400 Bicycles Unclaimed

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 8

400 Bicycles Unclaimed

About 400 bicycles, most of them “fair average quality” according to Sergeant D. L. M. Bailey, are now stored.at the Christchurch Central Police Station. Many have been there for six months. Approximately 120 of the bicycles Will be sold at pub-’ lie auction on September 30 if their owners do not claim them before then.

The vast majority of the bicycles were found by the .police abandoned in- streets from Sumner to Hornby and from Cashmere to Belfast.

“Some persons seem to regard the Central Police Station as a bicycle store during winter. They have a very good idea where their cycles are, and decide not to claim while they go by bus during winter,” Sergeant Bailey said.

“The owners of all the bicycles in the sheds at the police station would be well advised to claim them now.” Sergeant Bailey has four constables and four plain clothes inquiry policemen to assist him in the "lost” bicycle office. Bicycles keep

the nine policemen busy the year round. “We will not sell a bicycle as long as we have a •clue concerning who its owner might be. We will keep them for two years—but when all leads have been explored and the cycles’ owners still cannot be traced, then they are up for auction,” said Sergeant Bailey. Frame Number “The most important thing for a bicycle owner who wants to get it back after it goes missing is to know the number on the frame. If we have that number, we will restore jt to its owner even if it does not come into police hands for two years or more after the owner has told us it is missing.” There were no first-class bicycles at the police station at present, he said, but there was “no rpbbish.”

“The bicycle office at the Central Police Station is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Saturdays. “We hope that the great majority of ‘lost’ bicycles now in our hands will be claimed well before September 30. The police are entitled by law to auction unclaimed bicycles after six months. We don’t like selling anyone’s bicycle but we. simply cannot cope with the numbers. “An inquiry at the bicycle office by owners of missing cycles more often * than not results in them recovering them. Only a very small proportion of the cycles are stolen. Cyclists should make a note of the frame number,” he said.'