Bicycles stolen every 71 seconds

In article said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm

"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."
I guess the owner is getting pretty fed up by now :-)

If we're going to be pedantic, if it was really the same bicycle the
rightful owner would have had it stolen only once, and all the others
wouldn't be that upset since they had just stolen it themselves.
And if we're not going to be pedantic, you know what they really meant.

On 27 Apr 2007 11:08:23 +0100 (BST), [email hidden] (Alan

Braggins) said:

In article said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm

"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."
I guess the owner is getting pretty fed up by now :-)

If we're going to be pedantic, if it was really the same bicycle the
rightful owner would have had it stolen only once, and all the others
wouldn't be that upset since they had just stolen it themselves.
And if we're not going to be pedantic, you know what they really meant.

I see the sense of humour bypass has taken nicely, Alan.

Of course, the original owner could *easily* have snatched it back from
the thief well within the alloted 71 seconds thus having it ready for
the next thief (or the same one having another go).

Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm
"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."

I wonder where they all go? Is there that much market in 2nd hand
bikes, do they all end up in a ditch when the thief can't flog it?

Alan Braggins said the following on 27/04/2007 11:08:

Quoted message said:

If we're going to be pedantic, if it was really the same bicycle the
rightful owner would have had it stolen only once, and all the others
wouldn't be that upset since they had just stolen it themselves.
And if we're not going to be pedantic, you know what they really meant.

There was a smiley at the end. This indicates an attempt at humour. I
didn't actually really believe that it was the same bike being stolen
every 71 seconds.

Sheesh!

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

POHB said:

Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm
"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."

I wonder where they all go? Is there that much market in 2nd hand
bikes, do they all end up in a ditch when the thief can't flog it?

Indeed - it is over 440,000 bikes a year - just for England. Surely
they all can't be sold can they? Who is buying them?

--
Andy Leighton => [email hidden]
"The Lord is my shepherd, but we still lost the sheep dog trials"
- Robert Rankin, _They Came And Ate Us_

Paul Boyd wrote on 27/04/2007 08:52 +0100:

Quoted message said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm

"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."

I guess the owner is getting pretty fed up by now :-)

Bit like the old joke of put ten antique dealers and an antique chest on
a desert island and they will all make money ;-)

--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

POHB wrote on 27/04/2007 11:29 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm
"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."

I wonder where they all go? Is there that much market in 2nd hand
bikes, do they all end up in a ditch when the thief can't flog it?

I read an interesting report on an investigation into stolen computers
about ten years ago. They traced the chain after they were stolen and
found the thief would pass it on for about £50 and it then went through
a whole load of hands, each adding a mark up, until they ended up in
dodgy shops where they were being sold for more than you could buy the
same item in PC World!

--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm

"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."

I guess the owner is getting pretty fed up by now :-)

--
Paul Boydhttp://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

Kudos to the police. Finding and returning a bike in under 71 seconds
is remarkably fast work
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

Andy Leighton said:

POHB said:

Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm
"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."

Quoted message said:

I wonder where they all go? Is there that much market in 2nd hand
bikes, do they all end up in a ditch when the thief can't flog it?

Indeed - it is over 440,000 bikes a year - just for England. Surely
they all can't be sold can they? Who is buying them?

It does make one wonder. Of course a lot of reporters are innumerate
so the number may be wrong. My favourite was a newpaper report about
local citizens in Vancouver BC picking up salt (for dealing with icy
roads and sidewalks) from the municipal depot. According to the
report each car was leaving with a a bit over a ton of salt. I guess
those SUV's are useful after all.
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

in message <[email hidden]>, Ziggy

(') said:

On 27 Apr 2007 11:08:23 +0100 (BST), [email hidden] (Alan

Braggins) said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul

Boyd said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm

"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."
I guess the owner is getting pretty fed up by now :-)

If we're going to be pedantic, if it was really the same bicycle the
rightful owner would have had it stolen only once, and all the others
wouldn't be that upset since they had just stolen it themselves.
And if we're not going to be pedantic, you know what they really meant.

I see the sense of humour bypass has taken nicely, Alan.

Of course, the original owner could *easily* have snatched it back from
the thief well within the alloted 71 seconds thus having it ready for
the next thief (or the same one having another go).

So the original owner has to [censored] it back once every 71 seconds? What
happens if he needs to attend to a call of nature?

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; ... exposing the violence incoherent in the system...

