Absurdly poor piece on bike theft in local paper..

[wafter]

Courtesy of the Oxford Mail:

STOLEN bikes could have been chucked over the railings in Abingdon.

At the weekend one person said they watched a man pick up a bike and lob it, before making a getaway.

Appealing to anybody who had their bike stolen on Facebook, one person wrote on the Spotted:Abingdon page: "Found a bike in the south area, saw a man throw it over some railings and walk off.

"If anybody is missing a bike, or has had one stolen comment on this post and I will drop you a message, I've put it in my garage so you can come and collect it at some point."

The post had nearly 40 comments with 17 people desperatley posting descriptions of their missing bikes in the hopes to be reunited.

In May this year, the latest crime data available, there were five reports of bike thefts to the police in Abingdon.

In April, there were seven and the numbers were similar to reports made last year and the previous year too.

Of the five made in May, one is still under investigation.

In two cases, one incident on Ock Street and another at Waitrose, police were unable to identify who the suspect was so the investigation was closed.

In the other two cases, one on Oxford Road and the other on St Helen Street, police were unable to prosecute the suspect.

To report a bike theft call police on 101 or make a report online.

Granted the standard of journalism in local papers has been in the gutter for years and apparently only gets worse, however I'm left almost speechless by the grammatical shortcomings of this somewhat cryptic piece's opening salvo, as well as the fact that it's been live for three days without revision / removal and only has one critical comment.

Am I alone in thinking that this looks like it's been written after two bottles of wine and repeated blows to the head?

 

[Brandane]

How does one steal a bike on FaceBook?

 

[Drago]

In the old days these newspapers were used only to wrap chips. Now we're not allowed to do that people have taken to actually reading them instead, which is a big mistake.

 

[wafter]

I'm more concerned by the contextually-lacking "chucked over the railings" comment - is "the railings" a single site of particular significance in Abingdon? maybe they only have one set of railings in the whole town... or perhaps "chucked over the railings" is a euphamism for something?

 

[MartinQ]

@Fab Foodie any inside info?

 

[HMS_Dave]

"Appealing to anybody who had their bike stolen on Facebook, one person wrote on the Spotted:Abingdon page: "Found a bike in the south area, saw a man throw it over some railings and walk off. "

Clearly, the man was sick and tired of his chain falling off so instead of throwing it into the canal like any other self respecting yooman being, he inconsiderately littered what is presumably a grassy verge or ditch of some variety...

Some people.

Oh and the article is complete rubbish....

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

 

[Fab Foodie]

@Fab Foodie any inside info?

Sadly not....much like the reporter, am lost for words....

 

[lane]

There was a piece in our local paper a school closed due to covid. They appeared to have interviewed one person only. He said he was not concerned his children were not school age and when they were they did not go to that school. I thought could they have interviewed someone a bit more relevant to the story.

 

[swee'pea99]

There was a piece in our local paper a school closed due to covid. They appeared to have interviewed one person only. He said he was not concerned his children were not school age and when they were they did not go to that school. I thought could they have interviewed someone a bit more relevant to the story.

That's hilarious!