This is the moment a thief makes off with a young girl’s bike after snatching her surprise birthday present from her front garden.
Doorbell footage appears to show a hooded man entering the front gate before pulling the bike away and riding off into the night.
But a brave father alerted by notification from his doorbell camera quickly bolted into his car and confronted the attempted thief on the residential road in north London on Monday night.
His partner, who didn’t wish to be named, told The Standard: “We got a notification on our ring doorbell telling us someone was in our front garden.
“My partner checked the camera and saw the man walk in and take our daughter’s bike.
“He jumped in his car and managed to find him on the next road up. As soon as my partner pulled up beside him and got out of the car he dropped the bike and ran.”
She added: “I’m very grateful we got the bike back. It was my daughter’s birthday present and I know she would have been really upset in the morning if it had actually been taken.”
“I didn’t contact the police, mainly because I got the bike back, and I just didn’t feel they would do anything about it.”
Cycling Weekly obtained exclusive figures from the Metropolitan Police showing between 2017 and 2021 a huge 162,943 bicycles were reported stolen in London - one every 16 minutes.
