Clever Bike Thieves Using This New Trick

London's bike thieves are getting extra crafty. On Friday, a police officer tweeted photos of a bike rack that had been sliced through and then taped back together to hide the cuts from the city's unsuspecting cyclists, per Boing Boing. Sarah King, a councilor for South Camberwell, tells the Evening Standard that she locked her bike to such a rack before a meeting in the London borough on Thursday. She returned to find her bike was missing and figured out the trick when she noticed the tape and gave a push.

A police rep says she's never heard of the trick before, notes the Huffington Post, which describes collective online reaction as one of "reluctant admiration." Others are less impressed. "It is appalling that the growing cycling population in the borough are being targeted by these cunning thieves," another local councilor tells the BBC. "The more publicity that can be given to this, the better," a rep for a cycling charity adds. The lesson for cyclists, then: Beware public racks with tape. (More weird crimes stories.)