Bike theft from the car park

[Billy]

I had my bike nicked yesterday. It was locked to the big metal fence
in the middle of the carpark.

It happened between 2.30pm and 6.30pm. They bolt-cuttered the lock and
left it behind.

When i spoke to the security guard, he said that that part of the car
park is not covered by camera's. He also said that there is no-one on
gate duty during the day.

Quick shout to say, improve your bike locks, when locking your bike
there.

There's got to be a better way of dealing with this. Any suggestions?

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

We have a lot of bike parts. What are the legal limits we could modify a
bait-bike to fall-apart/explode/electricute/spray-paint-everywhere?

[Mark Steward]

Let's keep joke suggestions to a minimum, please.

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

Who's joking? A fake bike that sprays UV dye everywhere when a chain is
cut sounds like a damn good deterent.

If building management is unable or unwilling to adequately secure the
area, we should at least also look into extending our own CCTV system to
cover outside areas.

On 23/05/2012 16:30, Mark Steward wrote:
> Let's keep joke suggestions to a minimum, please.
>
> On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 4:29 PM, Peter "Sci" Turpin <s...@sci-fi-fox.com
> <mailto:s...@sci-fi-fox.com>> wrote:
>
> We have a lot of bike parts. What are the legal limits we could
> modify a bait-bike to

> fall-apart/explode/__electricute/spray-paint-__everywhere?

[Andrew Delamare]

Agreed!

Although if the hackspace people with their infinity wisdom cannot come up
with a bike rack that makes bikes unstealable in what every way they deem
inventive I shudder for the world! Surely if we put wind powered CCTV on the
bike racj with a battery that's also the wind chime/generator move of the
balcony taken car of:)

Andrew

[Simon Howes]

With low-cost hardware nowadays it'd be an interesting project to just have a googlemaps overlay of the paths stolen bikes and the like take. The cops dont really take bike theft seriously as its a considered a petty crime like nicking your car stereo. But you gotta wonder. How many gangs are really nicking this stuff? Is it all one big freaky looking dude or tons of opportunists.

I'd just _love_ to hear the interview with the guy who nicked the bike....

[Alex Pounds]

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 08:23:47AM -0700, Billy wrote:
> I had my bike nicked yesterday. It was locked to the big metal fence in

> the middle of the carpark. There's got to be a better way of dealing
> with this. Any suggestions?

There are a few Sheffield stands by the traffic lights on Kingsland Road.
I locked my bike there when visiting the Space yesterday. I don't know
what CCTV is like there, but it's got far more foot & vehicle traffic than
the carpark, as well as being a more solid anchor point than the fence.

If those are full, there's a lot of stands just up past the Geffrye
Museum, also on Kingsland Road. Not as highly trafficked, but still fairly
exposed.


--
Alex Pounds
Web Developer & Photographer

http://alexpounds.com/ | http://ethicsgirls.com/

[Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb]

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Billy that is seriously shit. I know exactly what it feels like. You have all the extra positive karma I have going in your direction (probably not much tho').

My bike was locked to the same fence (I think) - the one beside the refuse collections/bins, in front of the wood work/carpentry place by the front entrance? Was your a mountain bike with a carrier (and possibly a rear-view mirror)? If so, it was there when I left around 17:10 yesterday evening.

<rant>

See, this is where I'd say f&^k the rules the landlord has - if they cannot guarantee security of bikes/cars then they have to give an alternative. I know thats not a very groovy point of view, but I have had about £2,000 worth of bikes stolen over the years, and every time I hear a bike being stolen I can only wish and hope that the thief dies in a horrible way involving maximum pain.

Whats a CCTV camera system going to do? It certainly won't get it back. And if you've had a bike stolen, and you've watched the little pieces of scum stealing it, on CCTV, it does you absolutely no good. And don't mention reporting it to the police.....

