'I only cycled it for 15 minutes' - Edinburgh woman's brand new £800 bike stolen from outside work after spate of bike thefts outside Granton PureGym

An Edinburgh woman’s brand new mountain bike was stolen from outside her work less than 24 hours after a spate of bike thefts outside a gym two miles away in the north of the city.

Carolyn Embleton had only cycled her new £800 bike for 15 minutes to work in Trinity Road on Monday morning– and discovered the heavy duty lock had been cut free from a fence upon leaving around 3:30pm.

It was the first new bike she had bought in 25 years and arrived from Germany on Friday and has a mint green coloured frame with the name Canyon written on it.

Carolyn, an office manager for the Edinburgh choir Sing in the City, said: “I could not believe it. My husband actually said to me, ‘are you going to take that inside (your work)?’ and sent me a text to ask if the bike was still there. I left the bike locked up on the fence and it wasn’t there when I came out.

Carolyn's brand new mountain bike, which only arrived from Germany on Friday last week. Pic: Carolyn Embleton.

“It seems we’ve got the temporary bike lanes going everywhere to maximise the fact everyone is getting a bit more mobile during lockdown, but there are not enough safe places to leave things. The infrastructure isn’t there. I’ve even heard of people taking bikes from inside secure blocks of flats.”

The 46-year-old, who lives in Craigleith Hill Crescent, said she had always locked her last bike outside work for the past five years and never had any issues.

Police said her new bike was stolen some time between 9:15am and 3:30pm on Monday.

Thefts outside PureGym

The latest theft emerged after three bikes were stolen from a bike rack outside the PureGym in Granton on Sunday afternoon.

Police confirmed they had received two reports of bike thefts outside the gym, including one report where two bikes were taken at around 4:30pm.

At least two of the bikes were locked to a bike rack and included a bright orange and grey mountain bike with the brand name Voodoo. The other was a red and white mountain bike with the brand name Trek.

A PureGym spokesperson said: “On Sunday 13 September 2020 at around 4.30pm, two PureGym members alerted staff to the theft of their bikes outside the Edinburgh Waterfront PureGym.

"The staff advised the members to contact the police, as the bike racks are not provided by PureGym. PureGym will assist the police investigation wherever possible, including providing our CCTV footage to the police.”

Bike thefts have been a recurring issue throughout the lockdown period in Edinburgh.

In May, a thief stole a bicycle belonging to a doctor working on a Covid-19 ward - by cutting it from a bike rack outside the main entrance to the Western General Hospital. It was the second time the doctor had fallen victim to bike theft in Edinburgh after another incident three years ago.

Earlier that month, another NHS worker had her bike stolen from outside her work in Links Place, with CCTV showing that a man spent about 10 minutes breaking the armoured lock from the bike rack outside.

Advice on how to protect your bicycle can be found under the 'Keep Safe' section of the Police Scotland website HERE.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

Subscribe to the Edinburgh Evening News online and enjoy unlimited access to trusted, fact-checked news and sport from Edinburgh and the Lothians. Visit https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director