An Irish bike shop owner who spotted a man with bolt cutters stealing a bike rode after the thief for six minutes before eventually confronting him and recovering it.
Asked whether he was scared to challenge the man, Jozef ‘Joe’ Dobias answered: “I’m a cyclist. I get into life threatening situations on a daily basis courtesy of bad drivers and shoddy infrastructure.”
Dobias, who runs Dublin Loves Bikes in Dun Laoghaire, told Dublin Live: “We have a cat in the store called Gizmo – he is loved by many customers – and I had to go buy him some food.
“On the way back via Georges Street I noticed a guy with large snips prepping a cable lock at the bike stand just beside the hospital and Tesco here in Dun Laoghaire.
“As I passed him I could hear the snap – you can hear it in the video. I turned around to check him out. He was already on his way so I followed.”
The somewhat low octane pursuit continued for several minutes.
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“The thief stopped at the old library. I stopped further down. He was putting lights on the bike and he was also wearing a helmet. Good man.
“He comes to the Monkstown Dart station where I can see him throw away the cut lock into hedges. At this moment I am sure this is a case of theft so I decide to stop him boarding the train.”
Towards the end of the video, when the thief is challenged, he denies stealing the bike, saying: “You didn’t see fucking nothing.”
Dobias points out that not only did he see him, he also has the incident on film. The thief then ditches the bike – a Giant Liv Alight, described as being “in very good condition” – and leaves.
Dobias took the bike back to his shop. Police later came and collected it and it has since been reunited with its owner.
No word yet on whether the thief has been tracked down.
13 thoughts on “Video: Irish cyclist recovers stolen bike after six-minute chase”
(Psst: nowt really happens
(Psst: nowt really happens until 6:43 then it all kicks off a little bit.)
top man
top man
Well it’s not Bullitt, is it?
Well it’s not Bullitt, is it? But good on the fella.
don simon wrote:
Was a bit like Bullitt in that you sit through a load of boring shit before you get to the good bit.
Well….. by the looks of it,
Well….. by the looks of it, the value of the stolen bike doesnt seem to be worth chasing down for but at the end of the day, That bike belongs to someone, its their property and could be their pride and joy or maybe their only means of getting into town. work or whatever else.
Good effort by the shop owner. If it was a londoner they would of just ignored the thief and let him do his business.
RoubaixCube wrote:
This.
RoubaixCube wrote:
That’s cos we don’t want acid thrown in our faces.
The video shows that you have
The video shows that you have to be patient in order to catch your prey. He could have confronted him in the street but it would be likely that the thief would fight back.
A little tracking and then corner the scum in a public place where witnesses are present was a much better tactic. Top work i say..
Gurrier.
Gurrier.
7 minutes and 37 seconds of video on road.cc and no one’s used the words ‘close pass’. WTF guys!
Good work Joe. Really. Need more like you.
Good job! Good to see that
Good job! Good to see that bike thieves are never as fit as the people they steal from.
Happy Christmas Joe.
Excellent. The only thing
Excellent. The only thing missing, icing on the cake, would be seeing the thief getting tasered/aggressively detained by some Gardai. As he was tooled up with bolt-cutters, helmet and lights he’s obviously a prolific “professional” scumbag so hopefully worth their time to track down for at least a chat – likely with a bit of patience they’d find him in possession of some stoplen kit.
Nigel_2003 wrote:
Should have used the bolt cutters on his gonads, would have had a lasting effect, and stopped the scum from breeding any like minded offspring.
Well done mate.
Well done mate.
Sounds so much better with an Irish accent as well