Britain a bike thiefs paradise.

foy

Saw a bike on ebay that i liked on a buy it now price, so being the decent person i am, i asked for the frame number so that i could check if it was stolen or not. Rang the police gave them the frame number, but under the data protection act they cannot tell me if the bike is stolen or not. Contacted the seller and asked if he had the original receipt, seller told me that he had no receipt but was quite happy to tell me which shop the bike came from, and what date he had purchased the bike. I rang the shop to verify the sellers information, and guess what, they cannot tell me anything because of the data protection act. You could not make it up. Is it any wonder that britain is a criminals paradise and all the laws seem to be in their favour. No surprise then that 500000 bikes are stolen each year and only 20000 bikes are ever reunited with their rightfull owner.

The Rookie

Both are lying, the answer to neither question would brach the DPA as they would be providing no personal data, more like total fi'ing lazyness!

turnerjohn

The Rookie wrote:

Both are lying, the answer to neither question would brach the DPA as they would be providing no personal data, more like total fi'ing lazyness!

surely "personal data" is name and/or address ? it would be like asking Tescos for someones clubcard data ?...NO !

Ber Nard

turnerjohn wrote:

The Rookie wrote:

Both are lying, the answer to neither question would brach the DPA as they would be providing no personal data, more like total fi'ing lazyness!

surely "personal data" is name and/or address ? it would be like asking Tescos for someones clubcard data ?...NO !

I'd have thought it would be more like a HPI check on a car. If you give the police a frame number to check if a bike has been reported stolen the answer need only be a simple yes or no. Asking the bike shop to verify the owner is probably dodgy ground.

Rob

cooldad

I blame Wiggle.

gt-arrowhead

The fact that the police dont give a monkeys about bike theft doesnt help either. Every time (4 times) ive had a bike nicked ive given them details about every single little thing on the bike, and they said they will search for it. Never hear back from them.

I once had a bike nicked within literally 10 seconds. I had it leaning against the fence in my driveway, and i opened the door and put the bag in my front room. I came back to grab my bike and i see someone riding it at the end of the road.

I had explained this to the police, with detail, stating that it was literally no more than 10 seconds. The policeman that came to my house to take details had the bloody nerve to say "well next time dont leave your bike outside" What the hell did they expect me to do?

I never heard back from any of the reports i made on my bike thefts. I did a better job than the useless police on my 4th stolen bike. I stole it back!

ej2320

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

I never heard back from any of the reports i made on my bike thefts. I did a better job than the useless police on my 4th stolen bike. I stole it back!

Really?!! Please share, that's a good story to tell

Kowalski675

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

The fact that the police dont give a monkeys about bike theft doesnt help either.

It's not just bike theft. The police (and courts) don't give a toss about any property crime.

foy

Arrowhead tell us more you are a man who thinks the same as me. The police are a waste of breathing space but to be honest their hands are tied by political correctness. My mate is a sergeant and if he arrests 3 criminals in a day thats his 12 hour shift for the day as the paperwork takes on average 3 hours for each arrest to fill in. Only 8 out of every 100 crimes are ever solved so that is a 92% success rate for the criminals.

rockmonkeysc

There is a petition circulating online at the moment to get the police to create an online database of stolen bike frame numbers.
A mates carbon Santa Cruz V10 was stolen. He found it advertised on facebook for £300! He arranged to collect it that evening and took a few mates along for the ride.

coulddobetter

My local police finger printed garage , put details in local paper and made 2 home visits . Didn't get the bike back but couldn't blame the police .

gt-arrowhead

ej2320 wrote:

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

I never heard back from any of the reports i made on my bike thefts. I did a better job than the useless police on my 4th stolen bike. I stole it back!

Really?!! Please share, that's a good story to tell

I know youre being sarcastic but anyway...

got payed, went tesco same day, bought a new game, came out, lock cut, bike gone, rather pissed off, 4-5 days later, school lunch time, walking through the middle of town with a mate, eating doughnut, saw the bike outside JD (proper chav shop), told mate to hold doughnut and meet me in school, jumped on bike, cycled into school, friend gave me the doughnut, i ate it, cycled home instead of taking the stinky bus, HAPPY DAYS!

gt-arrowhead

coulddobetter wrote:

My local police finger printed garage , put details in local paper and made 2 home visits . Didn't get the bike back but couldn't blame the police .

