“We made it difficult for the police to ignore”: Cyclist leads police to serial bike thief in DIY sting operation – after spotting stolen bike on Gumtree

Earlier this year, the Liberal Democrats questioned whether bike theft in the UK has effectively been “decriminalised” after analysis of Home Office data revealed that nine in 10 cases reported to the police since 2019 had gone unsolved.

However, in a bid to avoid adding to those sobering statistics, one London-based cyclist – whose bike was stolen from the communal hallway of his block of flats, before immediately appearing on online marketplace Gumtree – made sure their case was “difficult to ignore” for the police, by tracking down the culprit within 48 hours and guiding officers right to his doorstep, leading to his arrest and a criminal charge.

On Saturday evening, a thief stole 28-year-old cyclist Alasdair Bayman’s Cannondale Topstone gravel bike, along with a neighbour’s bike, from the communal area of their building in Dalston, east London.

Bayman immediately reported the theft to the police’s non-emergency number but said he found the call handler “quite dismissive”.

However, later that evening, encouraged by his friend, the Greater Manchester-based cycling campaigner Harry Gray, Bayman began searching for the bike on Gumtree, and found it listed for £800, less than half the customised bike’s value.

“From this we gathered the thief was a bit stupid,” Gray said.

Gray and Bayman then hatched a plan to track down the thief’s address by posing as potential buyers, though Bayman admits that he felt resigned to paying at least £750 to get his bike back.

“I decided to message him and pretend to be coming from Manchester to buy later in the week,” Gray said.

“Coming from the north, far from London, lowered his guard so he revealed the address for collection. Whilst this happened, Alasdair also contacted him to arrange a purchase.”

The cyclist then arranged to meet the suspected thief on Monday morning in a public area at a block of flats in Walthamstow.

“We had his general address by asking him on Gumtree but not the exact building,” Gray told road.cc.

“The area was a large complex with multiple forms of housing, flats, terrace rows, and tower blocks. From the photos on his other listings, looking at the brickwork and the window ledge, it became apparent that the bikes were being stored in a specific building within a council housing complex.”

Bayman then called to the police with this new information and to inform them that he planned to meet the seller. The police, however, advised him not to go alone and said that an officer would also attend the scene “to keep the peace”.

“They were not playing ball at first, but I think saying he was going to go at 11am on Monday forced their hand and made it difficult to ignore,” Gray, who was keeping tabs on developments from Manchester, says.

In fact, several officers accompanied the cyclist to Walthamstow, where Bayman spotted a man watching them from a different block of flats before disappearing.

“I texted him saying: ‘I’m here’,” Bayman said. “At that moment he changed the seller’s name on Gumtree. I knew he’d seen me and he’d seen the police. I thought, it’s gone cold.”

Officers then accessed the neighbouring block of flats and agreed with Bayman and Gray’s assessment that the bricks in the background of the photo of his stolen bike matched those in the flats.

The room where the bikes were found

After knocking on the thief’s door – to which his mother answered, “What’s he done now?” – the officers found four bikes, including Bayman’s, in the flat, along with an electric scooter.

“His mother opened the door and all the bikes were there. He was a 21-year-old man who’d been convicted of bike theft before. They took him away in handcuffs,” Bayman said, after retrieving his bike less than 48 hours after it had been stolen.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that a 21-year-old man had been arrested and has since been charged in connection with handling stolen goods. He will appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court next month.

In response to this latest DIY bike theft sting, Cycling UK’s director of external affairs Sarah McMonagle noted that there was “a growing trend” for people attempting to track their own stolen bikes due to the perception that bike theft is currently going unpunished in the UK. However, she warned that it was dangerous for victims of crime to act without police help.

“Bike theft is often perceived as a petty crime, but it can carry a huge social and financial impact for people,” McMonagle said.

“While we acknowledge the limitations on police resources, with more than half of stolen bikes being resold online, there’s clearly huge scope for improved targeting of online marketplaces to identify and prosecute serial offenders and organised criminals.

“As police continue not engaging with this issue, we have recognised a growing trend of people attempting to retrieve their own stolen bikes. This highlights the importance of the issue and how we need bike theft to be taken more seriously.

“Attempting to recover a stolen bike from a thief can put that person at risk and should be a matter for the police.”