I’m really sorry to hear about your loss. The same happened to me in June and it left me feeling similarly sick for a while. I live in a flat in a semi at the Perry Vale end of Vancouver Road, so very close to you. I woke one morning in June to find that my shed door had been forced and thieves had stolen my high end 2 Specialized road bikes – neither bike was locked in the shed (which was foolish given hindsight). My girlfriend’s bike which was outside the shed was left untouched. Access to my shed in the garden is behind a locked gate down the side of the property on to the road, which I presume the thieves jumped over. To remove the bikes from my garden, the thieves took my bikes over my fence into the neighbour’s garden, and then over his high trellised fence (about 8ft) into his neighbour’s garden. I know this because both fences were quite damaged in the process. It must a couple of thieves as a) they stole 2 bikes b) you’d probably need 2 people to take 2 bikes over an 8 foot fence. Police came, took statements, but couldn’t take any prints. They wrote to me a week later saying that there was nothing they could do and had closed the case. Fortunately contents insurance covered things. I also thought that this was more than an opportunistic theft as my girlfriend’s bike was left. I also became suspicious of neighbours – the shed is tucked away in the back garden, and only people with sight into the garden, or seeing me ride to/from work would have known about them.

A month ago, my neighbour (same property, different flat) had his bike stolen from the alleyway running to our back garden. The alley door was locked, and his bike was also locked.

It appears that bike theft is becoming common from local gardens/sheds, which isn’t very nice in such a nice area. Off topic, but the vicarage was burgled a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure what was taken, but it’s worthwhile letting people know so that they can up security. Is there a neighbourhood watch scheme in the area?