After our last posting about Rayleigh Station, we received the following email from a resident.
Has anyone else had stuff stolen there?
“I have seen some comments on your website about Rayleigh Station. I have had parts stolen from my cycle left for the day at the Station, The first time a light was taken and this was reported to British Transport Police but nothing was spotted by them on any cameras. Then another part was removed from my bike a week later.
I don’t know what can be done but I won’t be leaving my bike there again. “
Late last year I noticed a group of about 4 youths get off the southend bound train. It was a week night about 6:30pm ish.
If was a gust of wind that blew what looked like a jacket being held by one of them. which was concealing under it was a large pair of bolt cutters. He quickly covered them back up thinking no one had noticed.
I called the police 3 times and stayed to watched the youths head over the to the bike racks where they continued to loiter for quite some time.
The police took far too long to get there and failed to get to them before they realised that the bike racks were in far too open an area and boarded another southend bound train half hour later. No doubt there was one or more unlucky cyclist returning home that evening to find there bikes
missing.