Bike theft from inside Tescos - watch out
Had only one bike nicked in just over 10 years in London but endless parts of cheap bikes nicked...wheels (even with security skewers), saddles, and handlebars with shifters on the one semi-nice bike I owned. Final straw was someone bending the top tube of a £100 bike by trying to use it as a lever to break the D lock.
Bought a cheap 25 year old rusty Brompton after the frame incident, vowing that it would never be left outside for more than a few minutes. Was pushing it in fully folded form around Tescos near Ponders End at 6-7pm, so it was pretty busy inside. As it's often a nuisance to carry a basket and push the bike around, I sometimes leave it a couple of steps away whilst I grab something off a shelf. Usually I get a trolley and hang it off the handle by the saddle but there were none left.
Went to the milk section which was shopping chaos, left it at the end of the aisle and went 2-3 steps to the fridge. As soon as my back was turned, I was aware that someone pushed past me, thought nothing of it being a busy supermarket. Grabbed the milk, turned around and someone was walking off with the bike! Must have been following me through the store.
Shouted after him and he laughed, put it down and then ran off. Had a chat with security and by the sounds of it he was well known to the staff for stealing bags, and pickpocketing in the store, and also trying to rob bikes from the rack outside. Banned from that branch but they sometimes don't notice him coming in. I reported it to the police too.
So yeah, moral of the story, if you've got a Brompton, literally don't even let go of it. I usually try and shop at quieter hours or hang it from a trolley to make it easier to move around in the store but sometimes it's not possible.