Remi’s £1,600 e-bike was stolen in the early hours of March 30th, 2025 — at precisely 00:57 in Bethnal Green, London. The thief managed to unscrew the top of a parking post and lift the bike clean off. It was locked with a single Litelok X1 to a metal pole. No secondary lock. No chains. Just the X1.
But this story isn't about a bike that vanished into the shadows. It's about how it came back.
"My ebike was stolen during the night of March 30th. The thief unscrewed the top of the parking post and lifted the bike off. Thanks to a hidden GPS tracker, I was able to track its location for several days — mostly around a single residential address in Clapton. On April 4th, I received a GPS alert showing the bike on the move. It stopped next to a pink container in the Oval Open Space in Bethnal Green, where I found two individuals trying to cut through my Litelok X1 with an angle grinder.
After about 25 minutes, they hadn’t even made it halfway through. That gave us time to flag down a Hackney Enforcement vehicle for support, and eventually the police arrived. No arrests were made, but I was able to recover my bike — with the X1 still attached and holding strong."
This story is more than just a testament to tech and timing. It’s proof that a single high-quality lock can make all the difference. While nothing can make a bike completely theft-proof, Litelok X1 proved that it could slow down even determined thieves long enough for intervention to happen.
It also shows the value of layering your bike’s security. A tough lock is essential, but pairing it with a hidden GPS tracker or even a second lock can drastically increase your chances of recovering a stolen bike — or deterring theft altogether.
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