A nurse in Kingston was a recent left with no way to commute to her job after her bike was stolen outside a borough library last week.

Zoe Birchenough, who works for a homeless health team in London, left her ten-year-old bike locked up outside Tudor Drive library for 15 minutes at 4pm on Tuesday 20 April while on a visit with her children.

She was stunned to find on her return that the lock had been cut and her bike gone despite its location near a CCTV camera.

Zoe, who has to avoid taking public transport to her job to protect her patients, said that the worst part of the theft was the inconvenience it caused.

She added that immediately after the theft library staff were responsive, immediately looking at CCTV footage to try and identify the thief.

However, her case was closed by police approximately ninety minutes after she reported it, due to a lack of evidence.

Zoe said that after posting about her situation on local social media site NextDoor she was messaged by many other people in Kingston who'd recently had their bikes stolen.

She is currently borrowing a family member's bike to get to work, which is not a long term solution, although one kind commenter on her post offered to give her their women's road bike.

Earlier this month, data from insurance company Admiral showed that bike thefts had risen by 66% over the pandemic, with South-West London being the number one hotspot for the crimes to take place.

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