's one reason why I am adamant about leaving my bike somewhere secure at work, and won't leave it outside on open racks.

Very true and at the sites where I can leave it somewhere more secure I will do, just amazes me that I can leave it out on the street up in London at various places and can return to find my light still there but leave it outside a fairly busy council office in my local town and that all changes!

Jay dubbleU

Sympathy bud - council offices are the worst - you get all the dossers turning up for freebies

mroli

I had a really crap LED rear light nicked off of my bike once. It was a rubbish old one and i had given it a boot once by accident and snapped off the clip in the light so I had to super glue it back on to the holder and brace it with a rubber band. Was nicked regardless. Really don't understand why - it was totally useless!

Bassjunkieuk

Guess every cloud has a silver lining......

After looking at the rather small range of lights that Evans offer (the closest one to where I'm working tomorrow, after Action Bikes - Victoria) I wasn't hugely taken by any so had a peak on Wiggle....

Their doing a rather good set of Cateye lights, the EL-320 front and TL-LD600 rear for half price! Means I get the set for £4 less then their price of the EL-320 by iteslf :-) Have found an old front light that should do for a evening or two's riding home until that new one arrives!

In a bit of a better mood now, retail therapy works wonders :-D

Tonymufc

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Sympathy bud - council offices are the worst - you get all the dossers turning up for freebies

What, including bike lights. I wouldn't mind but the little sh1ts that nicked it probably won't even use it.

il_principe

Ah Croydon... bad luck mate.

I once left my Garmin 705 on the bike chained up outside the Morpeth for several hours, amazingly it wasn't nicked.

Gussio

Back in the days before LEDs, somebody stole the bulb out of my missus' front light :roll:

iain_j

Yep, just like smashing up bus shelters I suppose, doesn't serve them any purpose but they just do it for the hell of it.

Saw a bike locked up in Manchester city centre on Saturday. Well locked up, front wheel off and locked together with the back one. But missing the top of the saddle - the seat post and even the rails were still there, but no top on it.

Unless Mancunians just ride them like that

Fireblade96

Have I mentioned how much I hate thieves, and bike thieves in particular ?

Scum. All of them. May their thieving hands wither and drop off. :twisted:

rjsterry

Sorry to hear about that. Nothing brings out my inner Daily Mail columnist like bike theft.

Just thought of their next headline: "Nicking bikes gives you cancer!"

It's the pointlessness of it that really gets me. My brother once had someone hacksaw through a D-lock which was worth more than the bike it was securing - bent whells, rusty frame, shot drive train, still went to all that effort.

dilemna

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Guess every cloud has a silver lining......

After looking at the rather small range of lights that Evans offer (the closest one to where I'm working tomorrow, after Action Bikes - Victoria) I wasn't hugely taken by any so had a peak on Wiggle....

Their doing a rather good set of Cateye lights, the EL-320 front and TL-LD600 rear for half price! Means I get the set for £4 less then their price of the EL-320 by iteslf :-) Have found an old front light that should do for a evening or two's riding home until that new one arrives!

In a bit of a better mood now, retail therapy works wonders :-D

Evans blatantly advertise that they will price match or beat any offer. So go into their shop and say Wiggle/CRC are doing the same lights for half the price. Walk out the shop with set of lights having paid Wiggle/CRC price.

Bike fiething scrotes should have their hands cut off as thieves in Saudia Arabia do.

Bassjunkieuk

dilemna wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Guess every cloud has a silver lining......

After looking at the rather small range of lights that Evans offer (the closest one to where I'm working tomorrow, after Action Bikes - Victoria) I wasn't hugely taken by any so had a peak on Wiggle....

Their doing a rather good set of Cateye lights, the EL-320 front and TL-LD600 rear for half price! Means I get the set for £4 less then their price of the EL-320 by iteslf :-) Have found an old front light that should do for a evening or two's riding home until that new one arrives!

In a bit of a better mood now, retail therapy works wonders :-D

Evans blatantly advertise that they will price match or beat any offer. So go into their shop and say Wiggle/CRC are doing the same lights for half the price. Walk out the shop with set of lights having paid Wiggle/CRC price.

Bike fiething scrotes should have their hands cut off as thieves in Saudia Arabia do.

Wasn't aware they'd price match online prices but as the Wiggle offer was one of the weekly specials and ended at midnight yesterday, so by the time I could get to Evans (i.e today) it would have been to late. Maybe having the light stolen was an omen :-D

soy_sauce

if they can't steal it, they break it. that how these WOS "roll".

one of my workmate left his bike overnight at work outdoor bike rack, found his rear wheel totally bent the next morning.

lost_in_thought

soy_sauce wrote:

if they can't steal it, they break it. that how these WOS "roll".

one of my workmate left his bike overnight at work outdoor bike rack, found his rear wheel totally bent the next morning.

I believe that's so the owner doesn't take it, meaning they can come back the next day with whatever they need to steal it. Or so someone told me.

Sorry to hear that BJUK, I've had loads nicked off bikes, even in nice areas like outside my old offices in Kensington and Mayfair. It's one of the reasons I've given up on saddlepacks on the commuter.

But then, on the other hand, I've also had nice gestures like someone noticed I'd dropped a pair of gloves next to my bike, I came out at lunch to find them sellotaped to my bike with a note saying 'these were on the ground, presume they're yours'.

AidanR

soy_sauce wrote:

if they can't steal it, they break it. that how these WOS "roll".

one of my workmate left his bike overnight at work outdoor bike rack, found his rear wheel totally bent the next morning.

I left a (cheap) bike computer on my bike by accident, and I came back to find that they'd nicked it, and its mount. Except they couldn't be bothered to unwind the cable leading to the sensor so had just cut it, rendering the whole lot useless. The fact that they'd just destroyed any value the computer had annoyed me more than the fact they'd taken it. Idiots.

