Railway staff catch thieves stealing bike - and let them get on with it

I could prove it quite easily, with one of the many photos of my bikes I have on my phone.

I appreciate not everyone is as pathetic as me, though.

How do I prove a bike I am about to cut through the lock of, is
actually mine?

didds

"London Midland staff and the owner of the bicycle appear to have fallen victim to a cruel but clever con."

cruel but clever?
what?
clever??!

only if your thick as shit!

Kryptonite NY series locks.

Quite affordable (I've got two and they were around $50 US each) and come with a form of insurance policy valid anywhere except the Netherlands. In this case, they'd probably accept this news article as proof that the lock failed.

I had a commuter bike that cost me $8 US for years. Every time I locked it up (with cheap $8 lock, see above), that lock would show signs of being hit with hammers, fiddled with bolt cutters etc.

One day, the lock seized up ($8 FTW) and I cut the lock off with a hacksaw. In public view.

In that country, at that time, there were no bike locking facilities next to public transport stations. I believe that half of the picking attempts were by station staff who would have thrown it in the garbage...

Takes all sorts...

Kryptonite NY series locks.

Quite affordable (I've got two and they were around $50 US each) and come with a form of insurance policy valid anywhere except the Netherlands. In this case, they'd probably accept this news article as proof that the lock failed.

I had a commuter bike that cost me $8 US for years. Every time I locked it up (with cheap $8 lock, see above), that lock would show signs of being hit with hammers, fiddled with bolt cutters etc.

One day, the lock seized up ($8 FTW) and I cut the lock off with a hacksaw. In public view.

In that country, at that time, there were no bike locking facilities next to public transport stations. I believe that half of the picking attempts were by station staff who would have thrown it in the garbage...

Takes all sorts...

My first thought was "What were the staff supposed to do about it? Call them liars?" but quite a few commenters have already posted perfectly sensible answers to that; taking photos, checking IDs, etc.

So I imagine the station staff...
a) ...(like me) weren't quick witted enough to insist on these measures and...
b) ...(more importantly) were not aware of a clear well-circulated formal policy of what to do in the event of forced removal of bikes from the stands.

My understanding is that these days all stations are run by train companies. London Midland in this case. So would it not be a positive move for someone - CTC or a similar cycling organisation or even road.cc - to ask all train companies what their policy is in cases like this (if they even have one).

The same question could be asked of any organisation providing cycle stands, if they are large enough to reasonably expect them to have security staff. eg Universities, councils, etc.

This wouldn't get Kate's bike back but it might help avoid similar farcical situations in the future.

Plain old cowardice by the staff. Non confrontational, Pretty much reflects the nation really......As Dionne Warwick said "walk on by" or Sybil depending on your era.

well there have only been 6 (now 7 of course) reported bike thefts from Nuneaton train station in the past year & there is supposed to be CCTV monitoring as well, so it should have been a reasonably safe location to leave a bike.

though I suspect the station staff didnt fall for the "clever con" at all, and its just they are simply discouraged from tackling criminals in the act like this by themselves, and instead reported it to the BTP/police, who by the time they arrived, were too late. But hence why the staff were expecting Kate, or the owner of that bike to turn up at some point, as else until Kate reported it stolen, they wouldnt have known that it was.

but it would be the same in the high street, if you saw two people with bolt croppers next to a bike, you might ask what they were doing, but if you had any suspicions about it, youd call the police, you wouldnt try and tackle them by yourself in most cases.

IMO the train staff are completely liable for this. They did nothing to see proof of ownership, except taking the word of a couple of pikey scumbags. They should be sacked from their jobs for being a couple of dumb-arses and the lady in question should take them to court for a failure of duty.

In fact, why has BR not bought the lady a replacement bike as a sign of good customer service?

It's a sad world but if your going to leave something that can be made readily portable out of your sight, make sure it's something you can a) afford to lose and/or b) of no emotional value.

If I had to leave a commuter at a railway station it would be made of parts scrounged from the scrapyard.

This does not in any way excuse the station staff from not at least asking for some proof of i.d. They clearly thought something was wrong or they wouldn't have challenged the thieves in the first place.

