A Dublin councillor’s e-cargo bike was stolen in broad daylight in the city centre while she was inside a shop browsing for items for a St Patrick’s Day parade earlier this week.
Green Party Councillor Donna Cooney had parked her beloved e-cargo bike outside Trimmings store on Capel Street around 4pm while she was inside looking at supplies for the parade. Cllr Cooney was trying to keep an eye on her bike and then the next time she looked out the shop window her bike was gone.
Cllr Cooney told Dublin Live: "It's an absolute nightmare. I wasn't even buying the fabrics I was checking out what they had, I was just standing at the counter there and I couldn't bring in all the art stuff.
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"I had the bike lock but I was keeping an eye on it, somebody stepped in front of me looking for something and I couldn't see it for a while. Then I went out and it was gone, not a sign of it.
"I was running up the road because I didn't know what direction they went in. I caught two guards who were coming onto Capel Street and I showed them where it was, then they told me they couldn't help because they were not the local gardai," said Cllr Cooney.
Cllr Cooney was told to report the theft of her bike to Bridewell Garda Station, which she did and she was told by a senior garda that someone will look at the CCTV footage from outside the shop.
According to Cllr Cooney, the e-cargo bike is worth around €5,000 and in its basked it had €300 worth of art materials for the Dublin Cycling Campaign’s parade float. It also contained personal items.
"There's not that much in the cargo bike of value, it's the electronification of it that's the valuable part. They won't be able to get the electrical charger off because it needs a key," explained Cllr Cooney.
"My only worry is if they ship them abroad because there are some of them taking them off in containers and bringing them abroad and then there's no record of them over there
"I really think we need to do more about bike theft, it's becoming crazy. I'd say this is just opportunity somebody going by," added Cllr Cooney.
Cllr Cooney has also called for a bike register to be set up to help prevent against bike thefts. She said: "The only thing to do is to take the profit out of them is to have a bike register. You pay €5 or €10 to register then if changing ownership you can go on and then change it legitimately.
"People have been really good to me, phoning up to see if they can help. Everybody's sharing it, I'm just hopeful the coverage will make it really hard to sell it on.
"It's been such a valuable tool, to get all the community work done and the work with the kids. The kids love it, it's just heart-breaking. It's terrible," added Cllr Cooney.
The e-cargo bike is black with flowers around the handlebars and a yellow Bike Heroes sticker on the side.
A garda spokeswoman confirmed to Dublin Live that they are investigating the bike theft on Capel Street. She said: "Gardaí are investigating the theft of a bicycle on Capel Street, Dublin 1 which is reported to have occurred on Thursday afternoon, 2nd March 2022."
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