We’ve not deliberately declared this ‘Look after your bike Monday’, but this video from Norfolk Constabulary shows just how easy it can be to steal a bike if it’s not secured with a decent lock and you haven't read road.cc's Bike Locking Bible.
The CCTV footage shows a bike being stolen in Norwich city centre in just six seconds, without the thief even needing tools.
A thief approaches racks outside Tesco on Guildhall and tries twice to just yank the bike from the railing that it’s locked to. He succeeds on the third attempt, snapping the lock before calmly riding away.
The Claud Butler hybrid was stolen on Sunday February 9 and police say they have released the footage to highlight the ease at which bikes can be stolen.
Superintendent Dave Marshall said: “This footage highlights the ease at which bikes can be stolen if they are not secured properly. In this case it was gone in six seconds.
“All too often we see bikes secured with cheap cable locks. It makes no sense using a lock which costs £1 for a bike worth several hundred pounds and we would always recommend cyclists use D-locks.”
Officers are investigating the theft and anyone with information should contact PC Scott Ellis at Bethel Street Police Station on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
14 thoughts on “Video: Gone in six seconds — thief with no tools yanks bike off railing”
“Officers are investigating
“Officers are investigating the theft” Blimey. Normal for Norfolk?
Certainly ain’t normal for Sussex.
workhard wrote:”Officers are
In Sussex, the thief would probably have been stopped and fined for riding on the pavement, and given words for not wearing a helmet and hi-viz, then allowed to continue on his way.
a) Can they tell us what make
a) Can they tell us what make the lock was?
b) This just shows how useless CCTV is at preventing crime. I’m not putting much faith in anyone identifying the tea leaf from that video either, so it won’t be much help in the prosecution.
c) I’m really paranoid now. I’ll go and by some more locks.
Shocking. Manufacturers
Shocking. Manufacturers should stop selling cheap cable locks.
j_mes wrote:Shocking.
Once people stop buying them, there wont be a market for them. Unfortunately, thats how capitalism works.
The thief looks inebriated by the way he wobbles when he rides off.
zanf wrote:
The thief looks
Well he is careful to keep his back to the camera, so not that inebriated
RedfishUK wrote:zanf
Well he is careful to keep his back to the camera, so not that inebriated— zanf
[[[[[ This also points to the uselessness of one single CCTV camera. Tokenism, innit.
P.R.
j_mes wrote:Shocking.
The manufacturer made the lock. It is for the retailer to sell it. Probably a Halfords POS sale at the same time as the bike.
It’s all very well saying
It’s all very well saying “Use a D lock” but they are so heavy and awkward to carry.
It’s about time the makers at least got around to making a lighter one that didn’t weigh more than your bike and didn’t cost £50.
davebinks wrote:It’s all very
he may have a bit more of a problem with a “HipLok”… easier to carry than a “D-Lock”… as you can wear it…
http://hiplok.com/bike-locks/hiplok-lite-all-black
Paul_C wrote:HipLok
Good for
Good for carrying but 1kg is quite heavy for bronze level security, isn’t it?
This is not opportunistic
This is not opportunistic theft. You can tell that the bloke in the footage is checking out the bike rack, looking to see if anything is worth stealing.
If you’re going to leave your bike in public overnight then a far better option than a flash lock is a crap bike. Remember that thieves steal things with the intention of selling on. If the resale value of your bike is £10 then a £1 lock is probably OK. If the resale value of your bike is £2000 then its going to get stolen whatever lock you use.
I’m Steve of Pragmasis and
I’m Steve of Pragmasis and we’ve been saying for years that it’s the retailers that make the sale of the (potentially valuable) bike and often offer totally inappropriate security at the time, so they are the main ones at fault when that happens. It’s almost like selling a diesel car with a Jerry can with petrol in it! It’s obviously not going to work, and the bike purchaser can’t be expected to be an expert on security. The retailer should sell a combination that is balanced, and ideally give good advice on how to use it all – the bike and the security!
I’m afraid it’s all very well complaining about lock manufacturers making heavy/expensive D-locks, but the reality is the medium-to-heavy ones are the only ones that provide a worthwhile deterrent and it’s the medium ones that give a reasonable balance between security level and weight and cost for portable use in most situations. The top-of-the-range Kryptonite etc D-locks are very good, but they are also extremely heavy and very expensive, and a thief can often cut the frame if they are not used carefully even so.
The Mini D-locks offer some promise of decent security without too much weight, but they are very limited in what they will reach around as they are small.
There are no easy answers to this, I’m afraid, but whatever people do, avoiding relying on cable locks has to be a good philosophy IMHO! There are _no_ decent cable locks on the market that we know of. None at all.
Cheers,
Steve.
Since I moved to a city
Since I moved to a city centre I’ve not had a bike pinched – that’s because I never leave my bike outside!! Before then, every bike I’d ever owned had eventually been stolen – cheap lock or VERY expensive lock.
We’re missing the point, it’s not about the quality of the locks, it’s about the dick heads doing the pinching. If Mr plod went round nicking the crooks instead of dishing out crap advice to spend more money on security then we wouldn’t need locks. Take a wild guess where bikes get pinched from ? Yep, bike racks and/or common cycle parking spots in towns. Bike thieves are lazy so that’s where they look. All it takes is the boys in blue to park one of their own in mufti or install trap bikes at cycle theft locations and they’d catch the sods pretty quickly. You can bet the lazy low life bike thief is not just pinching bikes either!
One day we’ll be able to buy a seat post with a built in shot gun cartridge that’s armed when the bike is locked and triggered when a thieves bum makes contact with the seat- oh what a great visual!