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had the police knock on the door at 01:30 this morning to let us know the garage has been broken into again
Bike has been taken again despite having insurance approved d lock and ground anchor plus another anchor and an Oxford chain.
I fitted air tags to the bike and am currently sat outside the last location in the middle of Birmingham contemplating knocking on the door.
downstairs tv is on but rest of house in darkness.
AirTag stopped updating after pinging here and I can no longer find it.
what do I do.
Phoned them and they have it recorded and someone will contact me apparently.
Good luck!
Is it a vespa ?
No it’s a spesh Levo that’s been a bit upgraded.
I wouldn't be angrily knocking on doors in Brum tbh
Id be letting the police know and leaving it there. As shown on a previous thread a bike isn't worth a hospital stay
No point knocking on the door as you don't know if it's the right house and they're hardly likely to say "fair cop guv here's your bike back". Once they say they have no idea what you're on about and slam the door in your face, then taking it any further could land you in a lot of trouble, especially if it is the wrong house.
Either wait for it to appear on ebay/facebook then go and take a look and ride it away, or just forget about it and claim on the insurance.
I don’t know any details, but he has his bike back…
Excellent. Hopefully no Bombers were injured in the process.
in for details?
Renton,glad you got it back.
In other news..after my son's (3 weeks old) bike was stolen from inside the bike cage at work,I have been thinking about how to slow down/piss off the scroats and their angle grinders. They gained access through the (steel) cage lock ,then sliced through the locks on his bike.
So I was wondering if cages and locks could be filled/covered with a material that would mess up/clog grinding discs.
Asbestos?
So I was wondering if cages and locks could be filled/covered with a material that would mess up/clog grinding discs
Convicted bike thieves? So you'd have to saw through your mate to get to a bike?
So you’d have to saw through your mate to get to a bike?
Wouldn't work - no honour amongst thieves.
My wife's somewhat brutal solution to anti-social shit like this is to snip off the little finger starting at the distal phalanx. Nick another one? Nip off the rest. Had my beloved bike stolen a few years ago. Still miss it. So many memories attached to it.
My wife’s somewhat brutal solution to anti-social shit like this is to snip off the little finger starting at the distal phalanx. Nick another one? Nip off the rest
Ironically, a part of Sharia law that Farage et al could get behind
fasthaggis
Full Member
Renton,glad you got it back.In other news..after my son’s (3 weeks old) bike was stolen from inside the bike cage at work,I have been thinking about how to slow down/piss off the scroats and their angle grinders. They gained access through the (steel) cage lock ,then sliced through the locks on his bike.
So I was wondering if cages and locks could be filled/covered with a material that would mess up/clog grinding discs.
Somebody invented a lock like that a few years ago, it had kevlar or similar fibres inside it which got wrapped around the grinding disc and stopped it. Not sure if it ever got made commercially.
edit- think it was the 'hench lock' by Felix Ure, seems like he set up a Kickstarter which failed to sell enough units unfortunately
Defo not a fan of sharia law. Defo not a fan of Fartage.
Don’t want to be a party pooper, it’s great news to get it back. However, they know where you live and at some point they will deffo come back for it at some point. So you need to up your security.
Or we have to accept that scrotes will scrote, and accept the inconvenience, cost and loss of sentimental stuff is dealt with by insurance, same as jewellery or other valuable items.
(Ideally societal investment and reform will stop people needing or wanting to steal, but in the shirt term..)
take the battery out when not in use
Sadly some people will always nick stuff. thats just how they are wired.
This isn't a starving person/loaf of bread scenario (who have my sympathy), its someone who has made the conscious descision that their "career" is they will take things from others.
Sadly, high end bicycles currently give them a high return on their time investment with low physical risk and not a whole lot of intelligence required. Also, mobile phone theft is currently high for example. Contrast with cars (for the most part), wallets, jewelry, TVs have fallen out of favour.
I don't know what the solution is. Lock these people up and they just make friends and contacts to help them steal more. Give them an education* and they just commit more sophisticated heists.
*I mean in the sense of these people are in all walks of life, better education/priviledge just means they will be draining bank accounts on their computer rather than angle grinding locks.
a mate of mine literally had to reinforce his garage, metal bars on windows etc etc, ground anchor the bike, wifi cameras everywhere and motion sensors.. absolute insanity.
I keep mine in the house, and luckily live in a dead end road so less likely to be observed by any orrible scrotes
Litelol X1 (£150) and X3 (£250) look good for hindering angle grinders
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Good advice above about improving security however you think is possible, removing the battery and front wheel to store indoors perhaps?
