Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Stolen Disability Bike and Walker
On 20 July both my Disability Bike and Walker were stolen from my shared downstairs hall where I keep them. This is a ‘locking the stable-door after the horse has bolted’ warning story.
I own my 1st floor Burgoyne Road flat and the ground floor flat is rented to a young family. Since moving here in 2000 we all only used the Yale lock because the mortice lock is old/illegal i.e. not suitable for a shared hall and no one had keys anyway. I have lived here happily for 12 years but since keeping a Disability Bike downstairs (2011) I thought that I should improve the locks. I recently asked the Safer Neighbourhoods Team to come and give me a security assessment after they had left a flyer through the door. They of course recommended a proper legal mortice lock i.e. a fire-safety, thumb-turn mortice lock instead of the existing one and recommended three local places to go and buy with a 10% reduction offer. I was in the process of organising this but was away for a week before this was done. I came back to find no Disability Bike and no Walker in an empty hall!
There are many possibilities as to how my bike and walker were taken – a picked Yale lock or the door not properly shut I.e. last person in not checking that the Yale lock was engaged fully. There was no ‘sign’ of a break-in so it was more probably an opportunistic-crime because of the latter reason. I have since been told that very late-night groups of men have been seen pushing front doors to see if they are loose.
Now I have the correct mortice lock plus some other security things. I have stopped short of installing CCTV which the police said was not expensive and not unusual, after I had laughed when they asked me about this. I may change my mind though.It has taken me a few weeks now to write this and I am sorry if it is a bit long BUT I thought some background was needed and may help others. Moral of this tale is – first to get a good mortice lock – if you already have one which I suppose most of you do – and secondly, lock it at ALL times, that is, after coming in and going out.
Dear HoL members and visitors, learn from my mistake. Lastly, It could have been much worse and the thieves could have tried to enter either of our internal hall doors to enter our flats. I always use my mortice lock on that anyway.
P.S. I still have the key for the bike so it could only have been rolled outside by easily turning the brakes off.
Take care, G.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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It's easy, if you know how and have the right tool. to open a Yale-type (night-latch) lock and leave no trace. I just did a quick search for the modified key that does this, to find thousands of them on open sale online to 'the trade' and 'hobbyists'.
My son's new bike was stolen from our hallway like this. We came down to find no bike, and no damage.
Some things are so far out of control, there is no way back - eg no policing of open sale of tools for housebreaking. A Yale-type lock is as useful as a piece of string.
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Permalink Reply by L F T Snowflake on
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I have just seen that site you referred to and its ridiculous! I think it needs to be shut down. Back in my day, you just could not buy these tools unless you were properly registered. outrageous!
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This is horrible news, particularly because of the type of items stolen. we have a policy in our house of mortice locking ourselves in and out every time. In one house I lived in they had bar fitted to the wall to allow us to lock bikes up too.
In terms of the security of 'Yale Type' locks, I would say firstly avoid cheaper brands. Yale is the top brand for a good reason in that it has mushroom pins in it that make it a lot more difficult to pick. Picking is actually rather more difficult than it is made to appear in films. Back in my shoe repairing days, I had a set of picks and needed to spend several hours a week practicing on all kinds of locks to get them open. Even those videos showing how to do it, don't admit how difficult it is - even with a modified key.
A very simple way to increase the security a night latch is to hammer three small nails into the door just in front of the latch, but leave them protruding so that when the door is closed they dig into the frame a little. That trick was told to me by a burglar and it complete prevents the most common trick of shimming or inserting a thin wedge into the door to open it.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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That is an excellent tip! Why don't the police do this one?
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Cos they probably don't know it.
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Permalink Reply by jane waller on
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Hi I just wanted to say how sorry I am your mobility scooter and walker got nicked. Some people are really heartless. I had my car broken into and my blue badge and walking stick stolen.
I now have a mobility scooter myself which I am going to keep chained up in the front garden. Hopefully nothing will happen to it but you can never be sure.
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Use two chains, with different types of locks, the mythology is that thieves only carry one set of tools eg for D-lock or padlock not both. (Dear thieves, is this really true?) And install a ground anchor, which is a hefty metal bracket that bolts into something very solid. Any lock is only as good as what it's fastened to - railings can often be cut easily, and locking your bike to a short post is not good planning, as D Cameron found out to his cost in Notting Hill. Serious bike thieves have vans so they can work on locks at their leisure once they've cut through a railing, or tree trunk.
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