Police catch teenager stealing one bicycle after another in Ghent: he always acted the same way (Ghent)

Last week, the Ghent police were able to arrest a 19-year-old on suspicion of a whole series of bicycle thefts. He always worked the same way.

The boy broke open the lock of parked bicycles by forcing it with the pick of another bicycle, a well-known technique. In bicycle sheds in Ghent you can sometimes pick up broken locks and picks from the ground

The teenager was caught by police on November 2 and arrested. The police suspect Ham of about twenty similar thefts, both of bicycles and scooters. He is in jail and must remain there for at least another month: on Monday, his detention was extended by the council chamber.

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The East Flanders public prosecutor’s office reported the ‘capture’ of the bicycle thief on Tuesday, but did not release more details about how he was caught. “The 19-year-old man is suspected of stealing about 20 bicycles and scooters in four months. Each time, the stolen bicycle or scooter was resold on the same day.”

Ghent has been struggling with an increase in bicycle thefts for more than a year. In the first nine months of this year, 1,900 stolen bicycles were reported to the police. Next year, the police could again use a ‘decoy bicycle’: an anonymous decoy bicycle to catch thieves.

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