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From a friends recent experience, they will be back, sadly you already know this
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Singletrackworld review
https://singletrackmag.com/2023/09/litelok-x1-review/
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and a review that tested to the destruction of the angle grinder
https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/accessories/locks/litelok-x1-bike-lock-review
a mate of mine literally had to reinforce his garage, metal bars on windows etc etc, ground anchor the bike, wifi cameras everywhere and motion sensors.. absolute insanity.
it won't stop them if they want it, have heard of them knocking through brick walls to gain access (admittely for m/c's), but it's about deterients. Also I think this is a great advert for apple tags, as that what he used to find it...
PS: by the sounds of this he's been up all night, so had not long gone to bed, a full report will be coming later
Morning all
Sorry for the delay in answering but as Z1ppy says Ive been up all night giving police statements and in Birminghan recovering the bike.
This story starts back in October last year when my garage was broken into and both mine and my lads bikes were taken. Since then I have tried to make the garage as secure as possible by blocking up the main dorr so it cant be used at all (Still fitted with two padlocks on the outside) and also fitted two insurance approved ground anchors and I was using an insurance approved kryptonite d lock and an oxford motorbike chain.
Lats night it looks like they attempted to gain access through the main door as both locks are smashed again but once they realised they couldn't get in they have come over our back fence and smashed through the door from our garden. This door is an old front door with 5 lever mortice etc.
They must have shut the door behind them to work on the bike because no one, including our dog heard a thing and it was only when the dog barked the wife got up to look ut the window and she saw two police officers on the drive.
She then went down and opened the door and they told her our garage had been broken into again.
Following lasts years theft and everyone saying the thieves will be back again I fitted air tags to the bike and they have proved to be a godsend on this occasion. We were able to watch the bike move from ours all the way into Birmingham (Castle Vale) and the police were in talks with the other force to provide them updates.
Once I had given statements to our local police me and my lad jumped in the car and went up to the area at about 4 this morning.
It was still showing at the address as previously but hadn't updated for a few hours so we had a walk about to see if I could pick it up. No joy.
At half 6 this morning I knocked on the door of the house and asked for my bike back. The lady who answered made out like she didn't have a clue (probably didn't) and said her lads were good lads and wouldn't steal anything. To her credit she showed us the outhouse and shed and the bike wasn't there. So my lad and I said we will wait for the police to come and do a full search and went and sat in the car.
I phoned the local police and let them know I was in the area and what had gone on and they marked it down as urgent but didnt send anyone out.
After a while I decided to drive off around the local area and sure enough as soon as I did the airtag popped up and had moved location. So we went to that location which was a block of garages behind some houses and got out for a walk and used the find my section with the air tags.
That pointed us to one of the garages which when we tried it it was open and unlocked and sure enough there is my bike. It obvious that someone in the house we knocked on has got spooked and moved the bike as its literally on the next road over from the house through an alley.
Its battered up a bit on the top tube where they have used something to cut the d lock but the rest is in one piece.
Im in a bit of shock to be honest. Not sure what to do for the best now. Tried decent security and insurance approved gear but they still managed to get it. We have no room in the house to store it either.
I fear they will be back again.
Im just glad I got it back.
Glad you got them back. You can't win against a battery powered angle grinder and a likely tooled up scrote. Could you invite the insurance company around for recommendations?
Q. If everyone slept through it, how did the Police know it'd been stolen?
Glad to know you got it back.
Did the local police turn up at all?
Short of building a bank style vault, I'm not sure what more people can do.
Alarm you garage with a very very loud alarm so when they return it wakes up the entire neighbourhood and hopefully gets them to run off
Well done on getting it back. Maybe they will leave you alone now they know you have a tracker...
Well done for recovering it. And glad no one got hurt.
Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll be able to safely keep you bikes in your garage any longer as they’ll know to just come back in the future and this time they might realise you’ve got a tracker on it (unless they’re idiots). Do you have a nearby relative that would let you keep it there? Maybe if it was there for 12 or 18 months they might think you’ve given up if they come back in that time
It sucks that this kind of things happen, but I reckon give it 6 to 24 months and they’ll be nosing around again.
Can you get one of those sprinkler systems that sprays intruders in the ink that shows up under UV light and doesn’t wash off? I know it has to be something that won’t injure people but enough shops and other places use it.
