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Burglars ransack David Millar’s home as he competes in Dauphiné

Irreplaceable race memorabilia and family heirlooms among items stolen

Garmin-Sharp’s David Millar, riding his final season as a professional, has been the victim of a burglary in which thieves took items including irreplaceable mementoes of his career from his home in Girona, Spain.

The burglary was discovered when Millar returned home from competing in last week’s Critérium du Dauphiné, with the 37-year-old breaking the news to his followers on Twitter.

His sister Fran, who works for Team Sky, also took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the burglary.

She urged people to be vigilant over items turning up for sale on eBay.

She added that family heirlooms were among the items stolen, including a watch marking Millar’s role in helping Mark Cavendish become world champion at Copenhagen in 2011.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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14 comments

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pjt201 | 9 years ago
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Quote:

Not too keen on the product-placement tweet,

I think that was probably tongue in cheek knowing David...

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Flying Scot | 9 years ago
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Awful losing all the personal stuff.

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giobox | 9 years ago
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Like how he still managed to name drop the sponsor's name when mentioning the TV got stolen...

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farrell | 9 years ago
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Or get Duncan Ferguson to house sit while you're away:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2748887.stm

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Yennings | 9 years ago
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Shame for him and his family but another cautionary tale - print your most prized photos, don't just store them on computers/hard drives! Even the most hard-hearted felons don't tend to steal photos unless they're signed etc.

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stefv replied to Yennings | 9 years ago
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Yennings wrote:

Shame for him and his family but another cautionary tale - print your most prized photos, don't just store them on computers/hard drives! Even the most hard-hearted felons don't tend to steal photos unless they're signed etc.

You can print photos, but it's also a good idea to have them backed up in another location and/or on the cloud along with other sentimental/important files.

Also, it is really important to encrypt hard drives. A login password is literally useless in terms of protecting your data. It doesn't take much technical know-how to boot up a Linux OS from a CD or USB, which will then be able to mount the hard drives and gain full access to the data on them.

 26

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Simon E | 9 years ago
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A very unpleasant experience for them, no doubt.

As already mentioned, I too wondered whether the tea-leaves saw the tweets by him and his wife (@lastfastbike) about the whole family being at the race.

Re. family photos on laptops: you must, always make backups! If you value your data you have to back it up, preferably to two different formats or locations. It's too late when it's gone...

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GrahamSt | 9 years ago
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On the week that Ian Wright's house was burgled whilst he was off in Brazil commentating on the World Cup, does this suggest a new tactic from criminals:

pick someone famous with lots of nice things, watch news and/or social media to find out when they are away, go rob their house?

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Simon_MacMichael replied to GrahamSt | 9 years ago
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GrahamSt wrote:

On the week that Ian Wright's house was burgled whilst he was off in Brazil commentating on the World Cup, does this suggest a new tactic from criminals:

pick someone famous with lots of nice things, watch news and/or social media to find out when they are away, go rob their house?

That's been happening for years, a lot of the Liverpool FC team have had their houses turned over while they've been off on European away trips.

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GrahamSt replied to Simon_MacMichael | 9 years ago
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Simon_MacMichael wrote:

That's been happening for years...

Seems like a sting operation would be a good way to sort it out - either by the police or by a celeb hiring some suitable "private security" personnel to do some covert house-sitting.

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jollygoodvelo | 9 years ago
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Shameful.

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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Scumbags.

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minnellium | 9 years ago
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Dreadful stuff. Not too keen on the product-placement tweet, but I'm sure he's in a dreadful place now. Shudder to think.

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mrmo replied to minnellium | 9 years ago
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minnellium wrote:

Dreadful stuff. Not too keen on the product-placement tweet,

Mind you, if you go on Ebay.es, or what ever it is called, and see some newish Sharp TV's for sale fair chance they have been nicked...

Tis a shit situation to be in.

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