Breaking news: C4’s Jon Snow hacks off child’s bike locked to his
PRESENTER Jon Snow gave a whole new meaning to the word ‘hack’ yesterday... when he had to cut off a bike lock as he was rushing to an interview.
The journalist was about to cycle to his next appointment when he realised his bike had been accidentally locked to a stranger’s.
Determined not to be late, he ran to a nearby hardware shop where he is said to have told staff, ‘I’m in trouble’, before spending £25 on bolt-cutters and £5 on a new lock for the other bike.
A video taken by a passer-by shows the Channel 4 News anchor struggling to free his bright orange bike, which was locked up near the ITN offices in central London.
In the clip, Snow, 70, dressed in a blue suit, white helmet and cycle clips, can be seen repeatedly hacking away at the lock of a white bike, which appears to be a children’s model.
However, it has been confirmed he then cut through it, attached the replacement lock, wrote a note to the owner – and made it to the interview on time.
Local shopkeeper Salfeen Mohammed revealed to the Daily Mail that the newsreader had a stroke of luck during the fraught situation – as he bought the last pair of bolt- cutters available at Gray’s Inn Hardware shop.
Mr Mohammed said: ‘ He often comes in here. He gave me a handshake. I said, “how can I help?” and he said, “I am in trouble, can I have a bolt-cutter?”.
‘So I sold him the one we had, it was the last one. He was struggling to open it, because it was a little bit tight, but I helped him.
‘Then he said he wanted a small, cheap lock so I gave him a £5 one. He was happy.’
Hayley Barlow, head of communications at Channel 4, said: ‘Jon had left the studio because he had an interview to get to, but when he got to the bike rack, he discovered a child had chained both bikes together in error.
‘He managed to get access to some bolt- cutters and cut the chain. Jon then went to a local shop and bought a new chain.
‘He used that on the child’s bike to chain it to the railings and put a note on it saying the key had been left in a safe place with instructions on where to find it.’