‘Stealing from children is awful’ - Edinburgh boy, 13, has mountain bike stolen from school bike shed by scheming thieves who struck before door was locked

A 13-year-old Edinburgh boy has been put off cycling to school after his mountain bike was stolen from their bike shed by a “nasty” pair of thieves.
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Filip Kowalski locked his bicycle to a rack inside the facility outside Holyrood High school before heading to class - but the perpetrators snuck in and nabbed it before the janitor locked the door at around 9:10am on Thursday.

Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News, Filip’s father Sebastian Kowalski, said: “I got really upset after getting the call about it from the headteacher.

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“You can lock the bike using a chain then the shed gets locked, but there is always someone somewhere who will be able to get past that and do something nasty. We were both very upset. People who go to a school do that - these are proper bad people.

Filip's bicycle was stolen from the bike shed outside Holyrood High School. Pic: SuppliedFilip's bicycle was stolen from the bike shed outside Holyrood High School. Pic: Supplied
Filip's bicycle was stolen from the bike shed outside Holyrood High School. Pic: Supplied

“Edinburgh is all about cycling and was quite happy he was willing to cycle to school but he’s sad after that. I said to him ‘if you want to use my bike you can’ and he said,’ no, it could get stolen’ and he has been put off.”

“Stealing is not the way to go and stealing from children is just awful.”

Mr Kowalksi, who is originally from Poland, said he was contacted by police on Friday morning who said they had watched CCTV showing two males carrying what appeared to be lock cutters go into the shed at 9:02am.

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The suggestion is the thieves knew when to strike and may have sussed that the shed doors were locked every day around 9:10am - and Filip had already locked his bike up at around 8:45am.

Some of the customised features on the mountain bike.Some of the customised features on the mountain bike.
Some of the customised features on the mountain bike.

His Giant Talon bicycle has a blue, black and white frame with custom features on the handlebars and a distinctive, carbon fibre grey seat and thick tyres.

Mr Kowalksi reckons the stolen bicycle is worth between £400 and £500 as it was second hand.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "We received a report around 11.50am on Thursday, 8 October, of a bike being stolen from the Duddingston West Road area of Edinburgh. Enquiries are ongoing."

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