A cyclist has warned of the lengths criminals are now going to steal bikes, thieves screwing the family's front door shut so they could not get out before smashing into the van parked on the driveway to take a mountain bike.
The victim raised the alarm on Facebook, warning that cyclists should "be aware that bike theft is at a whole new level" after they were forced to climb out of a window to get out of the house following the bike theft at around 11.30pm on Monday on a busy street in Bristol.
"This could have been very dangerous," they said afterwards. "Even the police were shocked.
"On Monday night, thieves screwed our door shut so we were trapped in our house, unable to get out [...] please be aware that bike theft is at a whole new level. Keep safe everyone."
The victim said her daughter's bikes were also left in the van but had apparently been of "no interest" to the thieves, who made off with her Merida mountain bike.
"I don't expect it to be found," they said. While the victim was locked in their home the thieves broke into the van that was parked on the driveway of the property on a "busy street in Bristol".
Worse still, the victim said they had been targeted in a previous break-in 22 months ago, with the whole house now alarmed at night. Unfortunately, this time the bikes were still in the victim's van as they had felt unwell and did not take them into the house.
Home office figures show that more than 365,000 reported bike thefts have gone unsolved since 2019, the Liberal Democrats in January warning that the crime has effectively been "decriminalised".
The value of bikes makes them an attractive target for criminals, bicycles locked to racks in public one of the most common targets. However, we have also reported on numerous apparently more targeted incidents at businesses or private residences, such as this week's one in Bristol.
Last week, a bike shop owener in Sussex slammed what he called the police's "abject apathy" after three shops and a house were broken into in one night during a bike theft spree.
At least 17 bikes and other items were stolen during the series of raids, six men in balaclavas spotted breaking into the Giant store in Shoreham, stealing 14 high-end e-mountain bikes.
The private home of Martin Gibbs, a service manager for supplier Upgrade Bikes, was also burgled, with the thieves making off with, among other things, two Kinesis bikes and a Canyon gravel bike.
Cycleshack in Lewes and South Downs Bikes were also targeted, the latter incident the second time in a year that the shop had been subject of a break-in, after three e-bikes were taken when a burglar broke the shop's office window with a brick.
South Downs Bikes director Martin Richardson called the bike shop break-ins an "epidemic", while in December a Middlesbrough cycle shop was targeted in a "lawless" raid attempt that left the premesis badly damaged after criminals rammed a car into the building twice.
Last summer, a Staffordshire-based elite mountain biker who had £45,000 worth of bicycles stolen in a burglary at his parents' house hired a private investigator to try and track them down.
The burglary was one of several in the county in the months leading up to August 2023, with businesses and schools targeted, as well as private residences as thieves made off with bikes worth a total of more than £70,000.
British pro cycling team Lifeplus Wahoo completed this month's Tour of Britain riding bikes lent to them by other teams after the squad was hit by a bike theft at the race, all 14 team bikes stolen from a mechanic's van ahead of the stage in Wrexham.