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Ben Jaconelli reunited with his GoCycleThick as Thieves - Man who stole £2.5k e-bike phones owner for help in recharging it
The owner of a £2,500 GoCycle electric bike that was stolen in London got it back – after the thief phoned him up to ask for help in recharging it.
Ben Jaconelli had left the bike securely locked on Hackney’s Kingsland Road, but returned after 20 minutes to find it was gone.
He reported the theft to the police, but resigned himself to the worst until he received an unexpected phone call.
The 30-year-old happens to own e-bike online retailer Fullycharged.com and recently opened a shop on Old Street roundabout.
He’s also the authorised GoCycle dealer for the area, making him a rather obvious – if poorly-thought-out – point of contact for the person who had taken his bike once it ran out of power.
“The thief called me, unaware that it was my bike,” he said.
“He asked for a charger for a Go Cycle and I knew straight away it had to be the thief.
“I took down as many details for him as possible and then set about tracking him down.
“One of the guys at our warehouse has an old army truck so we piled in to that and turned up at his house.
“He was out, but his bemused mother was in and she got straight on the phone to her son to demand to know why he wanted an electric bike charger.
“A minute later he called me and asked why I was at his house and I said ‘you stole my bike.’
“He hung up and 20 minutes later the bike arrived at the warehouse in a taxi.”
Details have been given to the police, who are investigating, although no arrest has been made as yet.
They are also looking into potential links with other bike thefts in East London.
“There is a such a close network of dealers and I had alerted them all to the theft,” added Mr Jaconelli.
“Even if he did not ring me, I would have found out about it pretty quickly.”
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.
Latest Comments
- rileyrg 1 hour 47 min ago
Added to the liberal use of "theoritically", the repeated reference to non bike use has this tagged as one of the poorest reviews I've read.
- Rendel Harris 2 hours 5 min ago
I too watch from flag to flag but I can only do that because as a freelance writer working from home I can have it on whilst I work, I appreciate...
- Spangly Shiny 2 hours 6 min ago
The freezing of fuel duty doesn't help poor people: genuinely poor people cannot afford to run a vehicle, so the freezeing of fuel duty is no...
- biking59boomer 2 hours 40 min ago
There are too many cars on the road. Our towns and cities are just not capable of handling the huge volume of traffic that hits them every day....
- bikes 2 hours 42 min ago
You can't just turn your head around; the footage has to be very clear to have even a tiny chance of the police doing something about it.
- biking59boomer 3 hours 2 min ago
The idiot I saw today cycling whilst looking at his phone and not using his handlebars could do with a bit of Japanese law!
- Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells 5 hours 53 min ago
I'm absolutely disgusted (again) by the court's decision, far too lenient and I agree, a life ban from driving motor vehicles was totally justified...
- wtjs 6 hours 50 min ago
It's warmer up here than it was on the Whitehaven to Sunderland C2C a month ago!
- Smoggysteve 7 hours 22 min ago
There has not been much real world thought been put into the electromagnetic pedals. The idea they can just unclip after a certain cadence is...
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26 comments
LOVE a good news story like this. Chapeau!
Nice bikes on the Fullycharged site but the links to look at them in detail are all 404 not found.
I would have preferred the story to end as 'then we bundled him in the back of the truck, drove to a lock up and broke enough bones to ensure he could never steal anything again'
Really? That sounds horrible. I'd prefer it to end with arrests made, in court the next week, 600 hours community service, 4 year suspended sentence.
No such thing as "securely locked" these days
http://www.makitauk.com/product/cordless-tools/angle-grinders/bga452rfe3...
Get an old D-Lock
Lock your bike up in the high street then come back to it an hour later, chop the D-Lock off in full view of other pedestrians
See how many people challenge you...
Oh I can imagine how that conversation went
*Ring Ring*
"Hello"
"Yeah man what you bothering my mum about man I is going to bring my boys round ans stab you up yeah..."
"You rang me yesterday trying to buy a charger for the bike you stole from me, your mum is not very happy with you"
"Errrrr...."
*Click*
I bet he's white as well and dresses like he is "from the streets". Trousers round his arse, constantly sticking his hand down his trousers, baseball cap at a jaunty angle, carries three mobile phones, a delightful collection of gold sovereign rings from Argos.
In reality his name is Kev and he is a catering student.
No point in arresting him, cos they won't have anything to charge him with.
Boom boom!
Surprised nobody got that one in before me, TBH.
Surely once you've got his address, rather than piling round in your mate's truck, give the details to the cops. That way they can catch him red handed with the stolen goods.
It depends whether the cops have other crimes to attend to. My wife was robbed and worked out who the thief was and where she lived. The information was passed to the local police, who did nothing for two weeks. When they finally got round to visiting the address, the £100 of M&S vouchers that had been taken had all been spent along with the cash. My wife got the empty purse back.
I used to live almost opposite Plaistow Police Station.
A short while after I had my bike stolen, I saw three youngsters acting suspiciously by a bike locked to railings (not one of mine).
I thought I won't bother the 999 people, I'll ring the nick directly.
She answered that they weren't "that type of police station".
Use of the phone is redundant when I'm speechless, so I hung up !
(But I went out into the street near the bike until the youths left - yes, I DO that type of policing).
Leaving a bike 'securely locked on Kingsland Road' was the first mistake. Nothing's 'secure' on Kingsland Road....
Bike thieves are the worse kind of people. Hope they find him
Disappointed. I was expecting to hear he advised the git to come with the bike to his shop. That would be the last anyone saw of him.
"Ben Jaconelli had left the bike securely locked on Hackney’s Kingsland Road, but returned after 20 minutes to find it was gone."
I think the second part of that sentence demonstrates the inappropriateness of the adverb...
Great story, though - glad he's got it back.
Local police caught the guy who stole my bike after he was caught trying to sell it outside the police station.
He's not a clever bike thief, he's a very naughty boy !
Hahaha, marvellous work!
Not really dispelling the tag of thieves being stupid this one is he? Let's hope he does get his comeuppance one day.
Great publicity.
My favourite part is barrelling round in the army truck
Pity they didn't have a tank
Fancy turning up at the house in that!! Great story with a happy ending.
Absolutely class