Crackdown on callous bike thieves continues
Crime Reporter CITY Centre cops have equipped students with security advice as they continue their crackdown on bike thieves armed with bolt cutters.
Police Scotland held an awareness event at Glasgow Caledonian University this week and invited a number of agencies to promote bike security.
The event was staged as a large number of the city’s student popula- tion use bikes to commute around the city.
PC Yuill said: “We have been robustly dealing with the spate of bike thefts in Glasgow city centre and there has been a number of detections and convictions.
“We are trying to educate students who save up money for a bike that they are cheating themselves out of that bike by scrimping on a few pounds to buy a lock which is clearly not going to protect their cycle.
“We want them to understand that they need to invest in the safety of their bikes.”
The warning comes after The Evening Times exclusively revealed that bike thieves armed with bolt cutters had been targeting city cyclists.
In just two months, more than 60 bikes were reported stolen. In one case, a bike worth £4,000 was stolen.
Police Scotland invited along partners including The Bike Station and Master Lock to the event.
Master Lock along with Police Scotland recommend that cyclists use Sold Secure locks for bike security.
This is a police-backed initiative whereby manufacturers of locks, submit them to Sold Secure for testing.
Sold Secure rank locks in bronze, silver and gold. For bicycle security, Police Scotland recommend you use gold level locks.
PC Yuill said: “Through education, we should hopefully bring down the number of potential victims by making their bike not a target.
“We have people walking around carrying a pair of bolt cutters on them and what they are looking for is that bike which is insecure so they can snip the lock off in seconds to make their getaway.
“We want to take the students out of that target bracket.”