Featured Photo by Florencia Potter
Over £6,000 worth of bikes have been reported stolen throughout Gloucestershire over the past 6 months and the thieves have no plan of stopping anytime soon. Local people have praised Cheltenham for its devotion towards making it safe town to cycle around and Owen Adamson called Cheltenham a ‘very easy’ place to get around by bike, but the amount of bikes going missing is far from desirable. MP for Cheltenham Alex Chalk also shows great enthusiasm for the town’s two wheeled hobby.
We’re trying to locate eight bikes which were stolen from the Merrywalks Halfords in Stroud during the early hours of Saturday (3 March).
If you see or are offered the bikes please call 101 quoting incident number 307 of 3 March.
https://t.co/HOPXXlwHfk pic.twitter.com/x5BjB4wVCK— Glos Police (@Glos_Police) March 5, 2018
Gloucestershire Police have published a list of 8 bikes that were reported stolen recently and stolen bikes are constantly appearing on sites such as Gumtree, Facebook Sales and eBay. Websites such as Stolen-Bikes.co.uk help victims of cycle theft report and find their pedal powered possessions. Mike Frederick feels that while people shouldn’t steal bikes anyway, common sense needs to be in place.
You’d like to think we can live in a community where you can leave your bike unlocked outside a shop for 5 mins and it will still be there when you’re done shopping. However if you fail to lock it up you shouldn’t be too surprised when it goes missing. It’s always unfortunate when you have something stolen, but if you’re making it easy for the person to steal it, it’s your own fault.
-Mike Frederick
We also spoke to Gary Rickards from the Cheltenham and County Cycling Club who told us that all bikes must be locked up when unattended at the club and mentioned “Expensive bikes are an attraction to thieves and our insurance policies require that they are locked at all times”. Gary also added “if I am on a social ride or know that I will have a cafe stop, then I always take a padlock with me. Expensive bikes are an attraction to thieves and our insurance policies require that they are locked at all times to a fixed item, when left.”
