I suggest scooter / motorbike owners in the area take extra care as there was an attempted theft late on Sunday night from a front garden in our road. The security chain was cut and the theives were wheeling it off down the road when the sound of the alarm alerted a neighbour who gave chase and recovered the scooter. Good citizen 1 - scroats 0 on this occasion.

Superb. Good on them.

Bumping an old thread after some suspicious behaviour this evening.

Walking home tonight at about 8.15pm, my wife and I saw two blokes on scooters behaving oddly - moving very slowly along Garthorne and then down Whatman Road.

They stopped at the junction of Whatman and Bovill Road, and one stayed there while the other went up and parked outside a house which has a motorbike under a cover. He then dismounted and started poking about under the cover. I crossed the road and asked him what he was doing.

He walked straight past me and said that he was "looking for a mate's bike" and jumped back on his scooter and took off at speed. His mate, who had been waiting at the junction, went with him.

I could be wrong, and could be just paranoid, having had my own scooter stolen just before Christmas, but these blokes appeared to me to be up to no good. I was less confident about this before I spoke to them, but the speed they took off at makes me pretty sure they were trying to steal the cover, the bike or some bits off it (apparently there's a second-hand trade in mirrors). I spoke to the neighbour whose bike they were looking at and he hadn't heard anything.

On the plus side, I did manage to catch the number plate of the bloke I spoke to - I'm not going to put it up here in case it was all completely innocent, but I can share it via PM if anyone else has seen any similar behaviour and is worried and wants to compare notes.

If they were on a silver scooter and the rider was quite short whilst the passenger was a very tall skinny black kid then they are thieves and were the ones who attacked me last year whilst trying to steal my neighbours bike.

Call the police with their registration number.

Hopefully they dont take 30 minutes to turn up, my dancing in the street avoiding a crow bar and a heavy chain wasnt that much fun.

Next time I will whack one of the little scrotes with my Maglite.

David,
A friend alerted me to your thread as he thought it may have been my house on the corner of Whatman/Bovill that they were looking at, which i supect it was. Interestingly, there is actually a push bike under a vespa cover, however, I do have a vespa too which is currently in with Sterling Motorcycles (since Sat) for repairs following theft and damage a few weeks ago. It was found a few days later minus wing mirrors and other items, along with the usual damaged ignition and broken seat lock. This was a repeat of a theft from last Oct and in both cases it was wheeled away and dumped near or off Garthorne. So, essentially, this is a current issue and i would agree that bike owners need to be aware as they clearly have notes of where bikes are and target them.
I would be interested in getting the bike number though as i have a crime reference with the police, so i will report it as i would agree that it is suspicious and a high chance to be those targetting the area.
Could you PM me with it.