Now if the police did all of that and i didnt get my bike back, i would at least have the satisfaction of knowing that they actually care, and that they tried.

And about the 3 hours per crime thing, that makes sense in a way, but if i was a policeman then i wouldnt mind doing that because thats what a policeman should want to do, catch criminals!

foy

great way to get your bike back rockmonkey loved reading that.

foy

great way to get your bike back rockmonkey loved reading that.

welshkev

Kowalski675 wrote:

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

The fact that the police dont give a monkeys about bike theft doesnt help either.

It's not just bike theft. The police (and courts) don't give a toss about any property crime.

very true, the police caught a guy in my old car trying to hotwire it. they released him without charge cos there wasn't enough evidence ffs!!!

Clank

coulddobetter wrote:

My local police finger printed garage , put details in local paper and made 2 home visits . Didn't get the bike back but couldn't blame the police .

This mirrors the service I had from my local plod. Plus, within 2hrs of putting the bike details on the 'Stolen' section here, I had a phone call from them asking if I'd put the details up because 'a few keywords had been brought to their attention'.

ej2320

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

ej2320 wrote:

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

I never heard back from any of the reports i made on my bike thefts. I did a better job than the useless police on my 4th stolen bike. I stole it back!

Really?!! Please share, that's a good story to tell

I know youre being sarcastic but anyway...

got payed, went tesco same day, bought a new game, came out, lock cut, bike gone, rather pissed off, 4-5 days later, school lunch time, walking through the middle of town with a mate, eating doughnut, saw the bike outside JD (proper chav shop), told mate to hold doughnut and meet me in school, jumped on bike, cycled into school, friend gave me the doughnut, i ate it, cycled home instead of taking the stinky bus, HAPPY DAYS!

I wasn't being sarcastic... I was genuinely interested in the story

It was defiantly your bike that you stole back wasn't it..?

welshkev

ej2320 wrote:

[

I wasn't being sarcastic... I was genuinely interested in the story

It was defiantly your bike that you stole back wasn't it..?

imagine if it wasn't....

um, wasn't your bike blue? doh!!

Ouija

Depends where you live. In the built up urban areas there are more crimes than the police can deal with so they only take an interest in the more 'serious' ones. Out in the rural areas even cats stuck up trees become a major police procedure and stolen bikes are worthy of tactical response units complete with snipers....

97th choice

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

blah

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've posted on here that you purchased a bike you belived to be stolen, therefore it's a bit late to be jumping on the moral bandwagon now.

welshkev

Ouija wrote:

Depends where you live. In the built up urban areas there are more crimes than the police can deal with so they only take an interest in the more 'serious' ones. Out in the rural areas even cats stuck up trees become a major police procedure and stolen bikes are worthy of tactical response units complete with snipers....

I live on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere and loads of my mates have had bikes nicked. nothing but a cursory response and some have had fingerprints dusted for. none have got their bikes back.

but good to see that stereotypes don't exist anymore :roll:

monkimark

I saw a bike being stolen in southwark (built up urban, central london) and the police turned up in about a minute to go in search of the scrote - I was quite impressed with the response actually. Whether it actually recovered the bike or not is another matter.

pesky_jones

welshkev wrote:

Ouija wrote:

Depends where you live. In the built up urban areas there are more crimes than the police can deal with so they only take an interest in the more 'serious' ones. Out in the rural areas even cats stuck up trees become a major police procedure and stolen bikes are worthy of tactical response units complete with snipers....

I live on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere and loads of my mates have had bikes nicked. nothing but a cursory response and some have had fingerprints dusted for. none have got their bikes back.

but good to see that stereotypes don't exist anymore :roll:

It's not really a stereotype, and if it is, then it's an acceptable one.

welshkev

Pesky Jones wrote:

welshkev wrote:

Ouija wrote:

Depends where you live. In the built up urban areas there are more crimes than the police can deal with so they only take an interest in the more 'serious' ones. Out in the rural areas even cats stuck up trees become a major police procedure and stolen bikes are worthy of tactical response units complete with snipers....

