A seven-man gang that gathered intelligence online to find cyclists who owned expensive bikes before robbing them has been jailed.
Cyclists have been warned to be careful about giving too much detail away when using cycling apps or social media after the imprisonment of a gang that scoured the internet to find houses with expensive bikes to rob.
The gang in the north of England stole a variety of things from the garages and homes they broke into including racing bikes and motorbikes.
Messages found on the phones of some of the gang members revealed how they had identified houses and garages to burgle after the householders had posted photos of their road bikes on Facebook.
And the gang had also scoured Gumtree and cycling apps looking for cyclists living in their area who appeared to have expensive bikes based on their posts across various online platforms.
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The gang of seven men, aged from 19 to 27 years, were jailed in recent days for a total of 14 years for a range of offences including handling the stolen goods they were caught with.
The police mapped the times and locations of the robberies and zoned in on the suspects when the information was cross checked against activity on their mobile phones.
When the mobile phone analysis placed the men at the scene of the crimes the police searched their houses back in February and found stolen goods, including expensive road bikes, valued at an estimated £35,000.
In total they carried out 14 robberies and one of the victims was left with a bill of £21,000 to repair his garage due to the structural damage caused by the gang forcing their way in through the roof and replace the items stolen.
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Det Sgt Ian Potter of Humberside Police said the group came to the force’s attention when an increase in shed and garage robberies was recorded and high value items taken.
"It quickly became apparent that the offenders involved were targeting specific addresses based on research and reconnaissance as only relatively expensive machines and high value cycles were being taken,” he said.
Some of the bikes taken were valued at up to £3,500.
Det Sgt Potter added while householders, especially those with high bikes and motorbikes, needed to secure their premises properly they also needed to be very careful online, saying the gang now in prison had done all of their intelligence gathering online.
He advised cyclists to take a number of steps to minimise the risk of having their bikes stolen.
This included not leaving bikes in gardens or yards visible to passersby after they had been cleaned and also taking bike racks off the backs of cars when not in use.
Cyclists should also think twice about posting 'Track My Ride' app results or pictures to their social media accounts and to conceal their home address on social media or any apps.
"Cycle theft is too high in Humberside at present and unfortunately many are taken by opportunist thieves when cycles are left unlocked and on view,” Det Sgt Potter said.
“Other, more professional, thieves target homes for high value bikes that have often been highlighted on social media.”
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