"Flippant" response annoys woman whose bike was stolen

A cyclist whose bike was stolen from outside a leisure centre was unhappy at what she believed was a “flippant” attitude from staff.

Mrs Kate Woodward padlocked her blue Giant Hybrid bike, worth around £700, outside Newark Sports and Fitness Centre at 1pm last Wednesday.

When she left the gym just over an hour later it had been stolen.

She said although the police response was good, she was disappointed by the attitude of a member of the centre’s staff.

“I phoned 101 straight away and reported the theft to the police,” said Mrs Woodward, 37. “They said they would get someone to contact me, which happened inside 20 minutes.

“But I was less impressed with the sports and fitness centre. There was no urgency.

“A man with a clipboard came out and said (of the theft) ‘we are having a lot of these at the moment.’

“I had padlocked my bicycle right under a camera, so I had to fill in a form to give to the centre for police to be able to get hold of the footage.

“But I’m not even sure that the police will get it because the attitude of the centre was clumsy and dismissive.”

'How did this happen in broad daylight?'

Mrs Woodward, of Newark, said she cycled to the centre two or three times a week.

“There are no warnings about possible thefts, and I felt that the centre was flippant about it.

“I might have thought twice about using my bike if I had seen signs up warning of thefts.

“This was the first bike I had bought from new. How did this happen in broad daylight?”

A spokesman for Active4Today, which runs the centre, said: “It is with regret that there has been an unfortunate incident regarding the theft of a bicycle from the bicycle shed at the front of the Newark Sports and Fitness Centre.

“We treat any incident which occurs in any of our leisure centres with the utmost importance and apologise if, on this occasion, the level of customer care was not up to the usual high standards demonstrated daily by our employees.

“We are in communication with the lady who had her bicycle stolen and the police, with a view to reviewing all CCTV information.”