And regarding the guys who stole it there are either two normal types: a) the scumbag piece of sheeet who sells it "down the market", or if its a "good bike" b) the organised thief who either breaks it down for parts, or steals it to order. They normally have bolt cutters stuck down the leg of their trousers and it takes about 8 seconds to slice through heavy duty bike lock. I watched as the guy who stole my Kona Cindercone on CCTV, pulled a 2-3 ft bolt cutters out of his pants leg and cut the (obviously not hardened enough) hardened twisted core bike lock.

</rant>

Is it possible to build an elevated bike rack system on a pulley, ala this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/BICYCLE-PULLEY-HOIST-CYCLE-STORAGE/dp/607454574X Maybe make on enough to hold 5-6 bikes?

I'd happily start a pledge and put £20 quid in?


Bernard

=====
Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb
IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org

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[Mark Steward]

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 4:55 PM, Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb <ei8...@ei8fdb.org> wrote:

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Billy that is seriously shit. I know exactly what it feels like. You have all the extra positive karma I have going in your direction (probably not much tho').

My bike was locked to the same fence (I think) - the one beside the refuse collections/bins, in front of the wood work/carpentry place by the front entrance? Was your a mountain bike with a carrier (and possibly a rear-view mirror)? If so, it was there when I left around 17:10 yesterday evening.

<rant>

See, this is where I'd say f&^k the rules the landlord has - if they cannot guarantee security of bikes/cars then they have to give an alternative. I know thats not a very groovy point of view, but I have had about £2,000 worth of bikes stolen over the years, and every time I hear a bike being stolen I can only wish and hope that the thief dies in a horrible way involving maximum pain.

Yeah, I'd like to compile a list of all confirmed bike thefts we've had.  Anyone else?

[Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb]

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On 23 May 2012, at 17:01, Mark Steward wrote:

>
>
> See, this is where I'd say f&^k the rules the landlord has - if they cannot guarantee security of bikes/cars then they have to give an alternative. I know thats not a very groovy point of view, but I have had about £2,000 worth of bikes stolen over the years, and every time I hear a bike being stolen I can only wish and hope that the thief dies in a horrible way involving maximum pain.
>
>
> Yeah, I'd like to compile a list of all confirmed bike thefts we've had. Anyone else?
>

This is a good idea.

Would it be feasible for the LHS to put some of the welding skills together to solve this issue ourselves and build a bikecage on the premises:

http://www.allpark.co.uk/cycle-cages-and-compounds/horizontal-bike-cage.html
http://www.allpark.co.uk/cycle-cages-and-compounds/vertical-bike-cage.html
http://www.allpark.co.uk/cycle-cages-and-compounds/SEM_SHEL.html

Again, I'd happily chip in for some funding, although by the looks of those (retail) prices, a bike pulley in the HS might be cheaper (subject to the usual health and safety mumbo jumbo / tenancy rules)

Bernard

=====
Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb
IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org

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[Jonty Wareing]

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 08:23:47AM -0700, Billy wrote:
>

> I had my bike nicked yesterday. It was locked to the big metal fence
> in the middle of the carpark.
>

> There's got to be a better way of dealing with this. Any suggestions?

I've been locking mine up outside Hoxton station, there's at least two
CCTV cameras in the area (one of which is specifically covering the bike
racks) and plenty of foot traffic.

What was your bike locked up with? (D-lock / Flexi-lock / Chain / Etc)

--jonty

[Billy]

Nice idea to park there. Hadn't thought of that.

It was a flexi-lock.

[dubold]

i talked with Billy briefly the day the bike was stolen - it happened in the middle of the day, in a parking lot that has a security guard, so obviously the current setup is unsecure.

i like the idea of a bike cage opened via RFID.

[Steff]

On May 23, 2012 8:28 PM, "Billy" <bi...@billycomputersmith.com> wrote:
>
> Nice idea to park there. Hadn't thought of that.
>
> It was a flexi-lock.

Flexible locks (even the Abus Granit ones) are pretty much worthless,
I'm afraid. The lesser ones are easily cut, and I lost a bike locked
with a Granit neatly snipped, so clearly there's some common tool that
will do that. Kryptonite D locks on the orange and yellow ranges are
the way to go.

S

[Andrew Delamare]

Would they allow us to put a half size sea container in the car park which is about the size of a car??

