Bike Thief

** Please help me try and identify the bike thief **

It’s been a happy two and a half years me and Brommie spent together. We’ll have some very happy memories, including entering a World Championship Race.

Me & B in World Championships

So, what happened to break up this relationship? A bike thief, that’s what happened.

Scorching Saturday afternoon (10/07/10) in Kingston market place, International Youth Arts Fair in full swing, the tills are ringing. All in all a beautiful day.

I lock my bike up securely outside millets, meet up with my girlfriend, a spot of shopping followed by lunch with a beer. (It’s my bribe to go shopping). I’ve got a Streetcar booked for 2.30 as we have to spend the rest of the afternoon moving stuff out of our flat.

Okay, it’s 1.30pm, a couple hours after leaving the bike. We have just bought our last item from Millets and I head outside. Check the bike, still there. We decide we need one more item as a gift for my Mum. We head up Thames Street towards Lakeland. Just past The Entertainer a bike flies past me, haring it off. Automatically I shout “slow down you tw*t”, which is quickly followed up by my g/f telling me to hush. I watch the bike as it rounds the corner towards Kingston bridge, then it dawns on me that it’s a Brompton. I then have the feeling that I’d best check mine. 10 seconds later, I’m on the phone to the police.

Okay, “The Entertainer”, that’s right next door isn’t it? Yes, it bloody well is. This guy clearly came tooled up to nick bikes. Why did I lock my Brompton, when it’s a folding bike? Well, I wish I hadn’t. However it was such a nice day and In & out of shops all the time. Also, my “pub/lock outside bike” had a severe metal fatigue issue recently. And I can’t stand walking anywhere anymore.

Back to the police. I give a full description to the call centre. It’s a black brompton “really noticeable … you know the one … little wheels and a little frame, but adults ride”. Police cars turn up very promptly on Kingston bridge. They jump out and I give them a quick debrief. Unfortunately, I presumed they had my description of the bike. Turns out none of that information was passed on. So, off rush the police cars with their blues & twos going … “sssh, he’ll hear you and cut up a side road/passageway” … with a description of finding a young white bloke on a bicycle near Kingston.

10 minutes later they’re back. Yes, no surprise, no find. I wasn’t really expecting it. I’m told that there are also units Twickenham side searching. Next, they will call me later to give me a crime reference. Oh, and when I told them about the “security chip” in the bike, that I was given by their colleagues, the officers were completely blank .. “never heard of it”. Amazing.

Okay, a slight feeling of “no faith whatsoever in the police” comes over me. The public CCTV is pointing in the general direction, but will probably be blurry or too far or deleted. Also, will the police really have time to review it properly? They really don’t know what they are looking for as well as me.

Right, into Millets. Politely ask whether they have CCTV that covers the front of house. “Yes we do”. They find someone who can work it, and off we go to review.

Video of the Lanky twat bike thief

So, we’ve got him stealing the bike. We’ve got him staring pretty much directly at the CCTV camera in the shop; twice. We’ve got him checking the bike out three times. (The original CCTV is much better quality, and longer, this is me videoing off a tv on my iPhone). We’ve also got him walking out of the shop right on my shoulder. 5 seconds later, and I’ll have been right on top of him. Literally. Probably punching, kicking and headbutting.

Okay, I’ve managed to get CCTV evidence and the shop are keeping for the police. That’s great. Phone the police. They gave no indication anyone was on their way. He’s sat at home now, most likely, stripping it ready for sale – making it difficult for me to recognise. The feedback I got from the shop staff is that he’s known. Bikes have gone from there before. Most likely it’s the same guy. This is a *fantastic opportunity* to halve the cycle crime in Kingston.

So where are the police? I march down to the cop shop. “That police officer has gone home, she’ll pick up the evidence tomorrow”. WHAT??!! Bloody hell. Here we are, red hot, ready to roll. And she’s gone home. Well, that’s fine, end of shift and all that. Why can’t another police officer take a look? I’m then told “the crime has happened”. This infuriates me, the crime is still going on.He’s still got to sell it. He’ll probably sell it at a pub tonight. Get him NOW! I’ve done your detective work for you, the least you can do. Right, now the excuse is that they are dealing with a major fire (no not the Cambridge estate one yesterday, some fire on Saturday PM … not sure where). I try and hold back, I can’t … “Isn’t that what the fire service is for?”

So, the position is that the evidence was picked up on Sunday and likely viewed. I heard nothing on Monday, but there was that Cambridge estate fire, so I decided not to follow up yesterday. Just called again .. the latest is a note on file “I picked up the CCTV, intend to view today (Sunday).”

I’m getting that feeling again.

Update 13/07/2010 2:30pm : The police have taken screen shots and are sending out to colleagues to see if anyone recognises. I asked for Twickenham police to also be included. The police have suggested that they may call me in a couple of weeks. Great. <checking gumtree>.

