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Bike theft soars in Cambridge

Police urge riders to be security-conscious in city of stolen bikes

Cambridge may not have been able to beat Oxford in the Boat Race last month, but there's one way in which the city is romping ahead of its ancient rival: bike theft.

New data released by police for 15 cities across the UK shows that on average there are six bike thefts per 1000 population, But in Cambridge that number soars to 17.56 with Oxford in second place at 11.91 followed by Reading at 4.63 and York at 4.13, according to Cambridge News.

Despite crackdown on bike theft in recent months, police say Cambridge's bike theft rate is soaring along with its population.

Sgt Chris Horton said: "It would not be appropriate for us to comment on the crime rates of other force areas, however, broadly speaking, the increase in cycle thefts is in line with the growing population within the city.

"We are well aware of the high levels of cycle theft within the city, and while we are doing all we can to bring those responsible to justice, we continue to urge members of the public to take extra precautions to reduce the risk of having their cycle stolen."

Between April 1 last year and the end of February this year, 2,138 bikes were stolen in Cambridge, up from 1,809 in the sae period in 2013/14 and 1,980 for 2012/13.

Police have been using plain clothes patrols to combat bike theft in the city, and have historically used 'bait bikes' to snare thieves.

But Cambridge has so many bikes that thieves have taken to commuting up from London to harvest the city's easy pickings.

And far too many bikes are poorly secured. Cambridge police recently warned against the use of cheap locks that are so flimsy they can be broken with bare hands.

Sgt Horton added: "Local police urgently require the public's help in order to combat cycle theft which is an issue across the country. A number of measures are being adopting in an attempt to prevent and detect cycle crime such as saving your bike details as a contact in your mobile phone.

"If you have any suspicions or knowledge of people stealing bikes, please call us on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111."

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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4 comments

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smileyT | 8 years ago
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Look bikes will be nicked - scum will do that cos they make good money and are rarely convicted as ID on bikes can easily be erased or changed - what we all need to do is ensure that the police can identify the bikes true owners once caught and recovered - the best way IMO to do this is fit a datatag system which with UV etches, tamper evident labels and thousands of microdots makes identifying a true owner a piece of p@~s for the police - thus you get bike bake and convictions ensue - sorted

http://datatag.co.uk/bicycles.php

for 25 odd quid this ONE OFF cost is nothing compared to the emotional and finaincial stress

got a kit on each of my machines

 

Avatar
BigglesMeister | 8 years ago
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More bait bikes with shotgun cartridges in the seat tubes required. Blow their balls (or flange) off!

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HKCambridge | 8 years ago
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Aaaaarghhh! Bikes stolen per 1000 of population is meaningless. Without reference to number of bikes this is just 'bikes stolen where bikes exist'.

Avatar
Hypoxic | 8 years ago
0 likes

Another job for the snipers!

Perhaps when they're done in Cambridge, they can come here to Melbourne and pick off the dickheads throwing tacks on the roads.

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