 

Perhaps we should save up for something like this.. then get welding on it and put an RFID lock on it.

 

http://www.containercabins.co.uk/view_detail.php?id=98

 

I’m sure there is cheaper than that too.

 

Andrew

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

If you don't mind welding up rust holes and dents, can be gotten under
£300 on ebay or even specialist sites. Delivery/collection may be tricky
tho.

On 24/05/2012 13:48, Andrew Delamare wrote:
> Would they allow us to put a half size sea container in the car park
> which is about the size of a car??
>
> Perhaps we should save up for something like this.. then get welding on
> it and put an RFID lock on it.
>
> http://www.containercabins.co.uk/view_detail.php?id=98
>
> I’m sure there is cheaper than that too.
>
> Andrew
>

> *From:*london-h...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:london-h...@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *dubold
> *Sent:* 24 May 2012 10:48
> *To:* london-h...@googlegroups.com
> *Subject:* [london-hack-space] Re: Bike theft from the car park

>
>
> i talked with Billy briefly the day the bike was stolen - it happened in
> the middle of the day, in a parking lot that has a security guard, so
> obviously the current setup is unsecure.
>
> i like the idea of a bike cage opened via RFID.
>
>
>
>
> On Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:28:14 PM UTC+1, Billy wrote:
>
>
> Nice idea to park there. Hadn't thought of that.
>
> It was a flexi-lock.
>
>
> On May 23, 6:56 pm, Jonty Wareing <jo...@jonty.co.uk

[Howard]

i'd game for chipping-in for a container - that is obviously the safe*est option! - and perhaps the most sensible, given the thefts; £300 seems a lot more feasible (30 ppl chipping in a tenner each);

the bicycle parking outside Hoxton Overground station seems okay, but i've seen bicycles less bits being left there; i'm suspicious that there is adequate CCTV coverage, as the last time i looked the camera was pointing at the entrance to the train station, instead of covering the bicycle parking;

however, the station does have a back garden area which would very usefully contain lots of cycle parking facility with properly placed cameras which would make stealing a bicycle anonymously very hard indeed; unfortunately though, there doesn't seem to be a hurry for this space to be used for such a purpose, although the employee sitting behind the glass beside the gates did advise me to provide feedback/suggestion via a form (which i did), :-)

lastly,

i'm currently working on a bicycle-mobility-notifier project, the idea being this:

if a bicycle were to move more than say 1cm (or a custom-specified tolerance), then feedback is sent to the bicycle owner via the receiver device, giving the owner a chance to negotiate with any potential bicycle thieves;

its entitled Project Fungus, i'm currently attempting to put together a working prototype via Arduino boards, which is making slow progress!

h .

On Thursday, 24 May 2012 14:00:32 UTC+1, Sci wrote:

If you don't mind welding up rust holes and dents, can be gotten under
£300 on ebay or even specialist sites. Delivery/collection may be tricky
tho.

On 24/05/2012 13:48, Andrew Delamare wrote:
> Would they allow us to put a half size sea container in the car park
> which is about the size of a car??
>
> Perhaps we should save up for something like this.. then get welding on
> it and put an RFID lock on it.
>
> http://www.containercabins.co.uk/view_detail.php?id=98
>
> I’m sure there is cheaper than that too.
>
> Andrew
>

> *From:*london-hack-space@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:london-hack-space@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *dubold

> *Sent:* 24 May 2012 10:48

> *To:* london-hack-space@googlegroups.com

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

Before any fund-raising, will need to confirm that we can actually place
one semi-perminantly in one of the parking spaces. And if so, what size
we'll be limited to. I suspect 20ft would be the absolute maximum.

Also remember that £300 is an estimate and isn't likely to include
delivery. A standard 20ft container is 6.058m long, 2.438m wide, 2.591m
high and weighs 2200Kg empty. Moving one is non-trivial and best
performed by professionals.

On 29/05/2012 23:58, Howard wrote:
>
>
> i'd game for chipping-in for *a container* - that is obviously the

[Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb]

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Agreed.

