Brazen thieves targeting bikes
When The Bike Station was hit by thieves, it was the first time the Nelson business had been targeted in six years of operation.
Now the store is looking at installing CCTV cameras, at a cost of $3000 to $4000. But the experience of having your bikes stolen is a far from uncommon one in Nelson, the shop’s owner says.
At 10.52am last Friday, two Corratec eMTC electric bikes were taken by two people from the store in Vanguard St.
Owner Rochelle Mathews said the perpetrators wore masks, hoodies and sunglasses, which made them difficult to identify from CCTV footage from neighbouring businesses. She described them as small and slim, about 1.57m to 1.65m tall – they could have been teenagers, girls, or young people.
Mathews estimated the value of the loss at over $10,000.
‘‘It’s disappointing,’’ she said. ‘‘Insurance obviously doesn’t cover it, because we’ve got massive excess.’’
As ebikes were ‘‘useless’’ without a charger, The Bike Station had a policy of not selling chargers to people who didn’t buy their bikes at the store, as a deterrent, Mathews said. She is encouraging other retailers to do the same.
She’s not the first person to make this call. In 2021, Hybrid Bikes managing director Frank Witowski called on retailers and wholesalers to stop supplying ebike chargers online to customers without proof of ownership.
At the time, Witowski had been receiving inquiries about twice a week from people requesting replacement chargers for his bikes. He suspected that many of the calls were from thieves who had stolen ebikes and were looking to sell them on but needed the particular charger for his brand of bike.
Mathews said bicycles were stolen frequently in Nelson – her store regularly had people coming in reporting thefts and asking for insurance quotes.
Thieves would take any opportunity, and were ‘‘fearless and brazen’’, she said.
She advised bike owners to avoid leaving bikes unattended in a public space, even for a few minutes.
One customer had told her of how his bike was sitting 2m from him while he had a coffee. ‘‘Then he looked up to see a guy riding off on it, [with his] hands in the air, doing a victory dance. That same person had been seen walking past, scoping out an opportunity, just a few minutes prior.’’
Sheds at home were ‘‘an easy target’’, she said. Locks were a deterrent to an opportunist but not to a determined thief.
If you are the victim of a theft, Mathews recommends notifying the police and local bike stores with a description of the bike’s make and model, colour and size, and contacting organisations such as the Bike Hub and the Nelson Mountain Bike Club.
She also suggests that people reach out on social media such as Facebook, Facebook marketplace and Instagram to let the community know what happened.
‘‘We’ve had a lot of response from our Instagram posts that we put up,’’ she said.
‘‘I think the more people that can see it, the more chances you’ve got of catching the perpetrators.’’