Cyclist spotted riding on M25 hard shoulder; Alex Dowsett to take on Hour Record; Road safety group ask cyclists to 'reduce strain on the NHS'; Bike theft stopped by Deliveroo driver; How far can you ride without being sworn at? + more on the live blog

She was great.. you could see others standing around, not caring or wanting to get involved - scumbag thieves rely on the general public minding their own business and letting them steal unimpeded.

Hold on though isnt that a gold rated kryptonite lock? not too dissimilar to the one I use because I thought they were supposed to be good, how did someone seemingly without any visible power tools cut through that ?

Before the events in the video?

Well ok yes,but that's a lock with half inch hardened steel d-lock meant to survive minimum 5 minutes of attack from large bolt croppers & tungsten carbide tipped hacksaws, if that guy is carrying portable tools in his man bag capable of slicing through that so easily ,with no questions being asked,why not just cut through the sheffield stand instead ?

I thought the pro tooled up bike thieves that appear in articles here sometimes always said they just moved onto the easier locks to break than risk the gold level ones, unless they were stealing to order,but they wouldnt risk the time/effort in such a busy street

A portable angle grinder will go through any lock in seconds or minutes.

A decent lock, like the one shown, will need two cuts, because the ends of the U do not rotate within the locking shackle. So in this case the thief gave up after one cut and, like you say, probably moved to an easier target. The guy in the video may be just another chancer, or maybe he is a rookie who has just learnt that some locks need two cuts.

Why is it possible to use an angle grinder on a bike lock in a public place .... Well, would you intervene? The video shows just how few would.

Why not cut the Sheffield stand? Sometimes they do, but it's not obvious that it's any easier. It would need two cuts as well. And it does not allow the "plausible deniability" that you "just lost the key".

brooksby wrote:

...and everybody else just stood and watched 

'S'cos the thief had no hiviz.... nobody saw him.

brooksby wrote:

...and everybody else just stood and watched 

They risk assault, or possibly worse if they intervene. Have-a-go heroes are few and far between unfortunately, and police enforcement non-existent.

brooksby wrote:

...and everybody else just stood and watched 

About twenty years ago, someone ran a test about cycle theft, and they locked a bike up opposite a bus queue, then got someone in a trench coat to approach it and cut through the lock and take the bike.  The first time, he hid the bolt cutters under his coat as he cut the lock, then gradually became more brazen, finally walking up to the bike with the bolt cutters in his hands and blatantly cutting the lock and taking the bike.  Not once did anyone in the bus queue say anything.

I know of a similar effort with motorbikes and scooters.  Guys parked them in strategic locations then cut the locks off and carried them into a hired van.   Nobody said anything - even when alarms were going off.

I've rarely been challenged despite a long history of lost keys, faulty locks &c (even had to break into my own house a couple of times; glazing is a handy skill to learn).
There was just one occasion when my car broke down at the other side of town; I came back to fix it a couple of days later, and this must have looked very suspicious by the point that I was pulling a cable to turn off the shrieking alarm. Somebody drove past, wound down their window, and said "Is that your car?". Trying to be funny, I said "Well, it is now". They just drove on and did nothing.

We're primed to expect thieves to lurk in alleyways at night, maybe wearing a stripy top. If you go about in crowds in broad daylight, maybe with clipboard or hi-vis, a lot of people wouldn't challenge you, even if you saw off bike locks, or test door-handles, or carefully watch people at an ATM.

brooksby wrote:

...and everybody else just stood and watched 

Well, at least one person stopped to video it, which ought to have been obvious, but did not deter the thief. Which says something about the value of CCTV as a deterrent.

Sriracha wrote:

Which says something about the value of CCTV as a deterrent.

It used to be nearly useless due to hoodies, and also CCTV cameras had the same image quality as the average potato. Now it's normalized to be masked in public, so it's even less of a deterrent.

Note: I'm not arguing against masks. Just observing.

Not convinced that I'd definitely confront someone wielding something capable of cutting through a D-lock if it was my bike, let alone someone else's. Much as it shouldn't happen, property can be replaced. 

Most would be concerned that a thief might have a knife and be prepared to use it.. the other concern is that any effort to stop someone that looks to be a thief could backfire if it actually is the owner who has lost his key.. a difficult quandary for sure.

https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/status/1230400178819039232