Also. "Items left at own risk" - Didn't think that affected your statuary rights or the stations 'duty of care'. Anyone out there work in the legal profession?

used to work with a professional lock-smith

he had a legitimate side-line in releasing locked bikes where owners had lost their keys but could prove ownership of said bike

he said to me, on a number of occasions, "don't lock up a bike you wish to retrieve in the future".

in other words, if it has value (to anyone, I have seen 'beater' bikes with seized derailleur gears stolen) then don't leave it on the street...

I have had to cut my own locks twice or three times after losing keys or breaking them off in the lock. I wasn't challenged, but obviously I would not in the least have minded being asked for ID or photographed or being asked to come back and collect the bike from the stationmaster's office in a week's time.

I would, however, have been miffed if I had been challenged mainly on the basis that I was a woman cutting the lock of a diamond-frame bike that was obviously only meant to be ridden by a man (especially given that the frame was a few sizes too big for me.) Lots of men ride step-through frames and lots of women ride diamond frames, it comes down to ease of getting on/off versus how uncomfortable the geometry is when actually riding. Gender stereotyping here isn't useful.

I have to blame the staff at the station. It seems plain common sense not to allow people to use bolt cutters on a bike lock until they have actually proved beyond doubt that it is their bike and more importantly their lock.

Any genuine person that had a bike that they lost the keys for would almost certainly ask in advance about releasing the bike before turning up with the croppers.

Sheer unmitigated incompetence. And to say this was a clever con just compounds matters. It was just a simple lie that the staff dumbly accepted without question. There is just no clever about it.

Comments about two men next to a women's bike - may be harsh (depending on the bike) to expect train station staff to know the difference between a men's bike and a women's bike.

It's all a bit unfortunate but that's life. It's well documented that someone just asking the question 'is that your bike' is rare enough. I am surprised the BR staff even went that far to be honest.

The previous comment about asking if they don't mind their photo taken is a good idea, especially with ID.

I knew my comment would attract criticism!

A couple of points for the record. I feel sorry for this girl. I'm not blaming her. Bike theft is wrong. As the owner of a two grand road bike, I hate bike thieves.

But, having said all that, the concept that you can lock your bike securely and return to find it intact in London is not realistic. If thieves can't nick the bike, they will take parts from it. I've got di2 shifters on my bike. How am I supposed to lock those up?

Anyhow, my earlier comment was merely my opinion. Didn't mean to offend anyone.

Safe riding!

Seems as if the staff need better training/guidelines.

I wouldn't say they were stupid - if they aren't cyclists, and have never thought about the issue or been told anything about how to deal with such situations, then they just got caught out and made the wrong call.

However, that the spokesperson calls this a 'clever con' (what the blazes would a 'dumb con' look like, if just claiming "we're allowed to do this" is 'clever'?) gives one no confidence that the management have learned anything from this at all.

In a better world what they would have said something like:

"we failed to give staff sensible guidelines on what to do in such a situation and hence, in their confusion, they believed a story which, in retrospect, rather obviously should not have been accepted without substantiation - we apologise for this. Be assured everyone here now understands this issue and appropriate procedures are in place for what to do in such a situation"

Wonder if its legal liability concerns or ineptitude that meant they instead come up with that nonsense about 'a clever con'?

Having said all that - how _do_ you distinguish between a thief and someone who is actually retrieving their own bike?

"cruel but clever con"?

Hardly Oceans's Eleven was it?!!

Take a photo and ask to see ID, nice and simple, something a genuine bike owner wouldn't mind and common sense - something sadly lacking from these station workers!

a female bike? I know that some people like to give their bikes feminine names, but am fairly sure they still have no gender...

Erh, two men and one female bike?

You get a brand new bike worth £X00 and you leave it all day at a train station? Hard lesson to learn. Chances of getting her bike back? Virtually zero.

If you are doing a commute and have to leave a bike locked up all day, I would recommend you buy a bike from Decathlon for around £100. If it gets nicked, it's not the end of the world. Indeed, I know of several cyclists in London who estimate that their bike will get nicked once every six months and factor it in as the cost of commuting. It's still cheaper than the Tube.

I know this isn't how things should be but sadly it is the reality.

Doesn't really require extensive security training does it? Bolt-cutters = ask for ID and ask if they would mind waiting twenty minutes for Transport Police to be present.