The victim of a violent bikejacking in London last month says he is still recovering from the psychological impact of the attack, which saw him forced off the road and cornered by two thieves riding Lime bikes and mopeds.
The violent robbery in south-east London is just one of several bikejackings reported by cyclists in the capital in recent months, as “brazen” criminals appear to be targeting people on bikes in ever-increasing numbers.
The victim, who does not wish to be named, was cycling on Whateley Road in East Dulwich, on his way to Regent’s Park when he was ambushed in what he described as a “co-ordinated and aggressive” manner by two thieves, one on a moped and the other riding a Lime bike.
The incident took place on 6 August 2026 at around 6.20am – in “broad daylight”, as the cyclist notes – near Whateley Road’s junction with Lordship Lane.
“They used the familiar tactic of a coordinated and aggressive method to force me off the road, box me in on the pavement, and violently steal my bike,” the cyclist tells road.cc.
“After calling 999, I waited on the side of the road for about two hours for the police to arrive, being told the shift had just changed. Thankfully some kind residents stayed with me to make sure I was okay.”
After arriving on the scene, an officer informed the rider that the Lime bike used by one of the attackers, and left on the pavement, had been paid for, presumably by the bikejacker. The cyclist was also told to check Facebook and other online marketplaces for his stolen bike, a blue Canyon Ultimate CF SL.
“Afterwards I posted on Reddit and a resident who lives nearby was able to provide doorbell footage. Unfortunately, you only see me ride past and then hear the shouting, moped acceleration as they stole the bike. I provided this to the police,” he says.
Since the incident, the cyclist claims there have been numerous delays in the Metropolitan Police’s investigation, including contacting Lime, who may be able to trace the identity of the person who rented the bike prior to the attack.
Last week, it was reported that the hire bike company used its GPS system to help City of London Police track down an e-bike rider caught on camera directing an offensive gesture at a pedestrian while riding on the pavement.
The police said that the case “demonstrated how technology can help identify riders involved in anti-social cycling offences, potentially helping the force tackle wider offences in the future”.
However, it appears that the same cannot be said for the Metropolitan Police and its approach to bikejackings, with the cyclist claiming that it took the force over a month to contact Lime about his case.
“I haven’t really been told much else from the police,” he tells road.cc. “I approached them a few times and they explained why there were delays to any updates, due to sickness and absences. They also said they were unable to find any more footage.
“The incident happened on 6 August and in an email reply on the 28th they said they hadn’t contacted Lime. On 8 September, I had an email to say that had approached Lime and were waiting for a response.”
When approached by road.cc, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the force was unable to comment on an “isolated incident”.
Nearly two months on, the cyclist says he has struggled to “move on” from the attack.
“While I feel incredibly fortunate to have escaped with only minor bruises, the psychological impact of being forced off the road and targeted in broad daylight is deeply unsettling,” he tells road.cc.
“Not only for myself, but for other members of my cycling club and the wider community as evidenced by the engagement with my post on the East Dulwich Form and Reddit.”
The cyclist says he has since written to his MP, and current Attorney General, Ellie Reeves, along with councillors and his local Safe Neighbourhood team in a bid to “raise awareness”.
He says Reeve’s response has been “positive and understanding, but whether any action can be taken to remove this threat remains to be unseen”.
He continued: “I’ve accepted that I shall never see the bike again. That is okay, it can be replaced. What I would like is for this to never happen to anyone else and for the cycling community to feel safe doing something that we enjoy.”
The East Dulwich cyclist’s decision to share his harrowing experience comes at the same time reports of bikejackings, and intimidation of cyclists by people on mopeds or illegal bikes, are on the rise in London.
Earlier this month, we reported that a 12-year-old boy was riding in Richmond Park when his mountain bike was stolen. Meanwhile, Richmond Park Cyclists, an association of several local cycling clubs and riders, has collated at least seven further incidents of masked riders on illegally modified electric motorbikes harassing and intimidating cyclists through the park.
In March, Jakroo Handsling, an elite British domestic racing team, warned of “organised and brazen” criminals targeting cyclists for high-value bikes after they had one bike stolen and another senselessly damaged by moped-riding robbers wearing balaclavas in south-west London.
