Exclusive: Coppers Caught Letting Off Bike Thieves

Cambridge police have denied being soft on crime after The Tab saw two coppers catching a group of bike thieves – but then letting them go scot free.

Despite signs around the town threatening an automatic criminal record for anyone who steals a bike, the officers were overheard scandalously telling the criminals that “it just isn’t worth getting arrested over”.

Cambridge has one of the highest rates of bike theft in the country, and it’s getting worse.  Last year 2998 bikes were stolen, an increase of 13% on the figure for 2008 – and that’s only the ones which are reported.

And with work-shy coppers like the ones we saw, it’s no wonder they have detected less than 2% of those crimes.

“It’s not an expensive bike”

At 3 in the morning on Tuesday March 9th a Tabster taking a break from his weekly essay crisis routine saw a police car pulling over people carrier on the junction of Malcolm Street and Jesus Lane, just outside Jesus College.

The four men and one women in the people carrier, who explained that they were from Peterborough and had been on a night out together, were told by the coppers to return the bike which they had been seen picking up on CCTV.

Realising that they had been caught red-handed, two of the thieves walked it back down Jesus lane in the direction the car had come from.

While they were gone, a hooded man from the group told one copper “Thanks for that mate, we really appreciate it” to which he replied “Ye, well it just ain’t worth getting arrested over is it?”.

This will surprise anyone in Cambridge who has seen the many signs which say “What’s the quickest way to a criminal record in Cambridge? Take a bike” – there is even one right outside Cindies.

The sign outside Cindies warning that anyone caught stealing a bike will get a criminal record. Photo courtesy of CycleStreets.

After a few minutes another man emerged from the people carrier to join his friend’s matey conversation with the policeman.

The man, who explained that he was a bouncer in Peterborough, was heard saying “as you said it’s one thing if you cut through a chain, that’s one thing. But if someone leaves a bike by the road unlocked then it won’t be there in the morning anyway.”

He continued: “It’s not an expensive bike. It’s a £99 bike. I work the door in Peterborough and most weeks I’ll hand back four phones to people, which feels really good. So when we saw a bike we thought it…you know, wasn’t a big deal.”

“No arrests”

When asked by The Tab why the thieves had not been arrested the police initially gave the flimsy excuse that “They were not arrested because they said they had found the bike.”

A few days later, a spokesperson had come up with the spurious  claim that “the people involved in the incident had found the bike and were taking it to their nearest police station” – even though the conversation we heard makes it perfectly clear that wasn’t the case.

The police also laughably told us that it didn’t constitute theft because “They were asked to return the bike where they found it, hence not permanently depriving the owner of it”, as if being caught for a crime means that you never committed it.

The story will anger the thousands of students who have their bikes stolen every year.

One Sidney third year who lives less than 100m from where the bike was taken said he wasn’t surprised:

“Everyone has suspected for a while that the police don’t care about bike crime because it mainly affects students – this story proves it.

“Those coppers were probably just being lazy because they didn’t want to fill out a few forms. And for the police to make up some bollocks about not “permanently depriving” people of their possessions is actually a disgrace.”

Next term The Tab will be launching a campaign to make the police do something about bike crime, include asking candidates in the election to make campaign promises on the issue.

Until then, if your bike gets nicked don’t expect any help from Cambridge’s lazy coppers.