If it were not possible to place it in the parking area "in general", would it be possible to place it in one of the LHS car park spaces, which presumably are "belong to us" as long as we pay rent? As long as it fits, etc...

Maybe I'm mistaken and the space isn't actually "ours".

I'd be willing to chip in some funds for it. Regarding the moving, yes, it's probably done best by a professional, who'd possibly be supplying it, so there might not be a problem...?

- --------------------------------------

Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb

IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org

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[Nick Bradbeer]

It might also be an idea to think about how we'd get rid of it if/when we moved to different premises/disbanded/decided we didn't want it any more.

(Also how many bikes could a twenty foot container reasonably contain? Assuming that you wanted to be able to remove any one of them first.)

Nick

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

Depending on where we can position it and access, a container with
side-entry would probably be best for bikes. Then they can be stored
up-ended along the long wall.
While we could fit a lot more volume-wise, we've got to be able to get
them out again. Storing them end-in like a regular container would
rapidly make it impossible to get more than the first couple of bikes
out again.

Regarding getting rid of it; provided it doesn't rust/get damaged more,
we can sell it on for about what we got it for. Once 2nd hand they don't
depreciate much. And if we sold it with whatever bike-storage fittings
intact it's possible we could sell it for more than we got it.

> IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org <http://www.ei8fdb.org>

[Bob Clough]

Of you put hooks along one side, and had a walkway downt he other side, it should be possible to store loads of bikes while keeping them removable.

(paint it red)

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

Simple, effective, good. Also mean only one of the end doors needs to be
openable.
Some solar-powered LED lights inside would be all it'd need. An internal
camera would be nice, but tricky with solar. Just point one at it from
the balcony.

(paint it to look like a milkfloat)

On 30/05/2012 13:37, Bob Clough wrote:
> Of you put hooks along one side, and had a walkway downt he other side,
> it should be possible to store loads of bikes while keeping them removable.
>
> (paint it red)
>
> On 30 May 2012 12:49, Peter "Sci" Turpin <s...@sci-fi-fox.com

> - ------------------------------__--------

> Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb
>
> IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org <http://www.ei8fdb.org>
> <http://www.ei8fdb.org>
>
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[Eugene Nadyrshin]

Sorry about your loss Billy!

I've gave this vibration based alarm to a friend a while ago as two of
his bikes were stolen from Sutton station, his bike was never stolen
again :P
http://www.lightinthebox.com/Vibration-Activated-120dB-Bicycle-Anti-Theft-Security-Alarm_p77222.html
It works surprisingly well and we should be able to hear it from the
space, only problem is that if someone knocks your hard enough it will
go off, but one can easily add an nRF24 chip to it to reset it remotely,
*peep peep* ;)

M

[Howard]

Mentar, you're tempting me now to get one of these bicycle-alarm things, would like to check it out, never seen one in the flesh!

seems cheapest from here, $3.50 with free air mail to the UK:

http://www.dealextreme.com/shoppingcart.dx

alternatively, £4.80 from here (with 12-30 day freedelivery):

http://www.dealeurx.com/vibration-activated-120db-bicycle-antitheft-security-alarm-p-21283.html?zenid=sv8keuksstjosam7hs73353lr4

[Howard]

ps. about parking bicycles at Hoxton Overground station, the chap behind the desk there told me that 2/3 people had complained that their bicycle had been stolen from the outdoor cycling parking facility there - despite the CCTV cameras;

i've heard back from London Overground about my feedback/suggestion regarding the back-yard area at Hoxton station: "We have received your recent correspondence and will start looking into your comments as soon as possible.  We aim to respond to you within seven working days, however it may take us longer to look into your comments on some occasions."

(there are more feedback forms available from the train station's counter if any other Hack Spacers would care to similarly suggest that London Overground uses their back-yard space more effectively, e.g. for providing secure bicycle parking!! - integrated transport policy anyone?!)

[SamValiant]

My friends at http://www.torc-anchors.com have a chain which is near
enough impossible to bolt crop by hand, even by using 4ft croppers.
Might be worth a thought. They also have some other ingenious bits of
kit.

