Cyclist has stolen bike recovered within three-and-a-half hours of reporting it stolen

A London man’s bike was recovered just hours after he reported it stolen with police using the BikeRegister database to identify him as the owner.

Steven Lovelock was getting ready for work one Monday morning in October when he noticed that his shed door had been kicked in. Thieves had cut his bike lock with bolt cutters and his bike had gone.

After taking some photos, he called the police who he says came round within the hour to ask him questions and to examine the scene.

Lovelock had bought his black Genesis as part of Cyclescheme’s Cycle to Work initiative which includes automatic registration on BikeRegister. After the police had gone, at around 9.10am, he logged onto the site and recorded his bike as having been stolen. About 90 minutes later, he also uploaded some photos and entered the frame number.

At around 11.30am, he got a call from Bromley Station saying they had his bike.

Two men had been acting suspiciously, riding two expensive bikes in Bromley at 4am. When officers had gone over to question them, the suspects had run away, ditching the bikes in the process. Police managed to catch one of the thieves and held him in custody and later that day, they traced the bike back to Lovelock via BikeRegister.

“I collected my bike a few days later,” said Lovelock. “It was in fairly good condition, only missing toe clips as the thieves had torn them off. The suspect the police had caught pleaded guilty to burglary as there was overwhelming evidence against him – including CCTV footage and the fact that he was found in possession of my bike, which was registered to me as the legal owner.

“I am now telling everyone I know that they should register their bike as soon as possible. I am also going to invest in one of BikeRegister’s bike marking kits to visibly mark my recovered bike so that police will immediately know that my bike is registered if it is ever stolen and recovered again.”

BikeRegister is used by all UK police forces, who are able to access the site and check the true owners of registered bikes via a secure police log-in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.