Owners of stolen bikes urged to register them at findthatbike.co.uk
UPDATE 2 With more reports of bike thefts around Bitterne Park coming in, a concrete block was apparently used on Monday evening or the early hours of Tuesday (Sept 19/20) to try to gain access to Triangle cycle shop rideride.

 

As well as operating a cycle workshop, rideride keeps a stock of new machines –some worth many hundreds of pounds.

“This morning we’ve come in to find the glass has been smashed on the front door, and there’s a big concrete block [one of those pictured below during the cleanup] inside the shop, and another one left on the pavement outside,” said rideride’s Mike Martin.

“Fortunately they hadn’t actually got in. I imagine they were disturbed or scared and ran off.”

He said so far he hadn’t heard if any neighbours had witnessed anything, and he thought the police would be coming round shortly. He said that they’d be tightening up on shop security as a result.

More local bike thefts reported

We’ve recently been receiving reports of cycle thefts from various roads in Bitterne Park, and Mike said someone had also broken into his Priory Road shed in St Denys on Saturday night.

“It was locked up and they’ve cut off the lock and then taken two bikes and a set of ladders. They were all locked together with big bike locks. I’ve heard of probably five or six different incidents over the last couple of weeks – more than just ‘my bike was locked to a lamppost and it was nicked’ – but where they’ve actually gone into someone’s property, broken into sheds, and taken bikes.

"Nice bikes as well, so it feels like people know where the bikes are and they’re going to specific houses.”

'Check your security & insurance'

Mike said he thought bike thefts were particularly taking place on Saturday nights, and suggested people might want to check security – and insurance.

As well as other reports of bike thefts from properties or vehicles in Bond Road, Manor Farm Road and Dimond Road – see our previous story here for more details – we’ve just heard about other recent thefts from Macnaghten Road and Whitworth Road.

'Sad and upset'

Tammy Horton emailed us to say: “I also had a break in and my bike stolen last Thursday night from the shed in my back garden. It was only nine months old. Very sad and upset. A Giant Liv Rove 2 [we think a women’s hybrid bike]. Nothing else touched. They left the other, older bikes. I'm in Macnaghten Road.”

Meanwhile Robin Bluemel, who runs The Veg Shed, said he was fuming after four bikes were taken from a Whitworth Road shed.

“On Saturday night someone broke into our shed and stole both my bikes, my brother's bike and my mum's friend's bike. Needless to say, I am fuming, photos and more details to follow,” he wrote on Facebook.

 

 

A reply to his original post suggests another cycle was stolen from Portswood High Street on Saturday night.

If you know of similar recent incidents in our area, we’d be interested to hear by email – and of course you can also report thefts to the police by phoning 101.

Further update: Dilys Gartside, who runs a cycle training business in Southampton, commented: "I am one of the Whitworth Rd bike burglary victims and lost a very special vintage bike worth ££££s and priceless to me.
All victims need to get their stolen bike details logged onto:
FINDTHATBIKE.COM including photo asap.
Keep on at the police as I am. They still say there is no evidence to connect any of these crimes so God help us if there are that number of violent gangs responsible for each burglary."

Previously Bitterne Park bikes stolen