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news
Bike thiefCyclist who had five bikes stolen says thieves are looking for quick times on Strava to try and find high-end bikes – warns other users to check their privacy settings
An Essex man who had £12,500 worth of bikes stolen from his home has warned cyclists to be careful of what they post on social media. Adam Jones believes thieves may try and identify riders who record fast times on Strava segments and he expressed regret that he had not been more cautious regarding the information he shared online.
The Echo reports that on Wednesday night, five bikes were taken from Jones’ Barling Magna home: a Specialized Tarmac, valued at £1,500; a Bianchi Infinito CV, worth about £4,000; a Dolan Scala time trial bike, worth about £2,000; a Bianchi Oltre XR2 worth £2,500; and a BMC Road Machine, valued at about £2,700.
The thieves ignored his wife’s bike.
Jones said: “After the break-in, I was thinking it had to have been somebody who knows me – it felt so targeted and very personal. I was starting to look over my shoulder and thinking ‘who could it be?’
“But then after speaking to one of the cycling shops here, the chap said: ‘Are you quick and are you on Strava?’
“I had no idea that what criminals are doing is working out where people are cycling and on what routes, then using that to track where they live.
“They are making the correlation between people posting quick times and probably having the better equipment. I was so shocked when I realised what had happened, it must have been like a treasure chest to whoever broke in.”
Jones admits that he should have been more careful with what he was posting online and wants his story to serve as a warning to others.
“We are inadvertently using social media as a shop window for the thieves,” he said. “I put a gormless picture of me on Facebook with my new BMC bike – it's like an advert saying ‘come and steal me’.
“People are riding round on bikes worth six, eight, even ten thousand pounds, so it's big money for the criminals.
“I just hadn't made the connection of what was happening and of course since the bikes were stolen all my friends were saying, ‘did you have your privacy settings 'on', on Strava?’”
Essex Police said: “We are investigating following a burglary in Barling Magna where five bicycles worth a total of a five-figure sum were taken.
“It took place between 11.59pm on September 18 and 6am on September 19. Our enquiries are ongoing.”
Jones added: “My advice would be to check your privacy settings on Strava, beef up the security of your prized possessions and make sure that your insurance is fully up to date.”
In recent years, a number of police forces across the country have warned that thieves are targeting owners of high-end bikes through social media to identify where they are kept. Here’s what you can do to stay safe.
road.cc’s online security tips
We’re all for online communities here at road.cc – after all, we are one and the interaction between our own users is one of the things that makes the site what it is – but as the story above shows, there may be people watching who have intentions that go beyond taking exception with your opinion of helmets or Rapha and who’ll give you more than the odd flame to worry about. Here’s some pointers to keeping safe online, with an emphasis on bike security.
If you mainly post online under a pseudonym and never mention your real name in connection with that, you’re already a step ahead. If not, there are a few things you can do to make yourself more secure, both when it comes to your bike and generally.
• Since Facebook accounts tend to be under users’ real names, it’s not difficult for thieves to link that and other information to publicly available address information, so you may want to review your privacy settings to have control over who can see your profile (yes, we know Facebook keeps changing them, but try and keep on top).
• Be very careful about posting images online. We all like to post pictures of our new toys online, but a bit of common sense is needed. A photo of your brand new bike with your house clearly identifiable behind it could attract unwanted attention. You may wish to disable GPS information used by some photo sharing sites.
• The same goes for information you share on sites that track your rides and make the information public. Strava has a feature that enables you to hide the start and finish point of your ride, particularly useful if that happens to be your home. Use it.
• Don’t go into detail online about the specific type of security you have, whether in relation to your bike or your home generally; you’re giving the thieves a chance to prepare by making sure they have the right tools for the job. Likewise talking online about going away for a while, on holiday perhaps, can flag up an unoccupied house to the thieves.
• Even if you don’t post on social media under your real name, be wary about how much information you make public. The less you reveal, the less others know about who you are and where you live. Keep it vague – town or district, fine, the street you live on, think twice.
• It's not just Facebook and Twitter, either that you need to be careful about - even club websites can be trawled by the crooks for information. Site admins may want to consider a private area of the site where members can chat.
• This isn’t specifically online-related, but we know that cyclists are sometimes followed home, the thieves returning later once they know where you live. If, close to your house, there’s somewhere you can go on your bike that someone watching you in a car can’t, go there. Try and vary your route if you can. Or ride a little way past your house then loop back.
> Beginner's guide to bike security—how to stop bike thieves and protect your bike
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- ktache 11 min 30 sec ago
The small frame, the aggressive posture, lots of standover height.
- mctrials23 1 hour 7 min ago
As i've said before, the police should be sued for a lot of money when someone they have knowingly ignored has gone on to commit a serious crime....
- David9694 1 hour 14 min ago
'Bad parking' blocks firefighters multiple times on same emergency call-out...
- David9694 1 hour 18 min ago
Cambridgeshire boy, 13, crashes Audi into garden wall after taking it from home...
- Adam Sutton 2 hours 4 min ago
Good stuff. Now do it on cycleway C9 through Hammersmith to Chiswick.
- mark1a 2 hours 13 min ago
It's technically allowed but it's not known as "London's Orbital Car Park" for nothing.
- Dogless 3 hours 21 min ago
You're defending bombing hospitals and refugee camps and starving children.
- mattw 6 hours 1 min ago
Used car salesman is a complete attention-seeking plank....
- tubasti 6 hours 18 min ago
I don't know if they're any better, but they's certainly become more boring.
- FionaJJ 6 hours 44 min ago
At risk of being cynical, and stereotyping the police, it's so they don't have to leave the comfort of their panda cars and pursue on foot when...
