Silent, very unconscious and able to reach speeds of up to 56 km / h – this is the stealth e -bike who use gangs to grab telephones and luxury watches of unsuspecting victims.
The police say that £ 4,900 off-road Sur-Ron mini engines have become the go-to option for robbers threatening British cities, in particular London, where they are used by masked villains behind a dramatic increase in 'snatch'- Thefts.
Numerous videos show the frightening effectiveness of the all-bike e-bike, where ultrasnelle riders see weaving between pedestrians before they take expensive smartphones from their hands before they even noticed their presence.
Shoppers in Bond Street were the last to be the target at the end of last year, with tapic images with two Balaclava-clad riders who saw through the crowds before they filmed a man who filmed a £ 450,000 Lamborghini and finishes his phone.
On the playground of the billionaire of Park Lane in April, a thief was seen who mounted the sidewalk before he grabbed a hand set from a lonely pedestrian, for the same fate about a group of builders a few months later.
Official figures published in September appears that 'Snatchdijftallen' in England and Wales have risen by 150 percent in the previous year.
Of the 78,000 people who had had a telephone or bag in the year until March, 74 percent of them were in London.
Robberies rose specifically with 19 percent in the capital during the year until February. In the meantime, there was an increase of 22 percent in thefts of luxury items, according to the Police data from with Police.
Two Balaclava-clad robbers who ride Sur-Rons between Shoppers in Bond Street in September last year
The police say that £ 4,900 off-road sur-ron mini engines are the go-to option for robbers who threaten British cities. File photo
Luxury thefts rose in London last year, according to data from freedom of information of the with the with the period between February 2023 and February 2024 over the period between February 2023 and February 2024
The with Police has responded to the rise of robberies using Sur-Rons by discussing with the legal supplier, Sur-Rron UK.
The owner, Andrew Shepherd, said that his company cooperates fully with the police and was disappointed that the e-bikes were being abused.
He said that his customers are obliged to provide their personal information and to register a guarantee, while claiming that most models used by criminals were imported from abroad or purchased from online sellers.
Bendes Rovers often focus on the high-end shop and entertainment districts of the capital, with Westminster the worst affected town for the theft of luxury items.
Detective inspector Treasa O'Donoghue, a met-officer who specializes in street robberies, has said that Sur-RON bikes are now her biggest headache and admitted that they are 'difficult to target' because of their speed and ability to avoid traffic .
But London is far from the only city affected by the Sur-Ron threat, in which the brand won fame after the bikes were used in 2021 in at least two fatal shootings in Merseyside.
Off-road versions of Sur-Rons, which are made in China, can only be used on private land.
However, some models are classified as motorcycles and can be used by law on public roads, provided they have a permit and insured.
There is only one legitimate distributor, Sur-Rron UK, which is located in Birmingham and claims that most bicycles used in crimes are imported from abroad without involvement.
There seems to be a big demand for the models among criminals, stolen with a legal sur-don in KnifePoint in Manchester last year and another hardened from the back of a moving truck in Blackburn through thieves who ride motocross bikes.
But despite the fact that robbers often succeed in avoiding arrest, the police score some successes.
A man runs casually past a sunny park strip in April before a rider dives from the road and picks up his phone
In another video filmed on Park Lane, a telephone jacker slows down to take the device from a pedestrian before you speed it up
A builder stolen his phone in October at Park Lane, just a stone's throw from the £ 1,345 per night Dorchester Hotel
This includes the dramatic arrest of the most notorious phone Sonny Stringer van London, which was rammed from his Sur-Ron on 26 March by a rapid thinking City of London Police Officer.
The 28-year-old and an accomplice ran through the capital at speeds of up to 50 km / h, with 24 handsets worth it £ 20,000 by sneaking behind their victims.
When they reached the London financial district, the couple cut a pedestrian transition, and missed any member of the public, while the other had to run to prevent them from being hit.
String was about to mount the sidewalk in the direction of a family who pushed a buggy when road officer, PC Jordon Smith used his vehicle to hit Stringer off his bike.
The hero officer later told the mail: 'When my partner and I first saw Stringer, he came along a bus and was about to mount the sidewalk where a mother was who held the hand of a young child and pushed a pram .
'Those bicycles can go as fast as 70 km / h and they are a fairly old weight, so if he had hit the mother and her children, he could have killed them or seriously injure them. I immediately had to make a decision, but I immediately knew it was good to do. '
Stringer was imprisoned for two years.
The police score a few successes, including against serial telephone thief Sonny Stringer, 28 (who sees a SUR-RON moments here before they are rammed off the road)
This is the dramatic moment that a London City police officer has smashed in Stringer
Stringer, from Islington, was imprisoned for two years after stealing 24 phones in one morning
Stringer and his accomplice had aware of about £ 20,000 in just over an hour
Other police services have responded by buying their own sur-rons to match criminals such as for Like.
The Met now has five of the bikes, while the police of Greater Manchester £ 18,139 spent on buying two of them, according to a council document.
Phones stolen by e -bike driving robbers often end up in China – in particular the electronic hub from Shenzhen – where they are broken down in parts, put together and sold at knock -down prices.
If they cannot be sold completely, they are dismantled and the components – such as the screen, the motherboard and the speaker – used for repairs or even combined in whole new handsets.
In November, Greater Manchester's police released this photo of a man while investigating the robbery of a Sur-Ron at Knifepoint
“We don't want people to commit crime on electric bicycles and Sur-Ron get a bad name,” owner Andrew Shepherd told The Standard.
'We don't sell for everyone who crawls in the UK, so it is in our interest to work with the police.
“The off-road variant should only be driven on private land and never on the public highway.”
