A friend had a bike stolen from outside the imperial college bike store (closed during repairs to doors) last fri 28th mar. it was a 1 mth old Carrerra vanquish and it was the first time he'd ever locked it outside. It's a black 2007 model size small. The frame no is sa70412140 .



supposedly it is being sold on gumtree at the moment ( http://www.gumtree.com/london/54/22082754.html ). after a bit of googling it seems my friend has found not only the guys mobile, but landline as well ( http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:y...lnk&cd=1&gl=uk ).

Brand New Dahon Jack Fold Up bike. - GBP200
for an URGENT sale this perfect bike
has to go by this weekend. call day time on: 07908356740 . or evening upon my home landline 02087405669 even late evening no prob. No SMS.
check this link for more details: http://www.bikefold.com/dahon_jack_bicycle.htm
And for its RRP check this link. http://www.london.gov.uk/londoner/co...1.jsp?nav=comp




Police have said they will not do anything. He is a non violent guy, but just wants some justice.

He is collecting names ( email whsong@imperial.ac.uk) to take to the rector to get something done. Also if anyone can help, let me or him know!

The fucking cheek of that - if that was my bike being blatantly sold back to me i too would be trying to form a vigilante group of some sort. Probably if you get enough lads round to 'meet' him he won;t be stupid enough to start any trouble and might just hand it over?

Bastards. What was it locked to and with? He should get a massive group together and just jump the guy.

The Rector will do nothing. Sir Richard is more interested in getting rid of the cap on tuition fees that dealing with stolen bikes.

...or you could ask for a test ride and steal it back...

Yeah, might let you.

Although when I let people test ride my Brompton when it was up for sale, I wanted a deposit. Most just give me the money I wanted, some guy gave me all his whole wallet and iPhone.

there are some people trying to buy it back, but the dude isn't answering his phone. seems there were 2 similar bikes stolen on the same day.

Just been doing a search on the landline and can't say precisely where but it is possibly in the Shepherds bush area.

Will keep looking and try and get an address.

And then we'll go bust some doors down.

:0

If you want to properly screw him, do this:

-ring him up and feign interest in the bike, arrange a meeting (preferably at his address)
-if he wont meet at his address, take one of your mates along to meet him but get your mate to hang back (hide), then when you leave have your mate follow him home.
-buy a cheap pay as you go with cash
-now you know where he lives, ring up the police on the payg and report terrorist activity/osama bin laden/gunshots fired etc from his address (gunshots fired probably being the most effective). this will have the police on him like a ton of bricks.
-throw the previously purchased payg into the thames

someone was going to buy the bike off him yesterday, but he did a no show at the intended meeting point!?!?

maybe popo were about and he was nervous or something.

scum.

That man was also selling a flat screen few weeks ago: You can check the "see map" to know his location (if its is genuine) there were reports to be around Shepherd Bush according to land line number.

http://www.gumtree.com/london/81/21580981.html

How to find: paste mobile number and write gumtree in google and it will come up if he has placed any other ad for dodgy items. That´s the best way to check the background of any seller when buying in gumtree.

Hope it helps you to get hold of him.

is it possible to contact gumtree with suspicions of known thief. i've never used the site, so don't know.

Don't think they can do much about it: every body can place and ad and there is no need to register, not even an email address i think.

if the map he placed in previous ad is genuine, he lives in primula st just off westway.

Other than that, there is no way to get more details about him

The map isn't accurate. It's based on "Shepherds Bush". That's it. Which is why it's centered on that.

thats still pretty good if we are down to one street!

by my rough working the address of that monitor is 150m from where the Gmap goes if you search for "shepherds bush"

OK, no expert in google maps: I just thought he might have pinned down his street to indicate potential buyers where item was to be collected.

Sorry...

is it worthwhile contacting local politicians in the area, seeing there are local elections coming up??

