Biker gang plunders Covent Garden Apple Store Grieving Apple Store staff arrived to work this morning to find their Covent Garden shop had been plundered overnight by a biker gang. Two men are being questioned by coppers after the "smash and grab" raid at 1am today, just days after the death of billionaire Apple baron Steve Jobs. Coppers were alerted after a gang of …
this is a 'gang', who happen to be on bikes. (Albeit of the 50-125cc) variety.
With respect to the leather-clad-and-harley-riding lawyers and accountants, there's a big issue with the islington gangs who've worked out that scoots n' tings are nippy, nickable and disposable, and ideal for this kind of shenanigan.
(Given that my commute to Covent Garden takes as long on the 1L bike as it does on the 90cc, I think they've got a point...)
Talk about a mass sense of humour failure today. The headline is clearly meant to be a bit of a joke, like many, many other Register headlines before it.
I for one find the description of a group of delinquent spotty youths riding around on mopeds and 125cc bikes as a 'biker gang' to be pretty amusing, and literally it's also true.
As for the one or two people claiming to be offended as they are themselves real 'bikers' ... who knew bikers were such a touchy bunch of cry babies?
Doesn't read like a joke to me. Reads like the usual media crap that anybody riding a PTW is a "biker". The funny thing is that once upon a time most bikes were ridden by what most people would recognise as bikers (scooters being another matter altogether) these days bikers are in the minority. Most large capacity (say more then half a litre) bikes are ridden by middle aged blokes with a serious mid life crisis. These can be recognised by a colourful paint scheme with leathers to match. Bikers, of course, do tend to wear a leather jacket which matches the paint scheme of their bikes, but only because both happen to be black. And as for their legwear department, I recall Levis introducing black 501s in the eighties. I was puzzled, my 501s had been black for years. Still are.
"Coppers were alerted after a gang of around seven "moped" riders and motorcyclists, most carrying pillion passengers..."
Hardly the usual profile for a "Biker Gang" mopeds....
But hey maybe im being too picky, they were after all riding two wheeled vehicles and there were more than three of em.
Almost like the old days when anyone wearing a leather and riding a motor bike was a Hells Angel...
<sigh>
Thing that got me is that he's camped there outside the bloody door, it's all stonework in that area, a load of bikes come hairing through at 1am in the morning and he didn't realise until after they'd started packing the kit on the bikes and were driving off!
I know some people sleep like logs but bloody hell, how dead to the world was he?!
so what are you saying Lee, that the death of Steve Jobs caused the smash and grab^H^H^H^Hfondle raid. Nope, I'm with David Evans, I don't see how Job's demise is a factor in the story.
May as well have said that "Two men are being questioned by coppers after the "smash and grab" raid at 1am today, just hours after the Liberian registered container ship Rena ran aground on the Astrolabe reef in the Bay of Plenty".
Speaking as a biker I have to say that virtually any powered two wheeler is OK. I even have a little scooter myself, it's great for urban work and is much easier on the environment than any Tesla.
It's the people who ride who can be a problem. The ones getting real bikers a bad name tend to be middle aged sunday and wednesday night riders who usually have a BMW 3 series in the garage along with their race can equipped superbike and hoon about everywhere at full throttle. These are the idiots who annoy everybody by riding dangerously and noisilly everywhere they go and also make up most of the accident statistics by wrapping their P&J round a tree when they exceed the limits of both safety and their ability.
Direct Access is a curse. It allows these idiots to go from driving an average car to riding a high performance bike in a matter of days. They hit their mid-life crisis and decide a bike is just the thing to prove how manly they are. If they had to work their way up the way the rest of us did they would either have a mature attitude to riding or, more likely, not have bothered to take up biking in the first place. Bear in mind that most of these idiots only ride bike because they can't afford a Zonda. Oddly enough Clarkson is right about that particular type of motorcyclist, but he'd know wouldn't he? Him and his Ducati would know.
Speaking also as a "middle-aged biker" and one who only passed his Direct Access four years ago, I'd just like to say: Nonsense!
It's not the "middle aged" ones I see trying to get their knee down on the A272, nor are they the ones carving across lanes of traffic on the motorway or doing stupid overtakes on blind bends and crossing double white lines or treating the chevron-ed dividing gap between two-way traffic as a "bikers only" lane which they can blast along at stupid speeds blithely trusting that no cager is going to obstruct their path...
And how can you tell what age they are? It's pretty simple. Get your arse over to the old bike haunts like the Ace or Squires, or some biking event and wait for the blokes on the expensive top end sport bikes and to take their lids off and you'll notice something. All at least forty, and why would that be? Because they are the only people who can afford the bike, the insurance, the matching leathers, the race can and the other stupid matching carbon fibre look accessories. Or rather can afford it AND actually want it. The young 'uns can't afford it and the people who have paid their dues grew out of that years ago.
Methinks playing on the "the boss just died" sympathy card is missing on the crims.
They're so dumb and shallow they probably only care that it's the "shiny shiny"; they wouldn't have known who Steve Jobs was, even if he introduced himself.
I wouldn't get so pissed off about thieves if I knew:
a) they actually get caught once in a while
b) they lost a finger every time, triad style. Rather than a commuty sentence they won't turn up to anyway
If they hoisted any cell phones they will have to get them jail broken and the IMEI /MIN reprogrammed and since they are likely Lemon 4's rather than 4S the cost will take a chunk ut of the small price they will get for a hot phone. Could it be they thought Iphone 4S had een released?
If the computers have trace software, and the thieves are smart, a hard drive switch will fix that.
Just shows how far people will go for a little electronic bling.
Quite common actually.
A moped is quite a bit faster than a plod on foot, which is the only thing they have that can follow it down a footpath.
In a "catch me if you can" contest between the plod and a moped rider who knows the area, my money's on the moped every time.
All bets off if they get a chopper up in time.......
But iPads and other jobsian wizadry have been knows as fondleslabs since the first iPhone way back in the dawn of time when St Steve came forth and invented the smartphone (probably).
If you want deferrential journalism the Reg is not going to float your iBoat.
Paris, nuff said .....
In the US they actually have serious moped gangs. http://www.mopedarmy.com/branches/ that are more reminiscent of actual old school bikers than the "fake bikers" these days, as the only people who can AFFORD to get up on a Harley anymore are lawyers and dentists and such, nothing funnier than a dentist in $3000 worth of official licensed Harley gear on a $20,000 bike with $5000 worth of bolt on accessories trying to play 1 percenter.
Then again, ours tend to be 20 somethings with a lot of tattoos mostly into hotrodding and customizing their rides, they tend to drink and party. Generally emplyed, and not generally teenage thugs though. IN the US its very easy and cheap to own a car, and our equivalent of chavs will ALWAYS go for a car first. Mopeds are for college students and weirdos. "I want to point out I run a 1979 Motobecane 50v so I count as a weirdo"
Good luck shifting the goods, it the store is managed worth it's salt, every serial number of the stolen goods will be flagged. No registration, no support, no service = shiny bricks!
That is IF Apple is competent, and as much as I hate them, I think they probably do have it together in this kind of situation.
Good luck with all the stuff, assholes.
You're really not up with the criminal mind are you. Most of the stuff like this that gets stolen will either go for one item per wrap, or it will be used will be sold down the pub or similar. Nobody sensible would buy an iPad off a bloke in a pub.* There would still be plenty of takers and when the goods turn out to be stolen the vendor will have skipped. Likewise if the goods go through a drug dealer they will be sold in an even less traceable way.
* It's tempting to drop the last six words from that sentence.
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