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Police raid bike shop and recover £20,000 worth of stolen bikes

If you live in the North East and you've had your bike nicked recently give them a call...

A shop in County Durham which is believed to be a cycle retailer is at the centre of an investigation into the theft and re-sale of more than £20,000 in stolen bike parts.

The shop, which cannot be identified due to the ongoing police investigation, was raided on Friday morning and around 35 bikes and parts were seized. Police are asking cyclists who have recently had bicycles stolen to come forward and identify if any of the distinctive and expensive confiscated kit belongs to them after the raid.

Detectives believe the high specification bikes were being stolen, broken down and the parts sold on eBay, and two men in their 20s were arrested following the raid and have been released on police bail.

PC Simon Morley of Durham Police said the theft of expensive bikes used by cycling enthusiasts and competitors is an “emerging problem” in the North East.

He told the Northern Echo: “We would really like the owners of these bikes to come forward and identify what belongs to them. What we are finding is the bikes and parts do not have anything on them which links them with their rightful owners. This sort of equipment is extremely valuable to thieves. They can break the bikes down into parts and sell them to anyone in the UK through internet sites and they become very difficult to trace.”

If you think your bike could be one of those recover you can  call police on 0345-60-60-365.

Research indicates a bike is stolen every 65 seconds in the UK and a rise in bike thefts in Cambridge prompted police to join forces with Cambridge City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, Cycling City, Cambridge Cycling Campaign and CCTV operators to crack down on thieves and encourage cyclists to keep tabs on their machines.

Locking a bike to an immovable object with a high-quality lock will deter thieves and you can also register bikes with immobilise.com, a site that will enable stolen bikes to be returned if they are recovered by police.

As recently reported on road.cc online bicycle insurer Cycleguard recently warned that more and more stolen bikes are ending up on the internet and second-hand market.

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8 comments

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Jon Burrage | 15 years ago
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hmm, it did seem a bit odd for a bike shop to be involved in that. I have no doubt this sort of thing goes on privately though.

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kimbers | 15 years ago
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I dont know if any of you guys are aware but this case now looks more and more like the police have made a large screw-up, many of the 'stolen' bikes have been identified on forums as being in the shop for repair
The bike shop does run an ebay business as do most bike shops these days

Its sad that the police arent actually able to get the real bike thieving scrotes instead making a headline grabbing raid on a real bike shop!

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Jon Burrage | 15 years ago
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Ive heard of companies laser etching names/graphics onto bikes as this is almost impossible to remove. My tutor at uni used to put his pinarello and principia frames in our lazer cutter and create really snazzy and detailed designs that incorporated his name and do a light sweep (about 1mm down) into his seat tube.

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Tony Farrelly | 15 years ago
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Years and years ago I did jury service and one of the cases that came up was a bike stealing ring in East London - they weren't very sophisticated it was a numbers game –quantity rather than quality – but they whole thing unravelled for them when they nicked a bike that had been slightly customised and the owner then spotted it a few weeks later, stopped the fella riding it, called a passing cop over… etc etc.

That, and a few other cases I've heard off brought it home to me that personalising your bike while it may not deter thieves is one way of upping the chances of it getting back to you if it is nicked.

I'm surprised that no-one has come up with some sort of stencilling kit so you can paint your name on your bike, or that bike shops don't offer the service (maybe some do) in the same way that people often have their names painted on custom frames.

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G-bitch | 15 years ago
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That kind of thing does seem to be pretty common around these parts (Bristol), particularly people with high end MTBs. I had all the wheels nicked off my car on Monday night and all I could think was 'thank god they didn't try the garage!' - can't imagine how gutting it must be to lose the best bike(s).

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OldRidgeback | 15 years ago
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There was a similar case here in London a couple of years back. And as I said in an earlier thread, a visit to Brick Lane market made it very clear to me how many dodgy sellers there were around and how many people seemed perfectly willing not to ask questions if what they wanted was being sold cheaply.

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Tony Farrelly | 15 years ago
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Sadly that seems to be the unwelcome side of cycling's rise in popularity

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andy42 | 15 years ago
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Granted, there has been a marked uptic in bike thievery this summer. With university starting up, I went ahead and made use of one of the free public BikeRegistry services off the net to register and TAG my bike, in advance of a visit from such scumbags.  39

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