If ever the police wont help, round up a posse, keep them hidden, buy the thing back, perform a citizen's arrest. This would be for the man selling known stolen goods, and having apprehended a person involved in the theft and sale of the said stolen bike. The reason to have back-up? The theif, or his accomplice wont take being arrested very well. But when the police DO turn up, to help free the thief, as I'm sure they will, you state that you have arrested him, and your posse are witness to the fact that it was done legally. Any bruising suffered by the thief, was caused when you only used the minimum amount of force, to effect the arrest. After that, 25 to 50 in Sing-Sing. Job done.

Frustrating!!! Let me know if you need a friendly face in She-Bu dogsballs.
I had a bike nicked from Beit Quad once.. the cameras weren't turned on!

i would contact local politicians, make them do something.

that's pretty bad on the union's side.

@chris - I doubt they would care. It's South Kensington, everyone is loaded and couldn't care less about bikes - they're more interested in their Bentleys. From what I've been told the locals don't like all the students anyway.

im sure we all know i think politicians are only slightly more useless then the police, but if you write enough letters they tend to do something.

probably guess they get sick of opening them rather than letters from John Lewis confirming their new order for a second kitchen, TV and rug...

it worked for me, though i did write a letter every day for 3 months. i find it always works better and faster if you CC some ones boss when you write them, and what ever regulatory agency has oversight.

So has someone bought the bike or what?

You could post this story on the road cycling UK forum there's a plod on there who might be able to do sommat.

there are police that have responded to him, but he keeps on getting passed on to different plods.

Could you let Boris know about the Police inaction? He's a cycling nut up for election whcih might make him more receptive, and it would be good press for him to sort this out and make an example of the thieving scrote.

FWIW, I got this note from a mate - one for the justice squad !!!

"I was in Southwark for an opticians appointment this afternoon. Left my bike locked up outside the office building I was visiting with a regular Chubb lock & wire chain to one of those steel "n" shaped things for locking bikes to. An hour or so later I come out to find my bike has a 2nd lock on it only this one is a seriously industrial motorbike with a chain like you'd find on a boat anchor. Clearly the owner of the lock was planning to return later to my immobilised bike, remove his lock, snip my lock and have away with my bike. I was livid!

Having ascertained that it wasn't someone from the opticians who objected to my bike parking I went to the local police station to report the incident & hopefully get them to sort it out. Unsurprisingly Mr Plod couldn't give a monkeys. Next I went to a local motor factors to borrow some bolt croppers. They wouldn't lend me some but would sell me a pair of the biggest, ugliest set of nail clippers you can imagine. With my wallet £17 lighter and about 20kg of bolt cropper in hand I return to the bike.

First attempts are not positive. Despite 3ft of leverage the chain is barely scratched by the croppers and the teeth are bent out of line. At this point I'm feeling really p1ssed off at the thought of loosing the bike & walking back to the office having spent money on a useless lump of iron. The other option is to attack the paddle lock. It's about the size of a kitchen matchbox and has a hardened steel loop. Still, I can mangle the plastic coating and make it difficult for the crim to get to the locking mechanism with the key. And it might make me feel better.

With the case chewed off the lock body underneath isn't so impressive looking - the case is cast in two halves out of the sort of metal that they make dinky toys out of. Another few minutes with the croppers and it's in bits and I have a liberated bike!!! I also have 4ft of motorbike chain and the satisfaction that a scumbag not too far away is out of pocket to a not inconsiderable degree.

Surprisingly, during the 15 or so minutes it took me to do this no-one passing by said anything. Is it any wonder bikes get nicked? "

If I were a bike thief, I'd say the £230 on this was a bargain that could be re-couped in no time:
Cordless Angle Grinder.

If they're going to start dropping locks on our bikes, and if it happens a couple more times... we should whip-round, buy one of those and leave it on-call for whenever an emergency arises.

phones still off

are you sure the opticians didn't just fuck up your prescription making you think you lock was bigger ;) perhaps not.

i would have been tempted to just somewhere nearby and wait for the fucker to come back. introduce him to your new 20kg friend

You could be waiting ages though. They might come back at 5am for all you know.

boris yeltsin has been e-mailed, see what he will do!