Personally I think the best form of bike security is stealth (if they never know it’s there they won’t try to nick it) with a few locks for good measure. But seeing as your garage is known to them that won’t work. If you reinforce everything then they’ll know it’s got nice stuff in there again. It’s a bit Catch 22.
Anyway, glad you’ve got your bike back. It’s nice to hear a happier ending, I’ve never recovered a single stolen bike.
Local police were doing a patrol and noticed a car coming out of the garages with its lights off and bumping up the kerb. Didnt give chase but went and checked the garages and found my padlocks smashed off but door was fine and its reinforced from inside. So they come round the front of the house down the alley and say the door from our garden wide open and then woke us up.
Local police were doing a patrol and noticed a car coming out of the garages with its lights off and bumping up the kerb. Didnt give chase
So, the Police are patroling at 01:30 and see suspicious activity, but rather than satisfy their professional curiosity by talking with a suspect, they instead opt to see what's been nicked instead.
I appreciate that they can't all pursue a vehicle, but that doesn't sound like proper community policing to me.
Speak with a suspect in the moment should surely be their first response.
Great work getting it back! Especially knocking on random doors. Not sure I'd do that! Are you & your boy big lads?? Good to hear that the AirTags can be useful as well!
The thing I'm most surprised about actually is there were police about who noticed the theft! But the recovery was solely down to you if I understand right?
I'd definitely look at one of the tougher D locks as mentioned above. Your previous ones that were "insurance approved" - that doesn't really mean much, unfortunately. I'm sure those standards are way behind the times now anyway, in this age of cordless disc cutters.
I'd also get a motion-sensor alarm for the garage with a really loud siren. They are cheap nowadays & you can easily DIY it. If there are police patrolling around at night you want something they can hear!
What is the actual point of the police?
What a story! Glad it ended with a (somewhat) happy ending. Surely the police will now have whoever lives at that address you knocked on on their radar now, if they didn't already.
So, the Police are patroling at 01:30 and see suspicious activity, but rather than satisfy their professional curiosity by talking with a suspect, they instead opt to see what’s been nicked instead.
Worst episode of Police Interceptors ever!
Glad you got your bike back - if you can't keep the bike inside any option to maybe take the wheels off and just store the frame in the house for a while?
Have the cops commented on you recovering your own property?
Did the police get a reg? That together with the address of the house, together with the garage the bike was recovered from, together with their own witnessing of suspicious behavior and it's starting to look like they have reasonable evidence to link someone to the theft. Can they fingerprint the bike, the garage, etc?
I'll never knock the police as friends/family are/were coppers but as above, what exactly is the point of them in this story? What have they done apart from have a snoop around in the dark and find some broken doors? Unbelievable...
You say the bike ended up in Brum - how far away from you @renton is that? How far did they travel to break into a garage to nick a bike?
great job getting your bike back, shit news that you needed to in the first place.
Even if you used the best locks available they're only going to slow them down. In your position I'd be looking to make the garage painful to be in, the loudest siren possible inside the garage and protect it with a mesh cage to stop it being smashed and a security smoke generator are the first measures that spring to mind, multiple strobes can be very disorienting too. Make it impossible to stay in the garage when they're triggered.
If you're lucky they might leave you alone now you've turned up on their doorstep.
Even if you used the best locks available they’re only going to slow them down. In your position I’d be looking to make the garage painful to be in, the loudest siren possible inside the garage
I can’t make the link work, but a Klaxon Masterblaster 127db.
In the shed, out of reach. I used to fit them from time to time in a previous life as an Intruder alarm Technician.
I’d fit a basic wired alarm system with no movement detection, just door contacts and maybe tube and batten/wired doors.
@daveyboywonder they have traveled about 35 miles to come and get it.
@daveyboywonderthey have traveled about 35 miles to come and get it.
Yikes, so hardly opportunistic then. Wonder how they knew about it... and if those scrotes know about it and you've been targetted before, how many other scrotes know about the bikes. As others have said, I'd be beefing up security even more (more locks and a far stronger door) and definitely getting an alarm fitted and motion sensing cameras/flood lights etc. Scrotes won't like being illuminated by millions of lumens of spot light whilst theres alarms going off...
Alternatively, move house.
Mint advert for airtags though...
Blimey, well done with the recovery, but ballsy too! I hope you can come up with a solution to allow you to rest easy but I can imagine it’s unnerving.
