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Super sleuth mum nabs bike thief

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When your bike is stolen always report the theft to the Police. However as we have seen before in these blogs, some owners go the extra mile to try and recover their bikes and find the person who stole their bike.

We therefore can only applaud the lengths Wokingham resident Lisa Bradley went to try and find who nicked her husband’s s bike. Mum-of-two Lisa on her own initiative managed to track down CCTV images of the thief with detective work that would make any police criminal investigation department proud.

Crime scene

Her husband’s bike was stolen from a shed in Crowthorne, Berkshire, in July, and the theft was reported to local police. But Lisa refused to accept this was the end of the matter and turned detective. When inspecting the shed after the robbery, Lisa noticed an energy drink can had been left behind by the thief.

She then went to the local shop nearest to the property where the bike was stolen to see if they sold the energy drink brand found at the crime scene. The shop did sell the brand.

CCTV

At this point Lisa asked staff whether she could review the CCTV video for the day of the robbery to see if she could spot the thief or thieves buying the energy drink brand. A review of the exterior CCTV camera also picked up the thief walking past the shop with her husband’s bike.

Lisa and the shop owners were able to make a match of the man on the bike with a man who bought that energy drink brand a few hours earlier. Lisa took stills of the CCTV image of the man and was able to distribute the image around the Crowthorne and Sandhurst area.

Arrest

A positive identification of the man who stole the bike was subsequently made and police later arrested 19 year old man and charged him with the robbery. He was convicted of the theft by East Berkshire Magistrates on August 10.

New bike

Sadly for Lisa her husband’s bike had already been sold on by the thief and has yet to be recovered, but when Berkshire Cycle Co heard of Lisa’s super sleuth skills they offered to give her a new bicycle for her husband.

Lisa told the Wokingham Times: “I went out of my way to catch this guy and hopefully it will put him off doing it again the future.

“It is amazing what Berkshire Cycle Co have done. It really restores your faith in other people.”

See also

The bike lock that breaks a bike if broken

Music as your navigation aid

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