A woman’s bicycle was stolen in front of her by two thieves whilst sitting outside a coffee shop in London, the latest in a recent spate of bikejacking incidents.
The incident occurred on Saturday 21st February outside Bartons coffee shop on Dockhead, Bermondsey and was captured on CCTV. The woman was sat outside beside her bike with one other person when two people pull up to the kerb on a motorbike. Dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, the man on the back of the motorbike makes an initial lunge to grab the bike, at which point the woman’s friend gets up to guard the bike.
However, the man then dismounts the motorbike and, after rummaging in his pocket he is able to take the bike (at “knifepoint” according to the uploaded video) and carry it on his back as the motorbike then drives away.
The Metropolitan Police have previously been criticised for their passive response to the bikejacking incidents. After a group of club cyclists training in Regent’s Park asked for neighbourhood policing to patrol the area in the early morning, they were told the Met are “unable to change our working hours”. Their plea came after cyclists reported feeling like “sitting ducks”.
The chairman of Regent’s Park Cyclists, Sean Epstein, said that bikejacking “keeps happening and there’s no plan to do anything about it.” A Freedom of Information request made in 2023 found that an average of two bikejackings a day are occurring in London alone, with most incidents occurring in the early morning, when working people are most likely to be out riding higher-value road bikes.
