Man caught on camera 'knocking GPS tracker off…

Man caught on camera 'knocking GPS tracker off Manchester Bee Bike with hammer'

This is the moment a suspected thief appears to attempt to steal a Manchester Bee Bike by using a hammer to knock off its tracking device.

Video footage emerged on social news website Reddit and was shared widely. No exact location is referenced, but the post has attracted almost 200 comments.

The brief clip shows two people, both believed to be young men, with three bikes in the background. One of the people shown appears to be using a hammer, or other implement like a mallet, on one of the bikes.

The witness - who filmed the footage and said he alerted police - claimed the young man in the video was trying to remove the bike's tracking device and steal the bikes. The poster said people were walking their dogs nearby at the time, with others playing football.

The Bee Bikes scheme was introduced in November 2021 as part of mayor Andy Burnham's 'Bee Network', which aims to see all transport in Greater Manchester connected under the same ownership.

A witness said police were alerted (UGC/Reddit)

It came after Mobike, a privately owned bike-hire scheme, pulled out of Greater Manchester in 2018 following high levels of theft and vandalism. The scheme is managed and funded by TfGM, on behalf of Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and operated by Beryl, who also run similar schemes in London, Watford, and Bournemouth.

It's understood the bikes are fitted with a GPS tracker and can be monitored.

The incident comes after the Manchester Evening News revealed in August data shows a quarter of the city's Bee Bikes have gone missing and not been found since the launch of the scheme last November.

Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) data shows that of the 201 Bee Bikes active in Greater Manchester up to 23 June, 58 have gone missing and have not been retrieved. This is equivalent to just over a quarter of the bikes in operation.

Figures also show that there have been 306 incidents of damaged and subsequently repaired bikes since the start of the scheme - this is equivalent to each bike being damaged and repaired 1.5 times.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) said they are "generally very pleased" with how the cycle hire scheme, which allows people to rent out a bike or e-bike for a small charge per minute. However, they did acknowledge that a "small minority" choose to "abuse the system", and said they are looking to reduce bike numbers in areas with high rates of anti-social behaviour.

There are two types of bikes available, both traditional push bikes and electric ones and they are able to hire through the Beryl app. To rent a pedal bike, it costs 50p to unlock it and then 5p per minute of riding.