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news
Asda bike theft (aliqaragol, TikTok)Britain’s bike theft scourge continues: Brazen thief attempts to steal bike outside Asda in broad daylight – as bystander withdraws cash – and moped muggers target club ride
The scourge of bike thefts and violent bikejackings currently affecting cyclists across the UK appears to show no signs of relenting, as a brazen thief was caught on camera using an angle grinder in an attempt to steal a locked bike outside an Asda in broad daylight on Thursday, as a bystander withdrew cash from an ATM yards away.
And just two days later, on Saturday morning, two club cyclists were mugged on a busy London road in the latest in an increasingly long line of bikejacking incidents involving thieves riding mopeds.
Thursday’s incident, footage of which was shared on TikTok, took place outside an Asda in Wolverhampton, near Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Molineux Stadium, and saw one thief – wearing a motorcycle helmet – attempt to break through a bike lock with an angle grinder while an accomplice waited on a motorbike.
During the 20-second clip, the would-be thief can be seen noisily hacking away at the lock, with sparks flying, as a member of the public withdraws cash from an ATM right next to the blatant attempted theft, briefly glancing around to survey the scene before returning to his task.
After struggling to break through the lock with the angle grinder, the thief then begins to kick and grapple with the e-bike, which was locked to a cycle stand next to the Asda.
The clip ends before the pair were able to make off with the bike, and it is unclear whether the theft was indeed successful. West Midlands Police have been contacted for more information.
Just two days after the attempted daylight theft in Wolverhampton, a pair of club riders were subject to a violent bikejacking in London, with two moped-riding muggers fleeing with the cyclist’s bikes.
The shocking incident, the details of which were shared on social media by the X/Twitter account Badgercyclist, took place on Saturday morning at a traffic light on a busy road in High Barnet.
According to the cyclists, who are members of the Regent’s Park Rouleurs club, the muggers pulled up alongside them at a red light and “screamed in our faces ‘Right, get off your f***ing bikes now you c***s’ over and over, and getting increasingly aggressive”.
More details pic.twitter.com/KzrbP0jnbF
— 𝔅𝔞𝔡𝔤𝔢𝔯 RPR 🔱 🄹🄰🄼🄴🅂 (@badgercyclist) October 14, 2023
The victim continued: “We gave them over as we knew they could be armed and could do some damage. They looked like they could have been bouncers – well built, Cockney accents, and around 50-years-old.
“Clearly more experienced criminal scum and not like the kids that have been doing it in other cases.”
The cyclists have reported the bikejacking to the Metropolitan Police, who have been contacted by road.cc for comment.
> Moped rider jailed for three years for punching, robbing, and threatening to stab cyclist
As noted by the victims of yet another terrifying bikejacking this weekend, similar violent muggings targeting cyclists have become increasingly common across the UK in recent years.
Earlier this month, a cyclist was assaulted by two masked men in broad daylight who attempted – and ultimately failed – to steal his bike after forcing him off the road with a SUV in what appeared to be a targeted bikejacking attack in Worcestershire.
The cyclist was reportedly followed for around four miles by the SUV driver, before being cornered in a driveway, with only the intervention of the house’s owner and a passing motorist forcing the thieves to leave without the bike.
In August, a Kent cyclist raised the alarm about bikejackings in the area, sharing video footage of two moped-riding attackers forcing him off the road in a frightening incident on a busy road.
Peter Roper sent road.cc the video of the attempted bikejacking which happened on the A25 in Brasted, while he was riding his Trek e-bike. The cyclist said he saw a moped pass in the opposite direction, shortly before the rider and passenger pulled alongside to threaten him with a knife and push him off the road.
Fortunately, Peter was able to mount the pavement due to the dropped kerb, ending the attack.
In the most high-profile bikejacking incident in recent years, in autumn 2021 professional cyclist Alexandar Richardson was knocked off his bike, dragged for 100 metres by muggers on motorbikes, and threatened with a machete during a shocking attack in Richmond Park.
In April, a teenager, aged 15 when Richardson was attacked, was jailed for 12 months for the bikejacking.
Another professional cyclist, former Scottish champion Jennifer George, said last year that she no longer rides alone after she was similarly attacked by two people on a motorbike during a long ride from her home in southeast London out to Surrey.
> What can be done about the latest spate of bikejackings?
Last summer, a member of Penge Cycling Club narrowly escaped a robbery attempt near West Wickham, around five miles west of Orpington, during which the rider was told he would be stabbed if he did not give up his 2022 Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7.
Another incident saw a Trek Domane SL6 and Wilier GTR forcefully taken by a group, described as “youths on mopeds” by one victim and “four males on mopeds” by the other.
Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns at Cycling UK, said he believes criminals – such as the ones who targeted the cyclists in High Barnet on Saturday – are attracted towards stealing high-end bikes because the potential money to be made from selling them on far outweighs the chances of getting caught.
“It is possibly perceived as a low-risk crime if the numbers of people being caught are so low,” he explained. “It may be seen as a high-reward, low-risk crime.
“Somebody has posted on Strava what they are doing on their ride. The criminals will know it is someone on a £3,000 to £4,000 carbon fibre bike who has unwittingly signposted the fact that they are likely to be heading out to Kent or the Surrey Hills. It is on the police’s radar.”
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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34 comments
It's about time that wearing a balaclava / carrying a baraclava / face covering was classed as "equipped to commit an offence" and prosecuted as such.
The wearing of face coverings amongst urban scrotes is endemic - I've repeatedly encounted late teen / early twenties males wearing balaclavas on my road / in the park at night / running out of co-op with stuff they are nicking.
