Serial bike thief caught after victim’s mother staged 3-day protest outside his home in Britain

A serial bicycle thief in Britain was caught after the mother of one of his victims tracked him down and protested for three days in front of his house with a sign saying, “Where’s My Bike Dave?”

David Seager, 49, was identified as the culprit behind a series of bicycle thefts in Witney town in England’s Oxfordshire county in the summer of 2022.

Among the bicycles he stole was a mountain bike belonging to Ms Fiona Bateman’s son. It was left on their car porch.

Ms Bateman’s neighbour’s security camera captured the incident. She reported the theft to the police but took matters into her own hands after getting frustrated that “not much was happening”.

The 54-year-old mother posted an appeal online and, with the help of social media users, she managed to identify Seager.

Ms Bateman then sat outside his house for over three days with her home-made placard, as social media users cheered her one-woman crime-fighting campaign.

A local Facebook group even sent her a hot chocolate drink and a bouquet of flowers.

As a result of Ms Bateman’s campaign, Seager was charged and was convicted by the Oxford Crown Court on Sept 15 of stealing eight bicycles.

However, instead of a jail term, the court gave him a suspended sentence and ordered him to complete a drug rehabilitation programme.

Ms Bateman voiced her frustration at the sentence.

‘It’s just frustrating that he got a slap on the wrist. Where are the bikes? How about buying my son a new bike?” British broadsheet The Telegraph quoted her as saying.

‘We can’t afford the four, five, six hundred pounds to replace it. He stole, so my son has to now walk. But that’s ok, just as long as Dave (Seager) doesn’t feel aggrieved.”

Seager was said to have used bolt cutters to cut the locks to steal the bikes, valued from a few hundred pounds to more than £2,000 (S$3,330), in the case of an e-bike.

In court, Seager was shown a CCTV footage of one theft, but he denied he was the culprit in the video.

The judge read out a pre-sentencing report in court, in which the document described Seager as showing a “sense of entitlement” and stealing bikes “deliberately and brazenly” simply to get him from point A to B.

Seager’s victims said in their victim impact statements that the thefts have left them angry and anxious about leaving their bicycles out in public.

Seager’s lawyer Peter du Feu said his client was “quite upset” and “embarrassed” that he had stolen others’ property.