Cyclist reclaims stolen Brompton following "altercation" — as angle grinder bike robber jailed for 33 months

polainm wrote:

Reality check on police statement "If you witness a crime in progress, please act with caution and call 999 at the earliest opportunity. Your safety is more important than anything else."

"Emergency Services? Yes, I'm witnessing a crime taking place"

"What is the nature of the crime?"

"A bicycle is being stolen"

"All our officers are chasing illegal drug users/supporting community services/doing paperwork right now.  I'll try to get an officer there next week"

"But cycle theft helps fund organised crime by £millions a year in the UK!"

"I hear what you are saying sir, but we have to prioritise crime and this is the lowest. At least another cyclist is off the roads hey! Good day."

"ok, if you're not going to attend I'll just shoot the bastard with my shotgun, can you send an ambulance instead of a police car?"

20 seconds later a full armed response team arrives.

You have to be a WASP to be British then?

A bit of a racist comment.

Hirsute wrote:

You have to be a WASP to be British then?

A bit of a racist comment.

What about us Celts? 

Bit of a racist comment 😜

if you didnt catch it the first time. It was a quote by Al Murray - aka, The Pub Landlord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD0Dyz4XQHs

He is well worth the watch unless youre the sort of person that gets offended by just about everything.

It's pronounced "Cholmondley-Warner".

Exactly. Never had an issue with security or staff doing this.

I thought that was the whole point of a Brompton. Why suffer one otherwise?

Trains.

(But I agree, I take mine in with me. But then I almost never leave any bike locked outside anyway.)

A colleague of mine managed to grasp his Brompton just and wrestle it off a thief after an attempt to steal it from a train carriage.  I've never really asked him but given what I've seen on London trains folks put them in the luggage racks near the doors and sit down in the carriage and on crowded trains that's about the only space sometimes, I wonder if he done the same.  If a seat isn't available next to my full size bike I stand next to it instead. 

I always try (and usually manage) to sit next to the luggage rack mine's on, but even so I have thought I should put a basic cable lock on it. 

Me too, I shouldn't condone violence or revenge attacks but....

jthurber80 wrote:

something like 80 percent of stolen bicycles weren't locked . . . at all!

Not the case in the UK, or certainly not London at least, virtually nobody leaves their bike unlocked here. Thinking back over the sadly extensive range of bicycles friends and I have had stolen over the years, I can think of only one example of an unlocked bike being stolen, a friend who went back inside her house to get her forgotten phone leaving her bike leaning on the doorpost whence an opportunist passing thief lifted it. Inadequate locks and/or inadequate stands are definitely a problem, leaving bikes completely unlocked not so much, I would say.

Rendel Harris wrote:

Not the case in the UK, or certainly not London at least, virtually nobody leaves their bike unlocked here. Thinking back over the sadly extensive range of bicycles friends and I have had stolen over the years, I can think of only one example of an unlocked bike being stolen, a friend who went back inside her house to get her forgotten phone leaving her bike leaning on the doorpost whence an opportunist passing thief lifted it. Inadequate locks and/or inadequate stands are definitely a problem, leaving bikes completely unlocked not so much, I would say.

I had to re-read that, having missed 'had' from that specific passage!

Not necessarily, someone may has small house, has to put in trains or buses full of people etc.

Regarding the stealing part, you can get a £150 used bicycle and D-lock that rides way better than a £2000 brand new Brompton, and since I believe that it is unlikely to have lost 13 bicycles to theft, theft prevention is not the key selling point of Brompton.

True, I regularly forget my lock at home and my 25 years old bike - unbranded frame, cheap RX-100 groupset - has not been stolen yet... I wouldn't leave it out unlocked for the night, though, some inebriated youth might need it to ride home, or throw it into the river!

Not sure it rides "way better" than a brand new Brompton, but at least it has full sized wheels

cyclisto wrote:

.. and D-lock that rides way better than a £2000 brand new Brompton,

I didn't realise bromptons were THAT bad

Anything I have ridden with small wheels seemed horrible to me. In a recent nice article https://road.cc/content/feature/fastest-way-commute-bike-swytch-commutin... a great bike cost used just £100

cyclisto wrote:

Not necessarily, someone may has small house, has to put in trains or buses full of people etc.

Regarding the stealing part, you can get a £150 used bicycle and D-lock that rides way better than a £2000 brand new Brompton, and since I believe that it is unlikely to have lost 13 bicycles to theft, theft prevention is not the key selling point of Brompton.

You are confusing "rides better" with "rides differently".  The majority of the funny feeling from a Brompton or indeed any similar folder is the directness of the steering due to effectively not having a stem.  It takes less than a week to get used to it.

I'm sure that is often a benefit. However, I can also imagine it's not always practical or convenient.

We know nothing about the bike's owner or what he was doing that day, but given this occurred on a Sunday in late May, it's perfectly plausible he was enjoying a day out and didn't want to carry around >10kg of bike with him whilst ambling along the promenade or perusing Brighton's selection of shops.

Steve K wrote:

And now I know this is victim blaming - and I apologise for that - but isn't the whole point of a Brompton that you fold it up and take it with you, rather than lock it up and risk it being nicked?

My Brompton-riding mate locks his up outside the pub when it's busy because it's quite an unwieldy package to be carrying into a crowded space, plus if he's the first there he'll have to carry it with him when queueing at the bar - pretty awkward if you're buying more than one drink - visiting the lavatories et cetera or leave it at the table and risk someone pinching it from inside.