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:44:14 +0100, Simon Brooke <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Ziggy

(') said:

On 27 Apr 2007 11:08:23 +0100 (BST), [email hidden] (Alan

Braggins) said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul
Boyd wrote:
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm
>
>"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."
>I guess the owner is getting pretty fed up by now :-)

If we're going to be pedantic, if it was really the same bicycle the
rightful owner would have had it stolen only once, and all the others
wouldn't be that upset since they had just stolen it themselves.
And if we're not going to be pedantic, you know what they really meant.

I see the sense of humour bypass has taken nicely, Alan.

Of course, the original owner could *easily* have snatched it back from
the thief well within the alloted 71 seconds thus having it ready for
the next thief (or the same one having another go).

So the original owner has to [censored] it back once every 71 seconds? What
happens if he needs to attend to a call of nature?

He he, good point.

I presumed it was an average but if we're going to play at
hyper-pedantry, the thefts could be very precisely timed at one every 1
minute 11 seconds.

Of course, perhaps there are a chain of thieves and after a call of
nature (or a hour or so in the local curry house) our intrepid owner
would just go an [censored] it back from the thief as far down the line as
it had got.

Or maybe it's different bikes :-)

Actually, in all seriousness, if that many bikes are being stolen I
would imagine there is a good chance the some bikes *are* being stolen
more than once in a year.

Simon Brooke wrote on 27/04/2007 12:44 +0100:

Quoted message said:

So the original owner has to [censored] it back once every 71 seconds? What
happens if he needs to attend to a call of nature?

The thief gets [censored]? ;-)

--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

In article said:

There was a smiley at the end. This indicates an attempt at humour.

Don't worry, keep practicing and maybe you'll manage the advanced skills
of conveying and spotting humour without having to artificially flag it.

Quoted message said:

I
didn't actually really believe that it was the same bike being stolen
every 71 seconds.

If I thought there was any doubt about that, I wouldn't have said
you knew what they really meant.

"Alan Braggins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul

Boyd said:

There was a smiley at the end. This indicates an attempt at humour.

Don't worry, keep practicing and maybe you'll manage the advanced skills
of conveying and spotting humour without having to artificially flag it.

Quoted message said:

I
didn't actually really believe that it was the same bike being stolen
every 71 seconds.

If I thought there was any doubt about that, I wouldn't have said
you knew what they really meant.

"Alans" .. they're all the same ...

John Kane said:

Kudos to the police. Finding and returning a bike in under 71 seconds
is remarkably fast work

I thought the pigs were the biggest stolen bike barrons going ....
http://www.bumblebeeauctions.co.uk

particularly as hardly any of the ones they flog off are road worthy

On 27 Apr 2007 13:49:34 +0100 (BST), [email hidden] (Alan

Braggins) said:

In article said:

There was a smiley at the end. This indicates an attempt at humour.

Don't worry, keep practicing and maybe you'll manage the advanced skills
of conveying and spotting humour without having to artificially flag it.

Although evidently not to Alan who took what was perfecly obviously a
light hearted quip and 'explained' why it was wrong with a piece of
pedantry that wasn't even certain to be true.

On 27/04/2007 14:22, elyob said,

Quoted message said:

"Alans" .. they're all the same ...

I reckon it's his time of the month or something!

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

in message <[email hidden]>, Tony Raven

(') said:

POHB wrote on 27/04/2007 11:29 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm
"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."

I wonder where they all go? Is there that much market in 2nd hand
bikes, do they all end up in a ditch when the thief can't flog it?

I read an interesting report on an investigation into stolen computers
about ten years ago. They traced the chain after they were stolen and
found the thief would pass it on for about £50 and it then went through
a whole load of hands, each adding a mark up, until they ended up in
dodgy shops where they were being sold for more than you could buy the
same item in PC World!

Yup. But it's highly unlikely this is happening with bikes. It's not
generally going to be possible to sell any second hand bike as new without
doing a lot of expensive work on it, and there are very few dealers
selling second hand bikes simple because second hand bikes typically fetch
such low prices.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

'Victories are not solutions.'
;; John Hume, Northern Irish politician, on Radio Scotland 1/2/95
;; Nobel Peace Prize laureate 1998; few have deserved it so much

Andy Leighton said:

POHB said:

Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6596559.stm
"A bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds in England..."

Quoted message said:

I wonder where they all go? Is there that much market in 2nd hand
bikes, do they all end up in a ditch when the thief can't flog it?

Indeed - it is over 440,000 bikes a year - just for England. Surely
they all can't be sold can they? Who is buying them?

In Glasgow, Paddy's Market is a well-known area to buy a "knocked-off"
bike.