An Edinburgh mum in the west of the capital has had her bike stolen in the middle of the night by thieves.
Nadja Shields, 44, who stays on Craigmount Hill, says the bike were taken in the early hours of Tuesday June 28.
The mother of two discovered that her 2017 Honda CB125F had been taken when her son woke up to close his window and discovered the vehicle was not there.
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The thieves are understood to have either broken the steering lock or picked the lock before making off with the motorbike.
Nadja only had the bike for a month and had been practising on it ahead of a tour with her husband in the North of Scotland.
On what happened, she said: “My son woke up during the night and went to close his window when he noticed my bike was missing.
“Our flat directly looks onto the private space where the bikes are parked.
“My bike was gone whilst his, luckily, was left alone.
“He woke me up, I went downstairs and found the chain cut. They obviously either broke the steering lock or picked the lock.
“These simpler bikes are notoriously easy to lock-pick or hot-wire, sadly. I imagine my son’s bike is much harder to steal so they focused on mine.
“I drove around the area a bit but obviously that was rather futile. I then called the police who, to their credit, sent out two officers within the hour.
“Both were really nice and tried their best to help and make me feel at ease.
“I posted all over social media, Gumtree and Nextdoor just to get the word out and hopefully make the bike too hot to handle.
“So far people have been amazingly supportive and messages came flooding in from folk trying to help. Community spirit at its finest if you ask me.”
Nadja’s husband is an experienced biker and has been riding his whole life.
His wife decided to get involved with motorbiking and hoped to use the ‘learner bike’ to get her A licence ahead of a tour with her partner.
She says that police were extremely helpful and had sent out two officers to try and find the culprits but with little success.
She added: “The police, and even my insurance said that they have not seen a summer like this for bike thefts.
“The police say they have launched a special operation to try and curb the influx of bike theft but I am sure they are massively overwhelmed.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said : "Officers are carrying out enquiries after a motorbike was stolen from Craigmount Hill in Edinburgh in the early hours of Tuesday, 28 June, 2022.
“Anyone who knows who is responsible should contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting 0368 of 28 June."
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