Wooliferkins

rjsterry wrote:

Sorry to hear about that. Nothing brings out my inner Daily Mail columnist like bike theft.

Agreed, time to bring back the stocks! To salve your Journo frenzy have a look at the Daily Mail headline Generator It would be childish if I didn't fear there was one on Paul Dacres desktop

Bassjunkieuk

AidanR wrote:

soy_sauce wrote:

if they can't steal it, they break it. that how these WOS "roll".

one of my workmate left his bike overnight at work outdoor bike rack, found his rear wheel totally bent the next morning.

I left a (cheap) bike computer on my bike by accident, and I came back to find that they'd nicked it, and its mount. Except they couldn't be bothered to unwind the cable leading to the sensor so had just cut it, rendering the whole lot useless. The fact that they'd just destroyed any value the computer had annoyed me more than the fact they'd taken it. Idiots.

I think that's possibly worse then just nicking the light! At least these scrots got a handy sized torch out of it, although the mount they left on the handlebars still has part of the light glued to it so I can't re-use that either. Still I should *hopefully* have the new set tomorrow (reliant on the Royal Fail) as Wiggle has sent out a mail saying the orders been processed

Dav3m

How about this one then, last week I had to leave my bike overnight at work. Instead of leaving it locked outside I decided to bring it into my office and lock it to the radiator.

My bike lights were stored in my drawer, and low and behold the bike must have advertised the fact there were lights about and when I returned the next day my bike lights had disapeared!

Had to go to evans to purchase a new set the next day, and kindly price matched wiggle for me after I explained the story!

Dudu

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

What possess someone to steal (using some force as they've had to snap it off) something off someone's bike? I mean it was *only* a basic Cateye LD-120 (I think, the basic triple LED front light),

I have a theory that these are stolen by Daily Mail-reading motorists so that they can feel justified in banging on about cyclists with no lights.

cyberknight

If it is not nailed on take it with you is my motto.

Takes me a good few minutes to take off all lights etc when i get to work every day .

Trust no one !! and yes i am paranoid or so the voices tell me :P

redvee

cyberknight wrote:

Takes me a good few minutes to take off all lights etc when i get to work every day .

Likewise, 10 mins + from work clothes to clipping into the pedals and riding off into the sunset.

chuckcork

I had a rear light nicked a while back, why I have no idea as it was dynamo powered, absolutely useless to anyone not possessed of a 6V generator. That taght me not to spend £30 on something I couldn't readily remove.

When i replaced it later I did so with a much cheaper £9 light and installed it onto one of these http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/product-Cate ... -18974.htm (minus the reflector obviously).

Little buggers will have a little more trouble snapping that off than they would with plastic, though I'm sure simply destroying the light will be a handy second option after they slash the tyres, which I've had too. :evil:

Bassjunkieuk

Just a quick update :-)

Big props to Wiggle and their free delivery, the order I placed on Wednesday arrived at about 8:20 this morning :-) 10 minutes before I left for work so I can use them this evening!

markshaw77

It would appear that nothing is sacred in the big smoke...someone removed just the cateye flextight brackets from my SS today (I had removed the lights) - a princely 'steal' of £8!!

Really, what is the point?

Any tips for securing the replacements? Threadlock? Superglue? A massive, permanent security guard? Wire the bike up to the mains when I leave it?
(can you tell I am sick of having stuff nicked off my bike :evil: :evil: :evil: )

Bassjunkieuk

That is bleeding ridiculous! I mean unless you own a set of Cateye lights those brackets are nigh on useless to you which would mean they would have been removed by another rider which makes you even more annoyed!

I mean how would the theif (assuming it's a cyclist) like it if they returned after a day at the office to discover someone had pilfered something off their steed?

Sometimes I think I'm being paranoid but I would honestly remove the brackets from my bike for the summer just so they aren't there as a temptation to nick! (Nothing to do with the miniscule weight saving........;-))

The Chingford Skinhead

I think a lot of the petty thieving is just that - petty and done just because they can. I suspect that nicking light brackets falls into the same catagory and may also be done by people for a 'laugh' - or as I prefer to call it, petty spite. They know it will inconvenience the victim and that is all that matters.

There was a big blog in the Guardian last week (or so) about bike theft. The general view was people should buy cheap bikes or make their nice bikes look cheap. ??? When was the last time that the response to rising car crime was to tell motorists to only buy cheap second hand cars and don't wash them ever?

To the OP - unlikely but you could ask if the town hall has any CCTV covering the bike racks. If not, ask them why not.

markshaw77

OK - today I can go one better again!!

Clearly the little f*ckers that nicked my plastic light brackets were upset that I had some spares and that their little "game" did not have the desired effect, so this time, they decided that it would be "funny" to nick the crank bolts from my SS.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26490122@N03/4478725816/

That's right, they nicked just the dust caps and crank bolts from BOTH sides of the crank!! Having done that, they couldn't even be bothered to go ahead and actually nick the crankset?!?

First I knew of it was finding myself doing 18mph down the mall with the LH crank hanging off my foot by the SPD pedal!!!!! OH SO FUNNY!!

Just don't know what to make of this? Clearly whoever did it knows what they are doing and is carrying around not just a set of allen keys but a sprocket/ratchet large enough to get the crank bolts out but then didn't have the wherewithall to get the cranks off? Unless, they were just doing it to disable the bike with a view to nicking it at another time? Who knows!

Anyway, a huge thank you to the great guys at Action Bikes on Embankment who gave me 2 new crank bolts for free and lent me the tools to fix it there and then - I owe you one!