ON A SUMMER’S day in Southport, in north-west England, the Merseyside police were on the hunt for stolen bikes. Their suspicions were raised by a “well-known male”, recently out of prison, on a notably pricey bicycle. Officers stopped him, entered the bike’s details into a database and rang the owner, who had been under the impression his bike was locked up outside his workplace. It had been recovered before he’d realised it had gone.