Bait Bikes and the Bailey

There could soon be bicycles on the streets of the city which it would be good to see stolen. Boris Johnson has been asked to get behind a plan to use more decoy cycles to trap cycle thieves. The bikes contain tracking equipment to allow the police to trace them and, hopefully, break up organised groups of thieves.

As the article says, there has been a recent rise in the number of thefts in London, as we’ve seen before. This is put down to the increased number of bikes on the road as people choose to ride, and also a greater demand for bikes creating a market for stolen cycles to be sold on (in many cases this market is in fact Brick Lane Market). Obviously we can all help to stop this by both locking bikes securely and not buying from dodgy dealers, or where the history of the bike seem suspect.

It’s worth remembering that bicycle related crime is nothing new, and even in a more innocent age thefts were common. For example Mr John Griggs left his bicycle at the Wilfrid Lawnon Temperance Hotel in Woodford one morning, only to have it stolen by Sarah Binstead. Luckily it turned up surprisingly close by, as with many of the cases I’ve come across. Also, Mr Edward Spoll left his bike outside the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre for a few seconds on one 11th November in the 19th Century, only to have it taken by a group of men. After giving chase he seems to have recovered it and the thieves again received hard labour.

Admittedly none of these thefts show either much care having been taken by the bike’s owner, no-where is there any talk of having locked it up, nor much of the fairly organised methods used by today’s thieves.

One case which shows an element of organisation and a system concerns William Payne, in 1898. He appears to have stolen a large number of bikes over a period of time all over the city. He attempted to sell them on, or at least those that were not recovered by the police. Mr Payne spent the next year and a half completing a sentance of hard labour as well.

One bike stolen by Mr Payne belonged to someone in a volunteer bicycle corps and included rifle clips. Perhaps this is in some way related to another case where a man was found not guilty in this case:

“892. SIDNEY HERBERT MORRIS , Unlawfully inflicting on Sigismund Swinberg, grievous bodily harm.

MR. LOWE Prosecuted; MR. GEOGHEGAN Defended.

The prosecutor stated that he believed the prisoner's pistol exploded by accident, and that he did not want the Bill to go before the Grand Jury. He received a good character, and his father stated that he carried the revolver when bicycle riding at night.

NOT GUILTY”

Forget lights and reflective jackets, true safety riding at night only comes with a revolver.

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