Bike Theft

A story about a successful operation against a bike theft gang in the Standard last night here. Well done Met Police, more of this please!

Couple of things stand out though:

"After the two leading members of a gang were arrested under Operation Beachball, not a single bike was reported stolen in the City of London for a fortnight."
Just goes to show it's just a few gangs responsible for the epidemic scale of bike theft. So what took the police so long? Most cyclists know that all you have to do is search Gumtree for recurrences of the same mobile number and you've likely got yourself a criminal.


"Paul Duncalf, and accomplice Levi Cronin, both 22...were given six-month suspended jail sentences."
Now I don't want to come over all Daily Mail here, but that doesn't seem like much of a deterrent or punishment, and doesn't protect the public. What's to stop these two guys going out tomorrow and nicking my bike? Now I'm not a big supporter of prison sentences. Prison costs the taxpayer a fortune and acts as a university of crime. It doesn't seem like it should be beyond the wit of man or the justice system to come up with a punishment that involves some element of restitution and protects the cycling public from these scumbags.

But until that happens, follow these simple rules:
1. Never let your bike out of your sight.
2. If you do let your bike out of your sight, secure it to something very solid with at least two good locks.
3. Make sure your bike looks cheaper, rougher and better-secured than the other bikes in the rack.