A dad turned detective after his daughter’s bike was stolen, by tracking down the thieves on Facebook.
The perhaps appropriately named James Bourne decided to take matters into his own hands, when he discovered his 11-year-old daughter’s bike was missing from their Bedfordshire home.
Bourne, who lives in Kempton and owns a local laptop and phone repair company, managed to get hold of CCTV footage, and used Facebook to help friends identify the thieves from the images.
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He told Bedfordshire News: "If it had been my bike I would have given it up as lost. But I saw how distraught Dana was and I didn't want to let the thieving gits get away with it.
"I obtained some CCTV footage, posted it on Facebook and it wasn't long before some friends messaged me with names. They were all in group pictures together on Facebook but they looked about 14 or 15."
So he decided to get in touch with the parents.
"One of them said they had seen it in their back garden and I got it back within the day," he said.
Bourne has raised the issue of a lack of secure bike storage at the Aldwyck housing association apartments where he lives, but says Aldwyck have not been forthcoming with a solution. Although the housing association told Bedfordshire News it ‘takes all incidents of theft extremely seriously’ it did not respond to questions from the paper about providing more bike storage.