This mesage was posted by a member of xt660.com after a terrifying ordeal of an attempted hijack in London.
I have decided to post it in various places for people's awareness.
Bike Jacking!! BE VERY careful in London
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At between 21:20 and 21:25 Monday 25/01/2010 I was sat on my Yamaha XT660X at the (on red) traffic lights on the corner of Harrow Road & Scrubs Lane in North West London, in the Turn Left Only lane leading to Scrubs Lane, when a dark coloured, black or blue car pulled up behind me and 2 men (white, late teens, wearing Hoodies) got out and ran towards me shouting "Get Off the bike!".
One of them grapped me by my rucksack and pulled me, along with the XT, to the ground, while the other one punched me repeatedly in the body and head.
As I lay on the ground, I tried to protect my head with my left arm, whilst holding on tightly to the front brake and handlebar with my right hand.
One man commenced kicking me while the other wrestled with the bike, with me still holding on. Both men were shouting "Let go of the fcuking bike ******!" or similar.
I held on even tighter, thwarting the man trying to take the bike from me, but when the kicker pulled my head around by the chinbar of the helmet & punched me in the face, I thought 3 things:-
- He could have stabbed me with a knife
- The driver of the car behind me could run me over
- The bike was comprehensively insured
So I let go.
The wrestler pull the m/c upright & attempted to start it. The kicker/face-puncher continued punching & kicking. I lay there covering my head with my arms.
Once the bike started, the kicker ran back to the car which then pulled around me, into the Straight Ahead Lane and then went left at the lights, a short way down Scrubs Lane and then waited for wrestler/rider to catch-up.
Whilst being pulled to the floor I must have engaged 2nd or even 3rd gear, because although wrestler could start the motorcycle, it stalled every time he tried to pull away. Either I or wrestler had also set the hazard warning lights on.
As I stood up, I watched the "rider" drop the bike to the ground and then run around briefly, looking for his mates & the car. When he finally located them, he ran past me (I was able to shout "Fcuking ******! U can't ride a motorbike!" at him) and got into the front passenger seat.
I looked at the reg no of the car, an "Astra hatch-back" type of vehicle with dark/blacked-out windows, but the shock of the attack didn't really let me register the letters or numbers. I believe the first four characters were "AW02" but I can't be sure. I was very breathless inside the lid.
Eventually I got it together to pick the bike up, find neutral & ride away.
There were people around. At the corner and at the bus stop and there were a number of cars in the opposite lane watching what was happening. I don't blame them for not "Having a Go" (neither would I have done) but no-one offered to help me pick up the m/c, nor if i was ok or fone the police.
Neither attacker wore a helmet. The "rider" was dark haired with thin (rat-like) features and the bigger bloke (kicker) was fair haired. I never saw the driver of the hatch-back.
I was wearing a Furygan fully armoured leather jacket, Dainese armoured jeans, Sidi Couriers and a Wulff open face MX helmet, so I only sustained facial injuries, a cut cheek and bruising to the cheek and under the eye, where I’d been punched through the Oakley goggles. (So these "lads" didn't understand that kicking & punching me had very little effect until they started targetting vulnerable areas.)
The XT only has torn plastic handguards and D&G wheel-bobbins (They did their job!!!).
Lucky or wot? The Jacking Crew may have learnt a few basics about bike-jacking from their experience with me though:-
- Hit the rider with a baseball bat or similar first
- Learn how to ride a single cylinder motorcycle "next time"
- Use the car if necessary as a weapon so that the victim doesn’t remember the Reg No.
So be VERY careful out there!!
