POLICE are looking for two men in connection with the theft of a bike worth £270 from Rugby railway station – amid a dramatic fall in town cycle thefts.
A matt black Carerra hybrid bike was taken from the racks at the front of the station, having been locked there by its owner at around 3pm on Friday, April 4.
This is just the fourth such incident at Rugby station since the beginning of October, amid a sharp drop in bike thefts at two town hotspots.
Last November, The Observer reported that bike thefts at the railway station and Junction One Retail Park accounted for over 25 per cent of such incidents in the borough from May to September 2013.
But that figure has dropped to just eight per cent in the period from October to March, with overall bike thefts across the borough dropping by over 50 per cent – from 123 in the former period to 61 in the latter.
A British Transport Police spokesman said a dedicated team of officers has specifically focused on tackling bicycle crime.
He said: “Officers are carrying out a variety of initiatives to catch thieves in the act.
“They are also working closely with cycle and second-hand shops in the area and monitoring online auction and advertising sites to make it more difficult for thieves to sell on stolen property.”
Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Police have been working together to encourage cyclists to properly secure their bikes and register them on a national crime prevention database, which helps deter would-be thieves and makes it easier for police to return stolen bikes to their owners.
Anyone able to identify the men in these photographs should call British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40, text 61016 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. In all calls, please quote incident reference MSUB/B11 of 15/05/14.
