attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

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Squashed
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2014 1:54 am

attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby Squashed » Sat May 24, 2014 12:05 am

4:40pm on Friday 23 May 2014, at Westfield Carousel Shopping Centre in Cannington, Western Australia.

I walk out the JB Hi-fi entrance and see a tanned male with short dark hair, about 5ft 8inches tall and aged in his late teens, trying to steal my bicycle that was locked up to a post by the bicycle racks. The racks where full, hence the reason I locked my bike to a post. The offender was wearing dark blue jeans and a navy blue or black long sleeve jumper. He had a white infant in the baby carriage attached to his bike.

The offender saw me walking towards my bike and got up, put something (presumably wire of bolt cutters) in the baby carriage attached to the back of his silver bmx bike, hopped on his bike and rode off.

By the time I got to my bike the offender had left the scene so I got on my bike and rode straight to Cannington Police Station (located about 200meters up the road) to get some help. At the Police Station I stood in line for 5 minutes before asking if there was anyone else there who could help me as I had just witnessed an attempted robbery. The person behind the counter was serving someone and a short time later wandered out the back before returning several minutes later. A couple of minutes after that and another person came out the front to serve the growing queue of people that were waiting for Police assistance.

Eventually after about 10minutes of waiting I got to speak to someone. I mentioned there had been an attempted robbery about 10minutes ago at the shopping centre a short distance up the road. The person I spoke to asked me for some identification, so I gave him my driver’s license and he went out the back for about 5 minutes. When he returned to the front counter he told me there was nobody available to take a report and it would be at least an hour before anyone could take it. He said I could take a seat and wait or go home and call the Police Helpline on 131444.

I chose the latter and got home about 30minutes after leaving the Police Station. I rang 131444 and after about 2 minutes spoke to someone who took my details and a statement of what had happened. The woman on the phone was quite helpful and shocked that I was asked to wait an hour or more to give a statement at an actual Police Station.

Now there are two issues here. Issue one consists of a teenage male using a bike and baby carriage (with what appeared to have a real baby in), as a cover to steal bicycles from a shopping centre. I’m not sure where the baby’s mother was but I think most people would object to their 3 month old infant going out on a crime-spree with presumably its teenage dad.

And issue two is the fact I was asked to wait for an hour or more to give a statement about a crime that I had witnessed only minutes before, and that occurred just down the road from the actual Police Station. And that Police Station is the main station for the area and it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Why weren’t there any Police officers available to take a statement from me about this issue?

If someone had spoken to me as soon as I got to the station, they could have put out an APB and contacted Carousel Shopping Centre security, and potentially have caught this perpetrator. Instead the criminal gets at least an hours head start on the Police.

In my opinion this is a deliberate ploy by the Barnett Government. If people are expected to wait an hour or more to report a crime, they often say stuff this and don’t bother. This reduces the number of offences that are reported to Police. If someone does stay around for an hour and provides a statement, the criminal is unlikely to be caught due to having plenty of time to make their getaway. This means Police won’t catch as many potential offenders, the courts will have less work, and there will be fewer people in prison. The government can then say, we have reduced crime.

I got lucky today, I need to replace my lock but I still have my bike. Everyone that rides a bicycle to a shopping centre or public place, needs to be aware that bike thieves are well organised and use all sorts of things to help them blend into the community. Try to lock your bikes up in a well lit area that has video surveillance. At least then if your bike gets stolen, there will hopefully be some video evidence to help the Police catch the offender. Assuming you can report the theft to begin with :)

defy1
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby defy1 » Sat May 24, 2014 5:54 pm

APB for a bike thief? I think the police might have bigger problems to deal with

Squashed
Posts: 118
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby Squashed » Sat May 24, 2014 11:11 pm

shhh, I know :)
I can wish tho :)

wellington_street
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Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:25 pm

Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby wellington_street » Sat May 24, 2014 11:18 pm

Glad you got lucky and kept your bike Squashed. Hopefully the effort you put in to report the crime means somebody else might have the same luck in the future :)

Percrime
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby Percrime » Mon May 26, 2014 4:09 pm

Its worth remembering that when seconds count the police are only minutes (or at worse an hour or so) away. Seriously.

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HappyHumber
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby HappyHumber » Mon May 26, 2014 5:24 pm

Ah, ChaosHell Shopping Centre... magnet for all of Cannington and surrounds' finest citizens. :roll:

I know the entrance that you describe, and it's probably the poorest of of all of their racks. I tend to lock to poles more often than not because of the state and positioning of this rack in particular. And FWIW, I've always used a chunky U-lock in the 10 years I've lived nearby. No problems thus far for me.

