Bike theft victim tracks stolen bike to uncover city’s drug trade link. GPS reveals journey from theft to potential resale.
Bike theft was up where I live, prompting police to issue a warning in January. I even saw a bike with missing wheels right outside my house. My friends had five bikes stolen in two months at Central Square.
One friend, Eva, had her bike stolen there after locking it outside her university building. Eva had the bike since she was 15, but hadn’t used it in Cardiff before. By 4 pm, her bike vanished completely; she initially thought she had just forgotten it.
The bike wasn’t worth much financially, but it held much sentimental value to her. While the police helped log the crime report, they couldn’t do much more without her bike’s serial number. Now, she uses her mom’s bike along with two locks and parks under security cameras.
Eva and I wondered where stolen bikes go, so I decided to track a stolen bike to see. I bought a GPS tracker for this experiment and put it onto a second-hand bike, cable-locking the bike at 4 pm with the tracker under the seat. I placed it near where Eva’s bike was stolen.
The next day at 3 pm, I got a notification that the bike had started to move somewhere. It went all around the city centre area. Earlier, I saw two bikes with broken locks and missing wheels being carried away and decided to follow the people who took them.
They went all over the city centre area, following basically the same path. The thieves gave the wheels to someone and received something small in return, before going into a parking garage where I witnessed them putting something up their noses.
Dave, who owns Motorlegs Cycle Workshop, said bikes are traded for drugs. He stated that a need for a fix drives most thieves and stolen bikes often end up used for drugs. Dave doesn’t judge the bike thieves, understanding their difficult circumstances. People have offered him stolen bikes, and he can usually tell if they are stolen.
“I’ve seen it happen right in front of me,” said Dave. He recalled a woman buying her son a new bike, turning to pay for a split second, and the bike disappeared right then and there. Only her children saw it.
My bike left the city centre quickly, going across Sanatorium Park in an hour and arriving at an address in Fairwater. It stayed there for a couple of days, so I went to Fairwater to check it out. I heard loud music coming from the house and glimpsed a tattooed hand in the doorway, but with a dog barking loudly inside, I left a letter through the door including my number wanting information.
I went to Michael’s bike shop in Fairwater, Outdoor Cycles. He’d unknowingly bought stolen bikes before and the police came to get them then. Stolen bikes are sometimes sold online and shops also buy and resell them, or thieves trade bikes to people who then resell them.
Michael now gives police all bike serial numbers, even though they think he’s making them do admin work. He protects himself from stolen bikes this way, saying police come to his shop instead of searching because it is easier for them that way.
Most theft cases close with no suspect at all, and sadly, police can’t do much about bike theft. However, owners can lower their bike’s risk. Dave doesn’t suggest costly locks or cameras and advises against outside parking; he suggests knowing where you’re going and where you can store your bike.
Some cafes will hold your bike, and his shop will even hold bikes, too. I haven’t heard back about the letter I left, and the bike tracker is offline now, not even detectable, likely found and disabled. The fate of stolen Cardiff bikes is an ongoing mystery.