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34 comments
If thieves are using Strava to locate high end bikes why not use it to lure thieves into a dark alley where they might "fall down a flight of steps".
Ha ha ha! Good thought!
I reckon it wouldn't be difficult to find out where any cyclist lives no matter what they post on Strava or any other social media site or how good their privacy settings are. Prevention and security is money well spent, i.e. Keeping a bike in a shed is just about the lowest form of security you could have!
Frankly, I'm worried anyway about Trava's privacy zones. They make sense as a tool, until Strava itself gets hacked, giving would-be thieves a really handy list of addresses to target...
I'm not quick enough for this to be a problem for me - I suspect any would-be thief would see my time up Ditchling Beacon and assume I was on a spacehopper rather than a swanky carbon fibre road bike.
With a bit of black humour, this bit did make me laugh: "The thieves ignored his wife’s bike." If the thieves did come a-calling, I suspect they would leave my wife's bikes behind as well.
Sounds like a bit of a humble brag.
God knows. Weird motive, whatever.
Now everyone who's interested knows his name, where-ish he lives, that he's probably about to replace several new expensive bikes, and I bet he's picking up more followers on Strava.
The local rag wouldn't be my first stop if I'd just had my bikes cleared out. I wonder how his insurance claim is going.
I would love to see the evidence he has that it was his Strava settings that caused this and not just some opportune thief or even his neighbour.
Ditto, I don't think this is anything to do with Strava.
Don't get me wrong, many people have very poor internet privacy, facebook and strava combined can lead you to someones house, tell you what bikes they've got and also know their routine - BUT, this was most likely someone who realised what bikes he had.
Ditto, I don't think this is anything to do with Strava.
Don't get me wrong, many people have very poor internet privacy, facebook and strava combined can lead you to someones house, tell you what bikes they've got and also know their routine - BUT, this was most likely someone who realised what bikes he had.
This, repeatedly. Bike theft sucks. Nobody wants it to happen to them, but if it does, you'd like to think that you're special and not just the victim of random addict wanting a quick cash fix so people like to find a reason, and stalking-by-social-media-du-jour is the current one. Until I see thieves admitting that they do this, I'm keeping an open mind on it
Anyone wondering why they’re nicking bikes? It’s because someone is buying them (or the parts off them). So next time you look for some cheap second hand bits make sure you know they’re not dodgy before you buy.
Nice sentiment, with which we can all agree. In public.
Sadly, loads of people feel the pressure of desire for new toys at preferential rates, so this will be almost impossible to stop or detect. I don't think we are going to 'guilt' folk out of doing this and just ask them to be nice.
___
Strava may not be at fault, per se, but it's a timely reminder to update one's privacy settings in any case.
Having been a victim of similar level of garage theft, and don’t do the social media thing, on Strava but nothing public, never left bikes or racks on the car. Whilst I don’t doubt that some might be using Strava to find targets it’s not the easy way of doing it.
How it was suggested that I was targeted/sequence then followed:
1. Very junior scrote happens to see you come home from a ride on your posh bike, they are not particularly looking for you, just coincidence.
2. They sell this information on to less junior scrotes for small amount of cash/drugs/whatever, eventually making it way to the organising scrotes.
3. Theft is organised and enacted.
4. Bikes are the moved on to the “sellers”/broken up and sold for parts etc. Within days if not hours (two of mine appeared on Gumtree 30 miles away within a week).
The more organised/smarter team could be using Strava to focus item 1 above I guess, but Occam’s Razor still applies.
This sounds more likely that the supposed shoshul meeja connection. I have been known to wait before it's obvious where I live, if there is someone a tad suspicious in the vicinity. Not that my bikes are anything special. In any event I also have privacy zones on Strava by default, and still start my gps at the main road away from the house. Facebook profile pictures can more often be seen by the public, so probably worth not updating these with the latest expensive bike purchase.
Headline should have been:
"It's 2018 and there are still people who leave their social media profiles wide open to everyone with an Internet connection"
I remember seeing a long group ride on Strava. Decided to look at the start to see if it was from a shop or something. It started in the backyard shed at some idiots house.
Really? Can you send me a link?
Just make sure all your strava recorded trips begin and end just outside the house of someone you don't like.
My neighbour’s bikes are much more valuable than mine...
Pretty sure that the risks around oversharing on Strava have been publicised for years, it's what forced them to introduce privacy controls (home zones etc).
For the record, I ride a no brand BSO and live in downtown Mogadishu.
Have they cleared the wreckage of the black hawk helicopter from the square yet? Seems like a safety hazard for anyone riding a BSO.
For the record our Rhodesian Ridgebacks will make those attempting to break and enter piss their pants.
Scumbags nicking bikes is seen by police as a low grade crime, there's so little time devoted to it. Mum had her bike stolen earlier this year, a xmas present from myself, from outside the care home she was volunteering at too! grrrrr
If it was down to me I'd cut a tit/testical off each time they were caught, it's the very personal aspect of it that's so heinous, your home invaded and ransacked, just horrible.
you have tits and testicles? Jeez, it's no wonder you're always grumpy. You should definitely cut off one or other pair, just to lessen your own confusion.
Learn to read and grasp basic comprehension fuckwit
I love you too
Damn, I thought he was refering to his Mum. Imagine the reaction if I had said that!
It's the piss poor way in which you write and does read as if you have both tits & testicles.
"If it was down to me I'd cut off one of their tits/testicles each time they were caught" would have been better.
Hope this helps!
I don't think its just bikes, nowadays. It rather seems that *any* property theft is seen as a job for insurance - record it with the police, get a reference number, but don't expect them to put any effort whatsoever into solving it or stopping it.
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