The ‘recovery agent’ who hunts down stolen bikes when police give up the trail

A dada spends his clip driving astir London and beyond searching for stolen bikes and reuniting them with their owners.

Bilal Ali, 25, finds the stolen bikes from locations including operation blocks, traveller camps, household homes, lock-ups, communal motorcycle sheds and sometimes the broadside of the road.

He uses a peculiar hi-tech scanner to way down the stolen bikes that person GPS trackers but it tin often beryllium a hard job.

The stolen bikes Bilal finds are often electrical and outgo astatine slightest £1,000 oregon more.

On mean crossed the UK, much than 150,000 bikes are stolen each year.

But much often than not, constabulary neglect to travel up and analyse if stolen bikes are reported to them.

This is wherever Bilal comes in, who works arsenic a betterment cause for the UK’s archetypal bicycle betterment service.

The work has an 80% occurrence complaint successful reuniting bikes with their owners.

He told MailOnline: ‘It’s each astir diplomacy. I assistance them rotation a communicative wherever they unreal to beryllium the victim. I conscionable privation the bike. Almost ever they manus it implicit – and sometimes adjacent say: “Thank you.”’

Bilal’s proposal for retrieving stolen bikes is ever to enactment calm and beryllium patient.

He said: ‘Bike betterment is simply a marathon not a sprint. Never usage threatening behaviour oregon language.

‘Be courteous. Think connected your feet. In traveller camps, marque a beeline for the older members who are much reasonable. Don’t instrumentality unnecessary risks.

‘Sometimes there’s a spot of pushing and shoving, but thing worse. Once I was playing tug of warfare with a motorcycle successful Dalston Market and abruptly thought, “What americium I doing, I’ve got 2 tiny children – it’s lone a bike!” and walked away.

‘I’m not the police. I’m not funny successful getting them into trouble. I americium not going to study anyone. I conscionable privation the motorcycle back.’

It is not ever truthful casual for Bilal to find the stolen bikes and 1 successful peculiar has eluded him for the past 9 months.

‘It’s been feline and rodent for 9 months,’ helium said.

‘Every present and past it pops up erstwhile it’s charged. But the signal’s anemic and I’m ever 24 hours behind. It’s not the astir invaluable bike, but it’s go personal. One day…’

It’s each worthy it for Bilal erstwhile helium manages to reunite a stolen motorcycle backmost with its owner.

A antheral called Viny Bodhani mislaid his £2,000 achromatic Wisper electrical motorcycle erstwhile it was stolen from the Electric Bicycle Company successful Neasden.

But the shop’s CCTV caught the thief and luckily Viny had a discreet GPS tracker connected the bike.

This meant Bilal yet managed to way down Viny’s stolen motorcycle pursuing the GPS tracker and his peculiar scanner.

Viny was 1 of the fortunate ones, and had his motorcycle reunited backmost with him aft conscionable 5 hours.

Reflecting connected however it feels to assistance Londoners, Bilal added: ‘Very satisfying! I’m chasing down thieves. I’m taking stolen goods backmost to their owners.’

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