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17th April 2024 Issue no. 701

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Locks activated by text message cut bike crime

Bike locks activated by mobile phones have been hailed a huge success in tackling bicycle thefts.

Police from Portsmouth are urging University students to use a new brand of bike lock after a lucky escape on campus recently. The WASP lock, which is currently being given to students free of charge, is a new bike security product that will ensure a bike is not stolen. PC Dave Fairbrother, who acts as the University's liaison officer, explains:

"On January 12th a student thought he'd had his bike stolen outside the University's Richmond Building, despite securing it with two cable locks. An attempted theft had taken place where a thief had managed to cut through both locks, however Group Building Supervisor Colin Gratton managed to stop the thief from leaving with the bike."

Colin Gratton described the incident: "I saw four young lads hanging around. Three of them were on bikes and one (was) without a bike, the three on bikes rode off. The fourth one held the broken cable lock of the parked bike. He threw it in the air and jumped on the bike and went to ride off. It was a natural instinct to stop him, he was stealing the bike. I think he was shocked that someone was stopping him."

The bike owner, student John Pyle, was lucky not to end up as a victim of bike theft. He said: "I am very grateful to Colin for stopping the group of lads from stealing my bike. I had only owned the bike for five days but I made the mistake of not buying a really good lock to begin with."

PC Fairbrother explains the bottom line of the story is to ensure your bike has reliable security devices on it. He said: "A few years ago I made enquiries into why we get bike thefts at the university. My findings showed that students often used cable locks on their bikes, which can actually be cut through. As well as this, the CCTV cameras on campus did not always catch people in the act of stealing. However, we now have a fantastic development in this problem, in the form of the WASP lock. These locks are stronger than the average cable lock, harder to tamper with, and have links with nearby CCTV cameras that will monitor their location whilst in use."

The WASP lock contains an electronic device that links up to CCTV cameras around its location. When a person locks up their bike, all they need to do is send a quick text and the bike will be monitored to ensure it is not stolen. In addition to this, the lock has the same design as a D-lock, which cannot be cut through with bolt cutters.

PC Fairbrother added: "It is my aim to secure student and staff bicycles with these locks, and with time, completely solve the problem of bike thefts at the University."

www.hampshire.police.uk

16th February 2011