I keep my bikes in a garage that is alarmed with the sensor aimed at the bikes. (Plenty of false alarms due to mice,) The thought (hope) is that however they get in, as soon as they approach the bikes, all hell will break loose and they won’t hang around. The alarm siren is on the house gable end high up so shouldn’t be tampered with and it’s incredibly loud.
This is my strategy as I don’t think I can make a sectional concrete garage intruder proof.
I am a bit paranoid too, so when I have workmen in the house, or even at the neighbours house, I try to trigger an alarm by opening the garage having”forgotten” to disarm it. Again, stupid logic is that if anyone is scoping the garage or bikes, under false pretences of being a legitimate visitor, they know I have an alarm.
A big sign on the door would also do the trick? Stick a "beware of the dog" up while you're at it.
My wife’s somewhat brutal solution to anti-social shit like this is to snip off the little finger starting at the distal phalanx. Nick another one? Nip off the rest. Had my beloved bike stolen a few years ago. Still miss it. So many memories attached to it.
My bafang converted cove hummer was stolen from outside my mums house (kirkcudbright) back in 2018 and I knew who would have stolen it (local addicts) so I phoned the police and told them but they wouldn’t knock on the door so we waited in the car outside the flats till one of them came out with the bike and as he attempted to ride out of town he fell off breaking his arm and wrist in the process
Alarm you garage with a very very loud alarm so when they return it wakes up the entire neighbourhood and hopefully gets them to run off
Use this sort of alarm, it's not designed to warn people of a break-in, it is designed to make it totally unbearable for the thief:
https://www.pr-alarms.co.uk/sound-emitters/
A Sound Emitter is a device which creates noise so disorientating and unbearable resulting in intruders being physically unable to stay in the premises.
The lady who answered made out like she didn’t have a clue (probably didn’t) and said her lads were good lads and wouldn’t steal anything. To her credit she showed us the outhouse and shed and the bike wasn’t there.
I'm no expert but I don't think professional thieves keep "stock" where they live, precisely because of the threat of the premises being searched by the police - it's much harder to prove theft if the stolen items haven't been recovered.
I suspect that the lady in question knew the craic and was happy to show you the outhouse and shed for that reason. Refusing to let you look would have been of no benefit to her/them, it would have just maintained your suspicions.
Great news that you got your bike back, well done!
Surely the police will now have whoever lives at that address you knocked on on their radar now, if they didn’t already.
LOL at the idea that they aren't already on first name terms.
Great result. My hunch is the same thieves are unlikely to bother you again, they now know you have pretty decent security, trackers and are willing to pursue them, good work. Thieves are in the main opportunists, it won’t take long before they find an easier target. They can just follow a commuter/weekend rider home who’s riding a nice bike, much easier and less risk. There was a spate of people being followed when leaving Bike Park Wales and in Bristol. The thieves will be operating on a basic mental risk assessment too, they encountered the police, you turned up at their house and they lost their spoils…. So they may conclude there are easier targets to follow instead.
Main thing is to go out and enjoy your bikes, you worked hard to buy them and everyone is entitled to enjoy their purchases. UK really is full of scrotes these days, got much worse with the backlash and rule breaking in Covid, it’s led to a **** you attitude in many and a loss of manners.
If there were no police ,the shits would walk into your house steal all your property , rape your family and in general run amok
Trying to bring a morsel of humour to this frightening thread...
Is it too late to make a 'user name checks out' claim on "nippy" from page 1?
Glad OP is riding again and our police are meeting expectations.
(punctuation is not my forte)
Glad our police are living up to
I’d fit a basic wired alarm system with no movement detection, just door contacts
Is that for budget reasons or are movement sensors not as effective?
@dmorts for false alarm prevention. If you’re going to have a stupidly loud siren, you don’t want it going off in the middle of the night when a spider gets inside a movement detector or a storm sets off a vibration sensor.
Garages and sheds tend to be poor environments for movement detectors.
Tracked them down miles away and probably got them in trouble with their mum, indeed as has been said maybe they'll think twice in future.
I would now put a large sign up next to the bike saying "I know where you live"
The scrotes had probably been released early from prison earlier that day, courtesy of Kier Stalin...
To add to reeksys suggestion, I would get a picture of their front door made into a big poster with ‘I know where you live’ on it and stick it on the wall by the bikes. Might make them think twice.
