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news
Canal Lock (copyright Simon MacMichael)“What sort of message does that send out?” – Cyclist mugged for bike on Birmingham canal advised by police to avoid route in future
A cyclist who was left with blood pouring from a head wound after he was attacked and robbed of his bike while riding alongside a canal in Birmingham by a pair of masked thugs, one of whom hit him with a hammer, has said that police advised him to avoid that section of towpath in the future, leaving him asking, “What sort of message does that send out?”
Birmingham Live reports that the cyclist, now aged 66, got in touch with the news website to recount his ordeal after the media outlet reported on a number of other incidents on the city’s waterways, including one in which a woman was hit with a brick as she walked along the towpath.
Recalling his own experience the cyclist, who was aged 64 at the time of the attack in October 2021 in which he was mugged for his bike, which he said was worth £500, told Birmingham Live that it happened as he rode through a tunnel along the canal in Small Heath.
The man, who was following a route he rides regularly, believes that accomplices of his assailants had texted them to alert them to his approach. After the attack, drivers on nearby road came to his assistance after he managed to reach it.
He says that police were on the scene within two minutes, and that officers advised him not to ride “that route again” – a warning that he has heeded.
He told the website: “I was coming up to Small Heath and there was a guy sitting on one of the lock gates with a phone just before a tunnel. And I said to the police ‘I think he texted the people in the tunnel’.
“As I went through the tunnel a guy pushed me and I nearly went into the canal. If I’d had gone in the canal that could have been ‘Good night, Vienna’.
“He came up and hit me a few times and then I was trying to sort of hold him off and then someone came up behind me and whacked me on the head with a hammer.
“"I fell down and as I got up they were going away with the bike and I grabbed the back tyre and they were going up the ramp to get on the road towards Small Heath and another hammer blow came on my head. I staggered into the road and my head was like that photo I showed you; all the cars were stopping.”
Officers took the cyclist, who also had money and his phone stolen in the robbery, to hospital where his wounds were treated, including stitches being inserted.
“I've come out alright but I do get flashbacks from it now and again where I think I'm fighting them - I think it's the trauma of it sometimes,” the man explained.
“There’s been quite a few attacks on there and police said to me ‘don’t do that route again’: what sort of message does that send out? You see the odd police now and again but they’re too stretched aren’t they?”
We’ve reported on a number of attacks on cyclists on towpaths in and around the West Midlands city in recent years, including one in November 2021 in which a rider was pushed into a canal by men wearing balaclavas who tried to steal his bike.
That was one of several such incidents that happened in autumn of that year, the same period in which the victim speaking to Birmingham Live was attacked, leading to West Midlands Police stepping up patrols on canals.
“It’s getting worse now,” he said. “Someone's going to get badly hurt. CCTV would be ideal but to put CCTV in parts would cost a horrendous amount and it's all about cost at the end of the day.”
Away from Birmingham’s canals, last week we reported how a cyclist was robbed of his £3,300 bike by a group of thugs on his own doorstep in the Kingstanding area of the city.
> Man robbed of £3,300 bike on own doorstep by gang of thugs
Craig Pickering needed hospital treatment for a head injury he sustained during the violent attack, and believes the gang, whom he said were riding electric motorcycles, had deliberately targeted him after observing him riding his Trek Remedy 8 Bike to and from work.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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From the article above.
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46 comments
I don't know what the answer to muggings on urban canal towpaths is - probably increased cycle patrols and some targeted, intelligence-led surveillance, maybe. It's difficult to manage that sort of crime away without resources, because the bandits do tend to wait until the rozzers aren't around.
But that should be the alert for local authorities: towpaths are not cycle infrastructure. They may be leisure routes, but they don't have the traffic and natural surveillance necessary for people to be/feel safe.
Cycle infrastructure should go where people want to go. And the clue is that there are roads that already go there. We need to apportion road space from motor traffic to create safe walking and cycling routes and space.
Amen!
Amen again!
Remote (police) controlled drones with flame throwers would be a good start. Steal a bike / mug someone and run offf... tough luck scumbag, the police have you in their sights (quite literally).
Surveillance ducks, to start with?
Surely a swan
Police don't have the budget these days dontchaknow?
Luckily there are already some DIY instructions for mallard-based version.
A sure way to get policing where it's needed is too set up a vigilante group.
It's similar to filling in potholes. Do it yourself and within minutes, a pothole 'repair' team remove your solid repair and fill it with liquorice, to last a few days.
I think the real solution is to attack the problem from the other end and make it much more difficult to sell the ill-gotten gains: anyone who regularly buys and sells bikes knows how to spot the stolen ones on Gumtree/Marketplace/eBay, if the police employed a handful of experts to pick them out and then send plainclothes officers round posing as buyers it would surely be a massive deterrent for this sort of crime and indeed all forms of bike theft (rather than as at present actually refusing to go round and challenge a thief even when the owner has spotted their bike for sale). Maybe they could even get insurance companies involved, it's very much in their interests to have stolen bikes recovered.
It seems logical. My concern is, in the grand scheme of things, it just isn't in their interests. Otherwise they would.
I'm sure the ABI has the clout to pick up the phone to the 5-O and say, "here's a bunch of cash, we want a squad!"
That would be very interesting. There should also be established a formal bike sale protocol.
Of course some of them may be sold overseas but it is a good start.
That might catch some casual thieves, but what about the ones that strip and sell the parts?
I think honeypot bikes are the answer - police deploy some tracked bikes in a theft hotspot, wait for them to be stolen, and then just follow/track them down and catch them red handed.
The "Gone in 60 seconds - bike crime wave" on youtube is quite dated now but was an interesting watch. There was a guy on there who stole 102 bikes and received a 5 month suspended sentence, they sure told him.
Somewhere like Winchester Railway station, maybe...?
https://road.cc/content/news/cyclists-warned-not-park-train-station-thef...
This makes total sense.
However, I'm reminded of a friends experience. Had his bike stolen, however the bike had an Airtag. My friend called the police and outlined the last know 'ping' from the tag, which was a residential house.
8.30am in the morning, the Police knock on the door, enter the property. The owner gladly shows them around the house / garage. The garage was reportedly full of very expensive bikes, however none met the description of my friends bike.
The Police - 'nothing further to see here.'
To everyone else - 'isn't it incredibly coincidental that the Airtag should happen to stop at a location that is full of expensive bicycles?'
My point being... the police aren't interested... it's deemed a victimless crime.
Create a bike with a booby trap inside it on a countdown timer that can easily be started by the rider as it's being stolen.
My first thought, a few kg of gunpowder and rusty nails inside the frame, is probably a bit harsh. As is my second thought, nozzles spraying burning methanol in all directions.
Something between spraying out a couple of litres of sewage mixed with capsaicin and indelible skin dye, and a glitter bomb, is probably appropriate.
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