After at least two, but possibly more, bikes were stolen from the racks outside the Dolphin Centre recently, the racks have been modified to make them more secure. However, there now looks to be a new method being used:
Left it outside the dolphin centre at 8 this evening, locked on rack. Went out to ride it home at 9 and some helpful person had attached a massive padlock to one of the spokes so that I couldn’t ride it home. Managed to wheel it into the dolphin centre where the duty manager attempted to remove the padlock. Unfortunately he was unable to so the bike is spending the night at the doli pending use of some serious bolt cutting equipment in the morning.
This sounds similar to a strategy I’ve heard is used by thieves in several places. They will use their own lock to lock a bike to a rack, sometimes with “their own” bike also attached. When the owner comes back, they assume that someone has accidentally locked their bike up, and will get home by some other means, thinking they will be able to retrieve the bike the following day. The thief them comes back in the night, and cuts the owner’s lock while nobody is around.
If this happens to your bike, make sure you report it, and do as much as you can to keep your bike safe and secure. In this instance, as there was just a padlock attached to a wheel, the bike could be moved to safety.
We will be pushing for extra CCTV coverage on these racks.
