Blatant bike thefts ‘in broad daylight’

Heartless bicycle thieves striking in back yards,

BIKES brazenly thieved from a crowded store, bicycles ripped from car roofs on busy streets, highfenced and securely gated back yards infiltrated in the dead of night – across Tasmania locals are finding themselves suddenly without their prized possessions.

Two mountain bikes and an electric bike were reported stolen in North Hobart on Tuesday night, with the three cyclists expressing disappointment and confusion.

Cameron Healey locked his $3000 mountain bike in his North Hobart back yard with three other bikes.

“I’d heard about mountain bikes being stolen so I bought a new lock for my gate,” he said.

“I went out about midmorning to go for a ride with my gear all on and saw there was no bike.

“They chose the mountain bike over the road bikes – they’re hot property at the moment. Another guy over the road had his stolen last week, my neighbour had been broken into as well.

“My gate was still locked so I can only assume they got into my neighbour’s yard, jumped the fence and threw it over.”

Meg, who chose not to share her surname, said her “old shell” of a bike had been lovingly repaired and restored by her boyfriend before it was stolen from her North Hobart driveway.

“He’d put dozens of hours of work into making it really nice,” she said. “I started crying when I realised it was gone, we’re students and I’m unemployed so I can’t afford a new bike.”

Several houses down, Amy Johnstone woke on Wednesday morning to find her e-bike had been stolen.

“I don’t feel safe in my own home – we’ve got two other bikes, the person took the padlock and key so it gives the indication they might come back.”

Police said investigations into the three North Hobart thefts were ongoing.

Tasmanian bike offences including stolen bikes rose from 420 in the 2017-18 financial year to 492 in 2018-19 and 501 in 2019-20, with 176 offences recorded from July 1 to December 31, 2020.

Ride Bellerive bike shop owner Adrian Van Loon said it wasn’t just back yards being targeted.

“We’ve been broken into a few times over the years,” he said.

“We had a bike stolen from the front of our shop taken in a box from here just before Christmas, they passed it over the fence in broad daylight, people saw it happening.”

Mr Van Loon said Tasmania was the “nation’s home of mountain biking”, with demand climbing further as families sought entertaining experiences during COVID-19.

Mr Van Loon recommended registering and tracking bikes with services like Bike Vault and staying vigilant of opportunistic thieves.