Sam

On May 31, 10:41 pm, Howard <ha.mitchell.mob...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mentar, you're tempting me now to get one of these bicycle-alarm things,
> would like to check it out, never seen one in the flesh!
>
> seems cheapest from here, $3.50 with free air mail to the UK:http://www.dealextreme.com/shoppingcart.dx
>

> alternatively, £4.80 from here (with 12-30 day freedelivery):http://www.dealeurx.com/vibration-activated-120db-bicycle-antitheft-s...

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wednesday, 30 May 2012 17:05:30 UTC+1, mentar wrote:
>
> > Sorry about your loss Billy!
>
> > I've gave this vibration based alarm to a friend a while ago as two of
> > his bikes were stolen from Sutton station, his bike was never stolen
> > again :P
>

> >http://www.lightinthebox.com/Vibration-Activated-120dB-Bicycle-Anti-T...

> > It works surprisingly well and we should be able to hear it from the
> > space, only problem is that if someone knocks your hard enough it will
> > go off, but one can easily add an nRF24 chip to it to reset it remotely,
> > *peep peep* ;)
>
> > M
>
> > On 23/05/12 16:23, Billy wrote:
> > > I had my bike nicked yesterday. It was locked to the big metal fence
> > > in the middle of the carpark.
>
> > > It happened between 2.30pm and 6.30pm. They bolt-cuttered the lock and
> > > left it behind.
>
> > > When i spoke to the security guard, he said that that part of the car
> > > park is not covered by camera's. He also said that there is no-one on
> > > gate duty during the day.
>
> > > Quick shout to say, improve your bike locks, when locking your bike
> > > there.
>
> > > There's got to be a better way of dealing with this. Any suggestions?
>
> On Wednesday, 30 May 2012 17:05:30 UTC+1, mentar wrote:
>
> > Sorry about your loss Billy!
>
> > I've gave this vibration based alarm to a friend a while ago as two of
> > his bikes were stolen from Sutton station, his bike was never stolen
> > again :P
>

> >http://www.lightinthebox.com/Vibration-Activated-120dB-Bicycle-Anti-T...

> > It works surprisingly well and we should be able to hear it from the
> > space, only problem is that if someone knocks your hard enough it will
> > go off, but one can easily add an nRF24 chip to it to reset it remotely,
> > *peep peep* ;)
>
> > M
>
> > On 23/05/12 16:23, Billy wrote:
> > > I had my bike nicked yesterday. It was locked to the big metal fence
> > > in the middle of the carpark.
>
> > > It happened between 2.30pm and 6.30pm. They bolt-cuttered the lock and
> > > left it behind.
>
> > > When i spoke to the security guard, he said that that part of the car
> > > park is not covered by camera's. He also said that there is no-one on
> > > gate duty during the day.
>
> > > Quick shout to say, improve your bike locks, when locking your bike
> > > there.
>
> > > There's got to be a better way of dealing with this. Any suggestions?
>
> On Wednesday, 30 May 2012 17:05:30 UTC+1, mentar wrote:
>
> > Sorry about your loss Billy!
>
> > I've gave this vibration based alarm to a friend a while ago as two of
> > his bikes were stolen from Sutton station, his bike was never stolen
> > again :P
>

> >http://www.lightinthebox.com/Vibration-Activated-120dB-Bicycle-Anti-T...

[Howard]

further update about Hoxton station bicycle parking:

- the out-the-back area actually has bicycle racks ready to use (!), so they just need to start opening the gate (which strangely was open today, but usually isn't); gonna fill in another Comments form to suggest that they simply leave the gate open!

- there was a cut cable on the floor when i locked up earlier (of the sort that you'd secure to your main lock to lock the other wheel), so i remain doubtful of the detterent-effect that those cameras have

[Howard]

update: message rec'd from London Overground,

"Thank you for contacting London Overground.  I have spoken to my colleagues regarding the provision of cycle parking at Hoxton station.  At present we are not sure of the ownership of the land you referred to and are currently looking into this.  Once I have more information I will write again."

(have replied to clarify the area of land referred to)