Police in Canada collared a suspected bike thief – because he was riding without a helmet.
The bike was stolen last Wednesday from a school in Delta, British Columbia, where it had been locked to railings, reports vancouverisawesome.com.
Since 1996, all cyclists in British Columbia have been required by law to wear a cycle helmet.
So when police saw a man riding bare-headed near the school the following day, they stopped him.
The fact he was carrying another bicycle over his shoulder may also have aroused their suspicions, you’d have thought.
On questioning the man, police established he appeared to be in violation of conditions imposed by court orders.
They also discovered that the bike he was riding was the one that had been taken from the school the previous day, and it has been returned to its owner.
Officers are now trying to trace the owner of the second bike, also believed to have been stolen.
The man, 43-year-old Terry Lee Pipe, has been charged with possession of property obtained by crime, and three counts of failing to comply with court ordered conditions.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.