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Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow out on his bike before it was stolen |
And finally... who nicked Channel 4 newsreader’s bike?
TV star becomes latest victim of crimewave which has seen 64 per cent rise in cycle thefts
TELEVISION news anchor Jon Snow has become the latest victim of a booming crime in Camden: bike theft.
Police fear his beloved two wheels may have ended up being offered for a quick sale on internet auction sites.
Officers working on bike thefts have recorded a 64 per cent rise in Camden this year.
Figures released to the New Journal show the number of thefts shot up from 879 in the first nine months of 2008 to 1,369 so far this year.
Mr Snow, 61, said he did not know how the tailor-made Condor frame bike was taken, but he knows it was at his Kentish Town home last Wednesday night, and missing the next morning.
“It has happened,” he posted on his Channel 4 blog on Thursday. “My bike has been nicked. I have had a dreadful premonition that it would, which has been very strong over the past few days.
“My whole life depends upon it as I ride everywhere. Consequently, I am at sea, trying to reconnect with public transport and horrified at the cost of taxis.”
Speaking to the New Journal about how the titanium-framed cycle disappeared from inside a securely-locked front door at his home, he warned readers: “Forget about locking up your daughters – lock up your bikes.”
Mr Snow, president of the national cyclists organisation CTC, has visited Parliament as part of a campaign to make roads safer for riders. He was advised to check eBay and Gumtree websites to see if thieves were selling his bike.
“There’s masses of bikes there but not my Condor,” he said.
“If you see a very small person on a very large bike they may not have the proper ownership of it,” Mr Snow said in a direct appeal to New Journal readers.
Last year, the New Journal managed to reunite Conservative councillor Rebecca Hossack with her stolen bike after a reader spotted it chained to railings.
Detective Constable Simon McOwan, of Kentish Town burglary and motor vehicle squad, said that until bike owners recorded their unique frame numbers, usually found near the pedals, the return of stolen bikes to their rightful owners would remain almost impossible.
“We recover and return only about five per cent of bikes stolen,” he warned. “The rest of them go to auctions or are destroyed.
“However, if people do start taking note of their number, and can cite it should their bike be stolen, then it will be flagged up if police come across it – either being sold online or cycled in the street.
“You get these kids riding around on £600 bikes but if you can’t prove it’s stolen or find the owner they end up keeping the bike half the time and that’s just downright frustrating.”
He advised owners to invest around 10 per cent of the bicycle’s value in a lock, adding that an expensive chain also acts as a deterrent to opportunist thieves. |
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