[Sirichants]

I don’t want to start another rant about stolen bike but I hope to document/share incase somebody wants to investigate sophisticated international organised bike crime

Summary:
An old 26er mountain bike with a hidden AirTag was stolen over the weekend of 16-17 Aug 2025 at a train station in one of the largest towns just outside London. By 19 Aug, it had already made its way to Moldova via Romania. After that, the AirTag moved 3 locations within Moldova for a while before we lost the signal for a long time. This week, the AirTag finally pinged again, and it remain at the last location.

Background:
On weekend of 16-17 Aug 2026. My trusted 15+ yo mountain bike (26er with tubeless) it was perfect/well look after (it would still have sand/dirt from recent KAW). It might be old but we all attached to our bike and admittedly I struggle to replace it. Because of its age (and nobody buy 26er), together with kryptonite NY lock…. I figured that nobody would be interested. (TBH, it have been ok for nearly 10 years)

Timeline: thanks to airtag hidden in the wheel (muc off) and wheel lock (pinhead) it will be a bit of a task to remove it but not impossible. So to my surprise it ping again this week

16-17 Aug 25: stolen from train station (I know… I had a bit of problem with my London bike so I had to took it home for some TLC so I had to leave my mtb at train station.)
19 Aug: transit to Moldova via Romania (by road)
19 Aug: Arrived at Location 1 in Brinza, Moldova
28 Aug: Moving to Location 2 in Colibasi, Moldova
11 Sept: Moved to Location 3 in Colibasi, Moldova
20 Nov: remained at Location 3 in Colibasi, Moldova until spotted again on 7 Apr 26 at the same location 3

please see attachment on the Airtag’s reported locations

PS British police agree on the importance but couldnt be bother with the CCTV clip are too long and gave up as soon as they heard its located in Moldova (this require interpol). Moldova’s embassy in London and Moldova police force (included local police station) didnt responds to my email.

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[ktbffh]

Checkout this website (aka gumtree) – https://999.md/ro/list/transport/bicycles?o_16_1=776

Who knows, maybe the thief will advertise here for sale.

[Rome73]

When I was chatting with a bike shop owner about the values of installing a GPS tracker in an expensive bike, his reply was ‘what’s the point, just so you know your bike is in Romania or whatever’
A friend of mine had is TERN GSD stolen and tracked it to an estate in London. The police did attend, knocked on the door, asked if there was a stolen bike on the premises and, when the person said no, the Police left it at that. The next day, my friend found the tracker in a park close to the estate.

[Rendel Harris]

Sympathies for your loss, always horrible. It doesn’t sound as if this is “Sophisticated international organised bike crime” though, judging by the age and type of bike. The availability of rechargeable angle grinders and their cheapness (even cheaper if stolen out of a van or similar) has brought the theft of well-locked bikes well within the purview of the low-grade opportunist criminal; regrettably these people will often be drug addicts who will sell a bike for much less than its market value if they can get quick ready cash. Whilst one can’t definitively rule out international criminals, I would guess it’s much more likely that your bike was just sold in a dodgy pub or market to a Moldovan lorry driver who was on his way back home.

[Sirichants]

and the broken lock…

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