I live on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere and loads of my mates have had bikes nicked. nothing but a cursory response and some have had fingerprints dusted for. none have got their bikes back.

but good to see that stereotypes don't exist anymore :roll:

It's not really a stereotype, and if it is, then it's an acceptable one.

of course it's a stereotype and no it's not a f**king acceptable one you knob

pesky_jones

welshkev wrote:

Pesky Jones wrote:

welshkev wrote:

Ouija wrote:

Depends where you live. In the built up urban areas there are more crimes than the police can deal with so they only take an interest in the more 'serious' ones. Out in the rural areas even cats stuck up trees become a major police procedure and stolen bikes are worthy of tactical response units complete with snipers....

I live on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere and loads of my mates have had bikes nicked. nothing but a cursory response and some have had fingerprints dusted for. none have got their bikes back.

but good to see that stereotypes don't exist anymore :roll:

It's not really a stereotype, and if it is, then it's an acceptable one.

of course it's a stereotype and no it's not a f**king acceptable one you knob

Don't get touchy. There's no way you can argue the Police in your little town in Wales deal with the same crimes as they do in North London on a daily basis. Knob.

bails87

Don't get touchy. There's no way you can argue the Police in your little town in Wales deal with the same crimes as they do in North London on a daily basis.

True. The Met has a dedicated cycle crime taskforce.

Most other forces don't.

So you're possibly right, but possibly not in the way you think.

Edit:

I saw a bike being stolen in southwark (built up urban, central london) and the police turned up in about a minute to go in search of the scrote -

YeehaaMcgee

Ouija wrote:

Depends where you live. In the built up urban areas there are more crimes than the police can deal with so they only take an interest in the more 'serious' ones. Out in the rural areas even cats stuck up trees become a major police procedure and stolen bikes are worthy of tactical response units complete with snipers....

Well, no, that doesn't really hold true.
Out here in the styx, we don't actually "have" police, as such. There's one main local police office, which opens, sometimes, on a 9-to-5 basis. That covers several dozen small villages and little towns. Most of the smaller local ones are being shut down.
So although the population is much lower, the amount of police officers is also far, far lower.

We also don't have tactical response units, when needed, it's often the Manchester units that come to help out. A couple of weeks ago, for example, armed (Manchester) police raided a restaurant to arrest a murderer. We (in the rural areas) just don't have the crew to deal with that kind of thing. In fact we have very few policemen and women at all.

But it kind of works, because crime rates are generally very low.

Anyway, when I was about 12 or so, I had a bike stolen. Bear in mind this was a tiny village, with under a thousand people living there. I found the bike outside the local shop later that same day, so I waited to see which idiotic cnut got on it, then lamped him and took my bike back.
See, we don't need coppers when everyone knows everyone else in the village

veronese68

I had a bike stolen a couple of years back. They climbed over a 6’ gate and took it away. I know I should have locked it away more securely, you live and learn. As a result of this I discovered that a frame number is only any good if your local police get the bike back as I was told they do not share frame numbers across forces. The only thing that goes on any sort of national database is if you get your bike security marked by the police, Bike Register I think it is.
About 4 weeks later I found my bike for sale on Ebay. I told the police and they took some details but didn’t do a lot as the seller claimed he had some document verifying the frame number was not of a stolen bike, so I kept pestering them. I eventually got them to take me seriously and they got the seller to take the bike to the police station. I turned up with a purchase invoice with the correct frame number on it, details of non-standard parts and lights that fitted all the brackets on it. They then believed me and I rode the bike home. They said they couldn’t prosecute the seller as they couldn’t prove he’d stolen it. Although he had 4 bikes for sale on Ebay and Gumtree all under the same phone number but had himself a different name on each ad.
So my advice would be to get the police to security mark your bike and if it’s stolen trawl the usual sites and if you find it do whatever you can to get it back, even if you have to go round there with some mates. Oh, and don’t forget to lock it up properly.

YeehaaMcgee

Veronese68 wrote:

They said they couldn’t prosecute the seller as they couldn’t prove he’d stolen it.

But, isn't he then guilty of "handling stolen goods"?

pesky_jones

He'll just deny knowing they were stolen, police can take it either way - if they wanted to prosecute they'd have to prove he knew.