Reward offered for return of Cinelli Strato stolen from London Bike Show

Distincive bike last seen on Chicken Cyclekit stand at around 4pm on Sunday afternoon

Simon_MacMichael, January 18, 2012

Cinelli Strato

Chicken Cyclekit is offering a reward of up to £500 for the safe return of a Cinelli Strato bike stolen on Sunday afternoon from its stand at the London Bike Show at Excel in East London.

Fitted with Campagnolo Bullet wheels and Super Record groupset, the bike, worth £5,500 is certainly a head-turner and bound to attract attention.

Should you be offered it for sale, or have any information at all that might help lead to its recovery, please contact Chicken Cyclkit on 01525 381347.

Tags

I've kept the wheels and group set - but you can have the plastic frame back.

MercuryOne

Silly me. You're probably right....

posted by MercuryOne [744 posts] 18th January 2012 - 21:31

Disgusting that anyone would stoop so low.

Don't buy upgrades. Ride up grades.

posted by obutterwick [453 posts] 18th January 2012 - 22:19

how did someone manage to walk away with a bike??

posted by jamjam [61 posts] 18th January 2012 - 22:48

Nah, I think I'll keep it.

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing..."

posted by Cooks [387 posts] 18th January 2012 - 22:55

How did they do it? Go up to the guys at the stand and go, hey look over there! and run away really fast ...with bike under arm ?

Sean

posted by seanieh66 [173 posts] 19th January 2012 - 3:46

Stolen to order by a man who will hang it on his wall and never let it be seen? Or some complete idiots who would have been better off nicking a Boardman from the Halfords - at least no one would blink when they saw that outside the local Subway...

posted by alotronic [197 posts] 19th January 2012 - 8:46

if people can steal seats from show cars at the motor show I'd suspect a bike is fairly easy....
Hope they recover it and get the culprit(s).

posted by Bigpikle [62 posts] 19th January 2012 - 10:32

@jamjam - I reckon this was probably easier than you think. I've not been to one of these shows, but if it's anything like other events I've been to, there is a lot of stuff being sold, typically at "special show discounts", so a guy walking through a crowd with a bike will not have even been noticed. All he would need to do is get it off the stand. I wouldn't be surprised if he was in corporate gear or a uniform of some kind - hiding in plain sight.

There was a robbery in a fire shop near me a few years ago - two guys in hi-vis vests simply walked in looking offical and emptied the shop of fires/fireplaces into the back of a van while there were staff around!

Dodging the saccadic masking

posted by notfastenough [2053 posts] 19th January 2012 - 10:36

I imagine the fact it was at the end of the show made it easier too - pretty chaotic with everything starting to come down and be put away.

Years ago I worked Saturdays in Harrods (pre Al Fayed) - one story there was of a guy who turned up in menswear department on first day of sale (when staff count doubled through casual staff etc), brought his own cash register, spent the morning ringing up purchases, no-one queried it, headed off at lunchtime with pockets full of cash...

posted by Simon_MacMichael [6403 posts] 19th January 2012 - 10:50

Simon_MacMichael wrote:

I imagine the fact it was at the end of the show made it easier too - pretty chaotic with everything starting to come down and be put away.

Years ago I worked Saturdays in Harrods (pre Al Fayed) - one story there was of a guy who turned up in menswear department on first day of sale (when staff count doubled through casual staff etc), brought his own cash register, spent the morning ringing up purchases, no-one queried it, headed off at lunchtime with pockets full of cash...

I've heard about something like that, BUT also seen it down, The real hustle BBC program showed it being done, took and and credit cards and walked out of the shop again