Update 14/07/10 5:20pm : The local paper are doing a piece on it. Also the police have issued an appeal (turns out to be circulating to other officers, not public .. boo!), I understand via the journo on twitter. Thanks to all for RT’ing and passing via facebook, and also for the advice r.e. using http://bikeshd.co.uk …. really useful!

Update 19/07/2010 : Signed witness statement. Had to change as am sure the police don’t really listen much. Fair play to them though. Waiting for news.

Add commentJuly 13th, 2010

Thames Kayak 20th Sept 09




Take a look at the photos

Day 3 – into Oxford.

Add commentOctober 2nd, 2009

Thames Kayak 19th Sept 09




Take a look at the photos

Day 2 – Sore arms from yesterday.

Add commentOctober 2nd, 2009

Thames Kayak 18th Sept 09

Take a look at the photos

Day one from Castle Eaton. Stayed in Swindon, which is a bit of a s*ithole. Okay, I’d overdone the beers the night before, but didn’t wish to venture into any of the pubs in Swindon Town Centre.

Taxi driver dropped me off at Castle Eaton, as no-one seemed to have heard of Water Eaton, despite me showing them the map.

Add commentOctober 2nd, 2009

iPhone 3GS day

Today’s the day. CPW lost my pre-order, then my mobiles.co.uk order couldn’t find me on Equifax, then O2 wanted £150 deposit, then Mint thought the transaction was fraudulent. I’ve been jumping through hoops for this phone.

Now the postman has knocked on the door, oh .. it was the cycle mount I ordered yesterday off eBay. WHERE’S THE PHONE?!

Add commentJune 19th, 2009

Crash

Well, it had to happen some time. Wasn’t expecting a catastrophic failure of the handlebars @ 20mph on the Embankment.

Left hand a sorry mess after grabbing onto the railings for dear life. Lesson to self, don’t trust handlebars over 5 years old. Turns out these ones were 20 years old.



The rail that I managed to get hold of instead of falling into traffic … the cyclist in this photo managing to stay vertical, unlike me.



Let’s get geeky … GPS logs … Notice the abrupt stop at the end of the graph, as well as the jump on the heart rate at exactly the same time …



Still bruising up, and a nice swell on it. It doesn’t show well here, but my hand is up to twice as big as normal, with plenty of bruising on the palm from grabbing the railing.



The question I often get asked is whether anyone stopped. Well, yes, but I had jumped up and was trying to rebuild my pride. I limped off to go catch a train. I did ask whether “it looked good”, but can’t remember the answer.

I have been asked a couple of times whether I was wearing a helmet. “I didn’t hit my head” is my stock answer. They presume I wasn’t wearing one, but that isn’t what I was saying!

Add commentMarch 31st, 2009

Gmail to destruction




I decided to migrate my email from my old gmail account across to my shiny new Google Apps account.
“You are currently using 3807 MB (52%) of your 7283 MB” … so I had quite a lot of email to transfer.
Google don’t provide an efficient method, so I just added the old account as a POP mail account and got Google to collect it. Every few minutes it collects another 200 mails and has been doing so for nearly 48 hours and I still have two years worth to collect. I suspect this will be running most of the week. 2007 & 2008 were quite heavy usage on the account!

Add commentJanuary 13th, 2009

“Free Public Wi-Fi”

To all you Wi-Fi “piggy backers” out there …. Don’t bother trying to connect to a Wi-Fi spot called “Free Public Wi-Fi” … it’s a fake signal put out by laptops … when you try and connect you get an APIPA address (a default, couldn’t get an IP, address (169.254.*.*)). It’s been bugging me for a while, so just asked Google and here’s the reason …

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/business/article3554838.ece

http://chris-linfoot.net/d6plinks/EIGT-7BCC8P

So, basically, you have two different signals, infrastructure (hotspots) and ad-hoc. When you try and connect to this ad-hoc point, you will pickup and start broadcasting the same SSID yourself … hence the reason I was able to keep a connection with one of these points whilst hammering down the railway at 60mph towards Waterloo …

It’s spread like wild fire and whenever anyone else tries to connect, they just keep adding to the problem! Quite ingenious, but just don’t bother trying to connect. I believe that “hpsetup” is another one that is a fake .. .

“It seems that Free Public Wifi has become the Craig Shergold of the wireless world” .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Shergold

Add commentJuly 8th, 2008

Kayak route 2

Surbiton to Richmond

(more…)

1 commentJune 30th, 2008

kayaking route weybridge to kingston

Went out for the first time on the Advanced Elements Expedition Kayak. A quick 10 mile jaunt from Weybridge to Kingston, appropiately stopping at the Boaters Inn in Canbury Park.

Map of course

(more…)

Add commentJune 23rd, 2008

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