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Supermarket car park becomes crime scene - GPS tracker saves stolen e-bike

On the morning of 3 September 2024, Claudio B. is the victim of a theft: his two bikes, one of them brand new, disappear without a trace from the car park of a supermarket in Perpignan, southern France. At first, everything seems lost. But thanks to the built-in GPS tracker from IT’S MY BIKE, the bike hunters, with the help of the police, are able to start their search.

3 September 2024 comes as a shock to Claudio B.: “For God’s sake, the bikes are gone”. His two bikes, including a brand new Waldbike e-bike, had been stolen from a supermarket car park in Perpignan. Claudio B. frantically calls the police while watching the thieves ride off with his bikes on the Waldbike app. Luckily, one of the bikes is equipped with an IT’S MY BIKE GPS tracker, which is integrated into the Waldbike app and allows live tracking in the app. After his visit to the supermarket, Claudio B. reports the theft via the Waldbike app: “You just press a button and everything else works by itself.”

Before Claudio B. notices the theft, the thieves have been on the road for about an hour. They stopped near Perpignan airport at 12.30 pm, but continued towards Sainte-Hippolyte at 1.15 pm. Following Claudio’s report, the bike hunters received the GPS signal at 1.22 pm and immediately informed the police. The first search was unsuccessful. But the bike hunters persevere. Language barriers are no obstacle, as one of the bike hunters speaks French and communicates between Claudio B. and the police.

Thanks to the GPS tracker, the police know exactly where to look. The officers set off in pursuit. In Sainte-Hippolyte, a small village in the south of France, they finally succeed. They stopped the thief and confiscated Claudio B.’s two bikes at 2.40 pm.

“An hour and a half later I had my bike back,” says Claudio B. happily. The Waldbike team that sold Claudio B. the e-bike is also impressed. “Respect!” says Jan Jochens, managing director of Waldbike, who was in close contact with Claudio B. throughout the incident and was very sympathetic. In the end, Claudio B. is overwhelmed: “The feeling of having both bikes back after an hour and a half is just unbelievable”.