A machete-wielding moped gang threatened a man outside a West Putney home on Friday, stealing a professional racing bike worth £6,000 in broad daylight: the latest in a string of organised attacks featuring knives and targeting cyclists across SW15.
Anthony Poole, joint manager of the Jakroo Handsling professional cycling team, was on a call with a sponsor when he heard a persistent car horn at around 2:55pm. He went outside to find a balaclava-clad thief in black clothing and gloves standing on the roof of his car, physically ripping bikes off a locked rack.
When Poole told him to stop, the man jumped down, stepped toward him, and produced the weapon. “There was this big handle and it was very clear he had a blade, a big one, like a machete,” Poole said. “He walked menacingly towards me telling me to back off.”
Poole stepped back and called the police. A second thief was waiting on a moped. Within seconds the two were gone, taking one of the team’s red carbon race bikes. The other was left “completely destroyed, hanging mangled off the roof rack”, Poole told Putney.news. The roof rack was also a write-off, the windscreen dented, and footprints crossed the bonnet of the freshly-cleaned car.
“It was very scary, I’ve never been threatened like that,” Poole told us.
Police officers arrived within ten minutes and lifted a boot print from the bonnet. No arrests have been made.
One of a growing number of reports
The theft is one of multiple attacks that the same gang has carried out across SW15. There have been multiple reports of thefts at The Clubhouse café on Putney Embankment, which is popular with cyclists, and there have also been reports of robberies at cycling clubs across South West London.
Poole’s partner at Jakroo Handsling, David Streule told us he had personally tackled one of the thieves on Putney’s Embankment as he attempted to steal a bike, grabbing the bike from behind and causing them to flee. Moments earlier, the cafe owner had recognised two men on e-bikes as those that had repeatedly targeted his customers and pointed them out. Streule’s own garage has been raided and five road bikes taken.
Among the multiple reports of cyclists being targeted, one includes a dramatic incident on Lower Richmond Road last month in which a driver used their car to knock a thief off a cargo bike that they had just stolen. The thief got away.
The spate of incidents has become a main topic of discussion among the cycling community. In one case, a bike stolen in Fulham was traced to Putney Park Lane – the theory being that, like stolen Range Rovers last year, thieves leave the stolen item somewhere overnight to check they don’t have trackers. If there are still there in the morning, they return and move them out of London.
The cycling community is confident the bikes are being resold outside the UK, with no signs of the high-end items on UK marketplaces. One determined owner who owned a particularly unique bicycle found it online for sale in Poland.
The Met response
The police have so far failed to make an arrest despite knowing who they are looking for. In the blatant theft this week in West Putney, Streule told Putney.news that the Met had turned up and been sympathetic but “little has happened since.”
West Putney’s safer neighbourhood team were told about this exact problem just last week at its ward meeting. A resident told the meeting that knife-wielding thieves were targeting cyclists every two weeks, naming The Clubhouse café on the embankment specifically. The police response was striking. Officers confirmed they knew about the café, had seen CCTV footage of a suspect producing a knife there on multiple occasions, and said they had “a good idea” of who he was. No arrest has been made.
Police also acknowledged the difficulty of the location. The café, they noted, attracts cyclists on expensive bikes who are reluctant to carry heavy locks – making it, in their words, “a perfect location” for thieves.
With this latest incident, however, what appeared to be organised but opportune crime has turned into something much more dangerous: residents targeted outside their own homes by thieves who directly threaten them with knives when challenged.
“Friday night was quite difficult,” Poole told us. “I didn’t get much sleep.”
At 4:30am on Saturday he drove to the Lake District to support his team at a race. “Best to get on with life,” he said.
If you recognise moped plate PK24 EXD or have information about the theft, contact the Met Police on 101 or at met.police.uk. If you have been targeted by bike theft, contact us at news@putney.news.