Even if they are not intending to commit an offence it's extremely / deliberately intimidating and thus undesireable.
So when I wear this https://road.cc/content/review/sealskinz-waterproof-all-weather-head-gai... I'm going equipped and liable to prosecution?
Proof of criminal intent .... probably, "Holding up a drivist for more than 5 seconds by cycling" or even, "Cycling with intent to annoy readers of The Daily Hate Mail beyond the limits of their ability to not vent their bloated spleens and have a hissy fit at your provocative gesture of cycling within 50 yards of them, which might cause them death by brain-blott".
Don't be surprised if a pretend-polis gives you a truncheoning to prevent you riding on a pavement anonymously, even if you haven't. Prevention of such evil crimes is now a Toryspiv priority. Pishi Rishi, micturating his tremedous new policies from on high, has decreed it from his helicopter, for the safety of motorists everywhere including those necessarily on the pavements as there's insufficient parking; or a cyclist slowing the traffic on the road by inconsiderately dying under a car.
PS A cycling helmet has not been tested fot truncheon hit; and neither has that balaclava.
This is me about to go out for a 75km ride
Yeah an' them face mask crims ought to be forced to take them off an' all, even if they will get Covid. Serves them right for believin' in them injections, which are really gummint-control serums to make us give up cars.
Everyone should have a monitor attached so we can know what they get up to. Oh, they already have ........ .
It's been a bit chilly recently. I'm sorely tempted with one of these:
https://coldavenger.com/collections/current-stock/products/coldavenger-e...
I have the face mask and love it. It's really helpful below about -20 °C.
If I was out riding and someone attempted to steal my bike I would stomp on the frame to snap it. I would rather break it than let them steal it. They may threaten violence but I doubt any of them would resort to seriously hurting someone over a bike. They are opportunist criminals.
I don't think I would do that, it would be awkward explaining the cause of the damage to the insurance company!
Don't be so sure. When I was in hospital last year, a local lad was admitted with stab wounds. It turned out he'd resisted two scumbags, but they managed to steal his bike and almost killed him in the process!
Did you read the linked story above about Alexandar Richardson, or look at the pictures? Pretty sure those guys were prepared to resort to seriously hurting someone.
https://road.cc/content/news/pro-cyclist-robbed-bike-richmond-park-mache...
In Texas we sh**t in the head these guys...oooops...can I say it in here?
****
Police meanwhile: oh, somebody blocked the road. Let's get them INSTEAD.
Number one reason NOT to use an expensive bike for transport or utility purposes is you can't leave it parked unattended anywhere with any confidence it will still be there when you come back.
Was visiting a relative at an inner city hospital recently and using a bike would've been ideal for the journey as the congestion on that route is horrendous. But did I really want to leave my thousand pound bike chained to some railings under the gaze of all the local pond life?
On the other hand, I could travel in my car -worth considerably more -and park it on the multistorey car park, knowing that there was virtually zero chance of anyone wanting or trying to steal it.
The bike stayed at home.
I was watching 'The Blue Lamp' - black and white film from 1949 - on TV yesterday. At one point, they drove past a car park and the sign said, "NCP - Car and Cycle Park". I nearly fell off my chair!
I'm sure those who left their vehicles at Stansted's short stay car park we're confident of coming back to their cars...
Luton?
I stand corrected.
Today's stolen e-bike, tomorrow's house fire.
Yeah always leave your charger with the bike.
For this one, I'd be grabbing a couple of large trolleys and ramming him with them. Should be out of reach and I reckon he'd hop on that motorbike quite quickly.
Yeah. I think using a shopping trolley is probably the right approach here. They won't want to hang around for a confrontation, and the trolley would keep you out of reach of the angle grinder.
I'd be grabbing a couple of large trolleys and ramming him
This is a good plan to have ready in your mind, although I think speed is the thing and a single trolley would be more effective
I was going to have 2 trolleys - one inside the other.
Note this is quite different from an open pavement where you have nothing to fend them off with, no CCTV and no staff on hand.
You're right! Poor thinking on my part- I forget about them linking together because I always use baskets.
Wots this? Cycle theft prevention vigilantes employing sloppermarket trolley as a blunt instrument? One can understand the temptation but think of the possible escalations .... .
One shops last for two long kitchen knives, to attach to the trolleyfront in prepration for dealing with the bicycle thieving scum sure to be prowling around one's 2-wheeled P&J with bolt cutters or angle grinder. Will the trolley-jabber overpower the angle grinder aimed at the trolley pusher's neck or even the achilles tendons!?
Perhaps a coupla knives is unsufficient to ensure a rightful outcome in murderous bicycle theft prevention scenarios? A gallon of petrol from the sloppermarket's wankpanzer fueling station poured into an atomising spray bottle with a handy jerk-string trigger and spark-generator ..... .Would the rozzers forgive such understandable preventative procedures, essoecially if they had to clear away the smouldering corpses? Unlikely.
Why not go the whole hog? Booby trap the bicycle with some stolen explosives from the local quarry and hope a passing mummy with a bairn doesn't nudge the contraption before the evil thief comes fumbling and fiddlin' at it, to be distributed in bloody gobbets about the now fragmented bike (and fragmented passer-bys).
But one can take these things too far. Perhaps a polite request to the thieves, to ask that they desist, would be enough?
I'm not sure I'm big enough to dual-wield shopping trolleys, but that would certainly look impressive to a criminal!
This is next up for discussion on Jeremy Vine (Channel 5).
Dare I ask - how did it go?
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