The previous month, two motorbike-riding thieves, allegedly brandishing a knife, were also caught on camera stealing a women’s bike outside a busy café in Bermondsey, where Met officers once again took two hours to arrive at the scene.
road.cc also understands that there have been a number of as yet unverified reports of bikejackings at the entrance to Victoria Park in Hackney in recent weeks.
The spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the force was unable to comment on this recent spate of reported bikejackings because “they are not linked, given they are in different areas”.
The Met has previously been criticised for its allegedly passive response to bikejacking incidents in the capital. Last year, fter a group of club cyclists training in Regent’s Park asked for neighbourhood policing to patrol the area in the early morning, saying they felt like “sitting ducks” for criminals, they were told the officers were “unable to change our working hours”.
A Freedom of Information request made in 2023 found that an average of two bikejackings a day are occurring in London alone, with most thefts taking place in the early morning, when working people are most likely to be out riding higher-value road bikes.
Sean Epstein, the chair of Regent’s Park Cyclists, told us that bikejacking “keeps happening and there’s no plan to do anything about it”.
27 thoughts on “Lime and moped riders force cyclist off road and steal bike in “deeply unsettling” attack as London bikejacking reports on the rise”
If ever you needed proof of how seriously police treat bike theft, this is it. One of the bike hackers paid for a lime bike rental and two months on, nothing. Make a rude gesture and it’s game over, tracked down in a matter of days.
@Barraob1 Handy Guide to Met Police prioritisation:
Violent Mugging / Bike Theft – Not a Priority
Antisemetic marches / banners – Not a Priority
Illegal eMotorbikes – Low / No Priority
Drug dealing – Low Priority
Hurty Words online – Top Priority
This may be a little unfair but if they can’t even be bothered to get the hirer details of a lime bike involved in a violent mugging they can hardly claim to be effective as a force.
@open_roads “hurty words” – well, it’s a lot easier to wrap up cases if the defendant has documented their own offences, of course.
Of course it seems a large number of masked paramilitary types appearing and intimidating folks (the blackshorts) didn’t get police priority (even with some advance notice), while nonviolent hippy types and old folks holding up not-very-hurty words written on paper did. So if you feel they’re not just it’s not that they’re being partial, just arbitrary…
@chrisonabike also a lot easier to wrap up when the ‘hurty words’ are telling people to burn down hotels hosting asylum seekers and then people go and do exactly that.
@open_roads Don’t forget throwing a bottle – 2 years’ bird.
Really? I thought it just got you a CHF500 fine and a yellow card.
Do you mean the anti-Israeli government/anti-genocide marches? In which case they very much have been a Met police priority, e.g. 523 protesters arrested in London April 11 this year, 77 protesters arrested July 29, 190 protesters arrested September 6 last year, 522 arrested August 8 last year, 492 arrested October 4 last year and so on. One assumes from your chosen description of such marches you approve of such arrests, and that’s fine, you are exercising your right to free speech (it would be nice if that right were to be afforded to everybody, of course), but to claim the police are ignoring them is ridiculous.
@Rendel Harris yes. Though apparent motivations of protestors have been … mixed. And it’s certainly *caused* fear and alarm to Jewish groups here. Hopefully the small numbers of Jewish folks attending some protests didn’t feel threatened.
I’m not sure I’d appreciate a few folks on such protests apparently randomly celebrating the sport of paragliding etc. any more than if a few of the “fair fuel” protestors had been making knowing references to “piano wire” or joking about mounting spikes on bumpers.
@chrisonabike Yes, of course in any march of 250,000 plus people you’re going to get some nasty bits of work and idiots. The police have arrested some of these and from what I hear (friends have gone on the marches, I haven’t) they are reasonably assiduous in doing so within the obvious limits of trying to identify and then isolate and arrest a person responsible for shouting stupid things in a massive crowd. However, and I’m happy to stand corrected if they should wish to make their position more clear, I assume from the tone of open_roads’ remarks and his description of the marches as antisemitic that they regard any march protesting the behaviour of the Israeli government with regard to the slaughter in Gaza as being antisemitic.
In any case, the point I was making still stands, as backed up by those arrest figures I quoted, which is that it is not accurate to say that the Met have a “not a priority” attitude to these marches, quite the opposite.
@open_roads where are these ‘antisemitic marches’ and banners? Do you mean things like Stop the mass murder and geniocide in Palestine?