If they now know that you know where they live there is a chance they might leave you alone as they know if they nick your bike again the cops will know where to start looking and most thieves pick the easy targets and don’t want to make their own life hard.
great work by the way
We've had I think three but maybe four attempts on our shed, after the first one they've all failed as I've made it progressively harder. More secure locks, beefed up the door and door frame and finally an alarm. The last one set off the alarm and since then nobody has been back, that was a good few years ago now. Hopefully as others have said you've made them think again about coming back.
Garages and sheds tend to be poor environments for movement detectors.
Get some smart ones then.
Mine have a delay programmed in. So you need ~5 seconds of sustained movement before it registers. Then you test it with a light (rather than a siren) and see how it goes. Either change the delay or the sensitivity until it works. Then add the siren into the equation.
The latest mmWave sensors can detect multiple items movements as well, which adds some interesting options. Like if it detects one person, take the maglite next to the back door to the garage to see whats going on. If it detects more people, call the cops!
as he attempted to ride out of town he fell off breaking his arm and wrist in the process
Purely accidental I assume 🙂
Get some smart ones then.
Mine have a delay programmed in. So you need ~5 seconds of sustained movement before it registers. Then you test it with a light (rather than a siren) and see how it goes. Either change the delay or the sensitivity until it works. Then add the siren into the equation.The latest mmWave sensors can detect multiple items movements as well, which adds some interesting options. Like if it detects one person, take the maglite next to the back door to the garage to see whats going on. If it detects more people, call the cops!
Things have certainly moved on a bit since I was in the trade, but I’d still go for simple old school vs tech on an outbuilding.
All my bikes are insured. The only bikes I keep in my garage are those I don't mind getting nicked. Tbh I wouldn't be heartbroken if some scrotes stole 8k worth of mtbs I haven't sat on for 2 years and I can't sell for peanuts
The stuff I want to keep is safely tucked up in the spare room
Good result op. Bigger balls than me knocking on the door of some scumbags house in (presumably) a less than salubrious part of brum accusing them of theft...wouldn't have been how I'd have played it!!
I’m not condoning this, but I know of a local bike thief who was caught and discovered that a regular sized Kryptonite NY D Lock can easily fit a neck and street sign post inside it and still be locked.
I cannot divulge the names of the 3 (very) angry MTBers how showed him this, but it was on a quiet industrial estate one Friday night over a bank holiday weekend when no one would be around until Tuesday.
Things have certainly moved on a bit since I was in the trade, but I’d still go for simple old school vs tech on an outbuilding.
Some of my smart motion sensors are 10+ year old designs. Is that old school yet 😉
Mine are mostly battery powered as well, so snipping the power to the garage doesn't actually do much as far as triggering an alarm, except make it dark in there! And good luck spotting something the size of a matchbox on a shelf in the corner in the dark and then working out what it's for... (If you set the system up properly the mains powered devices will also be flagged up as being powered down when they go out!)
Scary stuff renton.
I too would go with noise and lights as deterrent as much as locks and bricks. Thieves will do anything and be tooled up to cut anything. But a proper noisy alarm, even for a few seconds before it is smashed, will wake you and the dog. As will PIR flood lights.
I had 4 bikes nicked in Sheffield from an outbuilding - they just kicked the door through and cut the cable through the bikes to ground anchor. I fitted a really noisy PIR activated sound alarm on a remote control and PIR activated light high up where it could not be reached. A few months after the 4 bikes were nicked our shed alarm triggered when someone kicked the new door really hard at about 1am...We found footmark on the door, cracked door, but nothing gone.
Purely accidental I assume 🙂
The police were satisfied as to my explanation, and my brothers (he's a retained firefighter so knew them when they turned up), shame the judge only gave him 90 days.
He broke into a fishing boat in the town back in 2021 and smeared shit everywhere (why?....just why?) big mistake as the boats are all alarmed now and the skipper really went to town on him.
Stake them out and nick useful things of theirs…. As often as you can ?
if you can’t beat them, join them.
I’m joking but the only way they learn is if something significantly causes them problems, but then of course things escalate and people like that have no filter. However…airgun the car tyres. Every month.
While we are at Kirkcudbright as a seething hotbed of criminal behaviour.... Back in 1997 we had all the energy saving lightbulbs, one staff bike and a waterproof jacket stolen from Barcaple outdoor centre, which being Kirkcudbright in the 1990's did not have locks on most of the doors.
The local police drove into Kirkcudbright, visited the 'usual' flat, which being Kirkcudbright did not have a locked front door, and discovered a box of bulbs on the table and a dripping wet jacket on the door, as the perp had ridden home with his treasure afterwards...Sadly the bike never turned up.