The ingenious way one Bristol woman tricked thief to get her bicycle back

A victim of bike theft has succeeded in 'stealing back' her own chopper from the thief who took it.

After Jenni Morton-Humphreys discovered that her £800 stolen bike was being advertised for sale on Facebook for £100, she tricked the thief into letting her take the vehicle for a test ride, before pedalling away as fast as she could.

She arranged to meet the man who was selling her bike on a street corner in Bristol and convinced him to let her ride the bike down the road, at which point she cycled off with it.

Morton-Humphreys had told police about her plan to meet the bike thief and asked them accompany her on the mission, but they were unwilling to help and warned her not to retrieve the bike.

She instead relied on a good samaritan named Chris who had seen her request on Facebook for information about her bike and arranged a meeting with the seller, named 'Bebop', after spotting his online advertisement. Chris told Bebop that his sister, who was actually Morton-Humphreys, would collect the bike the following day from his friend named 'Rocksteady.'

"I pretended to be interested and asked silly questions about the bike," Morton-Humphreys told the Bristol Post. "I said the saddle was too high, and asked if I could get on it to test it out.

She handed the pack of cigarettes she was holding and the keys of her old bike lock to Rocksteady. "That meant he let go of the bike for the first time. I wobbled off a bit on the bike and then when I was a couple of yards away I just went for it. I pedalled as fast as I could," she said.

Bebop sent a furious message to Chris: "Ur bird just rode off on that bike! She went 15 mins and ain't come back."

Chris replied telling him that the bike's original owner had taken it back.

"Lesson to be learnt son. Don't steal from the cycling community for a quick fix. You played yourself," he wrote.

Pleased to get her bike back, Morton-Humphreys was delighted to discover that the thieves had even "spruced [it] up a bit" by fixing her front light.