@open_roads don’t forget – throwing a plastic bottle: fast tracked through the court system and 2 years in prison
Great comment by the way
That brings it home rather too forcefully, just a few streets and half a mile away from my door. Thankfully an extremely uncommon event around here, in fact I can’t actually recall such a thing happening in East Dulwich in the two decades since we moved to this particular (and particularly lovely) neighbourhood. Not that that is any consolation for the rider of course, for whom many sympathies. Absolutely disgraceful reaction from the police, imagine if someone had been pulled from their car by thieves who had then driven off with it, five will get you ten that the area would have been flooded with squad cars, they’d probably have sent the chopper up as well. It’s an indication of how far down the priority list cyclists and bicycles are; most forces/officers seem to regard bikes as, in the phrase so beloved of motoring forums, “children’s toys” and prioritise their theft accordingly.
Can you imagine if it was a car jacking incident with one of the thieves using a hire car, they’d just hired? Call me cynical, but I can’t believe the Met wouldn’t contact the hire car company a little quicker.
“‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello. Had our expensive bike stolen have we, sir?”
“Maybe you should consider yourself fortunate to have been able to buy one sir? And think of those less privileged, sir. Also there are some would argue that you shouldn’t be on the road because you don’t pay road tax, as well as slowing motorists, sir.”
“I hope we didn’t retaliate or use any foul or threatening language, sir. We will be checking doorbell cameras just in case, sir. We don’t condone that type of behaviour.”
Institutionally anti-cyclist, but we’ll never get an inquiry into it.
Perfect example of doorbell camera footage being used to pursue a criminal by passing the video evidence to police.
Though in this case the police response has been woefull.
Would any driver complaining about cyclists using camera footage to report them object to this case, or others where a different crime was caught on camera?
Deliberate sarcasm / cynicism, or sadly accurate Freudian slip?
I ride expensive bikes wearing expensive helmets, my bike equipped with an expensive bike computer, fitness watch and cell phone. I carry my debit card. I worry. You would expect anyone living in Chicago to worry about bike jacking. Yet, for some strange reason. The Chicago land criminal community has not caught on to bike jacking. They like retail break ins and ATM smash ups.
“The spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the force was unable to comment on this recent spate of reported bikejackings because “they are not linked, given they are in different areas”.”
Because crims on mopeds _definitely_ can’t travel to different areas of the city, very easily?
@Defblade yes, but they have to ride the stolen bike back remember. To their manor. And they don’t want to be exposed to arrest for too long by being out and about. You nick it – and it disappears pronto. Plus, they might actually see a 10 mile cycle as a real challenge. Most crime, like this, is localised.
Or they take it round the corner and bung it in the back of a mate’s van, or ditch it somewhere it can be picked up later.
@Rome73 Actually this particular type of crime isn’t localised (though possibly may be in this instance as there are comparatively high-crime areas not far away); of the two main areas for bikejacking, Regent’s Park is surrounded by some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and the Richmond Park area is also extremely affluent, the people committing these crimes aren’t locals. On a moped with the passenger hefting the bike and willing to ignore speed limits they can be the other side of London in twenty minutes, and if they are spotted by the police they can just drop the bike and escape up alleyways, across parks etc.
This is what happens when you import large numbers of unknowns from overseas and export home-grown millionaires due to reckless ideology.
Sadiq Khan has wrought more misery on the streets of London than anyone in the history of UK politics, but the issue is that he has enough of a captive market voting for him that he will be difficult to defeat at the ballot box.
Don’t forget, Khan will be ok as he drives around London in a cavalcade of bullet proof Range Rovers. You? Maybe not so much.
@jackcycles Gosh. Sadiq Khan occupies so much room in your head there’s little room for anything else. How sad.
@jackcycles And making it much worse is when you import the reckless ideology of billionaires from overseas…
My vote for who has wrought more misery on the streets of London than anyone in the history of UK politics is for Boudica, the Queen of the Iceni.
Although those behind “Roads For Prosperity” might be up there, had that succeeded.
(For the opposite I’ll go with Sir Joseph William Bazalgette – I know he doesn’t really qualify in the “politics” part though but it’s not just socialists who appreciate a sewer)
Anyone else any other ideas?
Ralph McTell must figure in there somewhere.
@chrisonabike In the centre, the University of London for its effect on Bloomsbury, as Clive James said (from memory so forgive errors), Bloomsbury has been ravaged twice, once by the Luftwaffe and once by London University, but it was the university that had the worst impact.