Touch wood.
--
Hit me up via the BNA dm; I'll get an alert. If y'know, you know.

dmwill
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Location: Perth, NOR

Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby dmwill » Thu May 29, 2014 1:06 am

Squashed wrote:.....At the Police Station I stood in line for 5 minutes before asking if there was anyone else there who could help me as I had just witnessed an attempted robbery. The person behind the counter was serving someone and a short time later wandered out the back before returning several minutes later. A couple of minutes after that and another person came out the front to serve the growing queue of people that were waiting for Police assistance.

Eventually after about 10minutes of waiting I got to speak to someone. I mentioned there had been an attempted robbery about 10minutes ago at the shopping centre a short distance up the road. The person I spoke to asked me for some identification, so I gave him my driver’s license and he went out the back for about 5 minutes. When he returned to the front counter he told me there was nobody available to take a report and it would be at least an hour before anyone could take it. He said I could take a seat and wait or go home and call the Police Helpline on 131444.
Similar experience at Joondalup Police Station. Witnessed a suss car wondering about a carpark at The Goatfarm (MTB trail near Greenmount)...took note of rego, etc as I knew there were car breakins in the past.To cut a long story short, cars were broken into not longer after I saw this suss car(I only found out later via a facebook group post), a Sergeant from Midland Police station (who happened to be a keen cyclist) wanted me to come in to make a statement. Due to my work, this was going to be difficult, so he said I could head to any police station, quote a case number and they could take my statement.

Passed by Joondalup on a Thursday afternoon straight after work, waited for 15mins, only to be told there are no officers available and I could try coming back an hour later - there was no guarantee anyone would be available. Did the same thing on Friday afternoon - same story, but I had to wait even longer.

Ended up passing by Midland a week later, waited 45mins before someone was finally able to take my statement.

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SquareWheels
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Location: Fremantle, WA

Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby SquareWheels » Fri Jun 06, 2014 4:18 pm

I wonder what the would be thief would have done had they gotten your bike? Swap the baby seat over to it? Walk it and his bike+baby to somewhere else?
I got hit by a car that failed to give way once - it really hurt

Squashed
Posts: 118
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby Squashed » Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:12 pm

SquareWheels wrote:I wonder what the would be thief would have done had they gotten your bike? Swap the baby seat over to it? Walk it and his bike+baby to somewhere else?
I have been thinking about this. It is my opinion he was working with another party.
The thief parks his bmx with attached baby carriage next to the bike he is planning on stealing. He sits between his bike and the item of his affection (my bike) and proceeds to cut the cable.
After he cuts the cable, chain, padlock, etc, he puts his tools away in his baby carriage with his kid and then rides off. He does not take the bike. Instead a 2nd person who is watching this, comes along, reaches down as if to undo the lock. Puts the lock in their bag, hops on the bike and rides off.

The person cutting the cable is nowhere near the bike when it gets taken and therefore is not related to the theft. The 2nd party appears to be unlocking their bike before riding off on it.

Sneaky and pretty well planned :(

nailsaslegs
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby nailsaslegs » Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:41 pm

Squashed wrote:Instead a 2nd person who is watching this, comes along, reaches down as if to undo the lock. Puts the lock in their bag, hops on the bike and rides off.

The person cutting the cable is nowhere near the bike when it gets taken and therefore is not related to the theft. The 2nd party appears to be unlocking their bike before riding off on it.

Sneaky and pretty well planned :(
+1 that's what I was thinking.

WarbyD
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby WarbyD » Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:51 pm

To ask a silly question - How do you know he was trying to steal your bike?

Squashed
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby Squashed » Wed Jun 11, 2014 2:01 am

WarbyD wrote:To ask a silly question - How do you know he was trying to steal your bike?
he cut half way thru my cable that I use to lock it up with :)

as soon as he saw me walking towards the bike, he got up, put something in the baby carriage, got on his bike and rode off. I didn't think much of it until I went to unlock my bike and noticed the cable had been cut. By that time he was gone around the corner and out of sight.

WarbyD
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Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby WarbyD » Wed Jun 11, 2014 7:02 am

Ok fair enough haha that'd be a fairly strong indication :P

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Gordonhooker
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Location: Redlands

Re: attempted bike theft at Westfield Carousel

Postby Gordonhooker » Wed Jun 11, 2014 7:27 am

There is a lot to be said for those heavy U locks but they are a pain to carry around with you.
OI onya bike!!!

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