Brompton cyclist thwarts bike-jacking attempt

A London cyclist has issued a warning to others after two men on a scooter pushed her off in an attempt to steal her bike. Gemma Champ was riding a Brompton folding bike on Mildmay Grove South in the Canonbury/Dalston area when the incident took place.

Writing on Stop Killing Cyclists’ Facebook page, Champ said that fortunately, after being pushed, she landed on her feet and managed to keep hold of the bike, meaning the would-be thieves couldn’t take it. “I was lucky someone came round the corner and started yelling,” she added.

The two men were riding a white scooter. Champ managed to get the number plate and says she has reported the incident to the police. However, she did wonder whether they were attempting to steal ‘to order’ which would mean another Brompton rider may be targeted.

“I think my spidey sense saved me,” she said. “I could sense they were trouble by the way they were accelerating up behind me, so I'd braced myself for a close pass anyway.”

In 2014, three men were fined £10,000 each and given suspended prison sentences for their part in the theft of 46 Brompton bicycles worth a total of around £58,000. The bikes, which have a high resale value, were being sent by Brompton to Russia, but only made it as far as Leyton in east London where several had been sold from a pawnbrokers owned by one of the men.