A Dublin bike shop was offered two stolen bikes valued at €18,000 for €100 by a bike thief spotted and chased by a Garda member and well known Irish cycling figure. The GT World Cup Fury downhill machine, above, was recovered by a second bike remains unaccounted for.
By Brian Canty
A quick-thinking member of An Garda Síochána has rumbled a thief who tried to sell two bikes valued at €18,000 to a bike shop in Dublin for just €100 each.
David O’Connell was on duty as part of his job in the Garda Traffic Corps when he spotted a man on Arran Quay in Dublin city centre with a top-end downhill bike valued at €10,000 on Thursday afternoon.
A cyclist himself and well know commissaire on the Irish racing scene, O’Connell immediately suspected the bike didn’t belong to the man.
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He circled the one-way system on the quays on his motorbike and went after the suspect in an attempt to catch up with him.
However, the man saw him and darted up a side street off Arran Quay where he ditched the bike in a nearby apartment block.
The German tourist got one of the bikes back thanks to David O'Connell, but the other one is still unaccounted for.
He had run off by the time Garda O’Connell reached the side street, though he thankfully found the abandoned bike which he later found out is worth €10,000.
It had been stolen, along with a mountain bike valued at €8,000, from the back of a 4X4 owned by a German tourist while it was parked on City Quay in the south inner city a short time earlier. The other bike has still not been recovered.
“I was working and heading down Aran Quay when I saw a guy pushing a bike up the road,” Garda O’Connell told stickybottle.
“I just looked at the bike and thought to myself ‘there’s something not right about that’,” he added.
“With the quays being one-way I had to go across the bridge and down the far side and by the time I came back around again he was running up to Smithfield.”
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The GT Sanction still missing is very similar to the one in this photo; if you see it please contact Store Street Garda station in Dublin or indeed any Garda station.
Luckily two passersby pointed O’Connell into an apartment complex just off Arran Quay that the man had run into and he quickly found the bike.
“It was nice to get it back and we did a bit of an online appeal through the official Garda Twitter account to see if we could locate an owner,” he said.
“About half an hour after we recovered it the owner called into Store Street station, where I had just left the bike, to report the theft,” continued O’Connell.
“The bikes had been taken from his car on City Quay, down near Lombard Street. And when he went to the station and explained the situation the Garda (on duty) initially thought ‘okay another bike stolen’…
“Then he asked how much it was valued at and the owner said €10,000.”
O’Connell said when the bike – a GT World Cup Fury downhill machine - was taken out of the stores in the station, the German tourist couldn’t believe he had been reunited with it so quickly.
“They wheeled it out he went ‘Oh my God’,” said O’Connell.
“It was nice to get it back to him but unfortunately we still have one still missing.”
While the bike that has been recovered is worth €10,000 new, the one that remains unaccounted for – a GT Sanction mountain bike – is valued at about €8,000 new.
“We’re hoping to get it out there amongst the cycling community to keep an eye out for it because it’s so distinctive,” said O’Connell.
“If anyone knows anything about cycling they’ll see this.”
He added the man had already tried to sell the bikes to a bike shop in the city centre for €100 each, not realising they were worth a combined €18,000 new.
The bikes had been taken from a German-registered Landrover Defender 4X4 with a soft skin back.
Anyone with any information can contact Gardaí at Store Street on (01) 666 8000.
Members of the cycling community are asked to keep a close eye on social media and advert and auction sites for the still missing GT Sanction possibly being offered for sale.
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