Dear Sir,

I’m writing in response to Christian Anders’s letter in Saturday’s paper regarding the appalling state of Bermuda’s problem with bike theft and damage.

A few years ago, a company called Data Tag was set up and, at that time, all new bikes had to be tagged. With the bikes now tagged, it enabled the police to be able to identify stolen parts — and I believe track a stolen bike. I cannot quite understand why it was stopped. I believe that bike theft decreased under this scheme!

I was made to understand that not all the insurance companies supported this initiative. I could not understand why the insurance companies would not support something that would make it more difficult to steal bikes and also give the police something to fight this plague.

Data Tag was not going to be the panacea to solve all the bike thefts, but it was certainly going to make it more difficult to steal bikes.

The problem now is totally out of hand! My friend had her brand-new bike stolen a few days after she had purchased it. Both the insurance company and the police told her to just buy a new bike. The insurance company paid her, but she still had to put in a few hundred dollars herself, as they never give you the full replacement value back.

So she was totally inconvenienced and now out of pocket. Her bike was also parked in a well-lit area with CCTV cameras. However, on viewing the footage, which by the way she had to insist that someone check it, they could not identify the culprit.

Another bike theft occurred outside one of the pubs on Front Street and the CCTV showed the bike being lifted on to a truck and being driven off.

Apparently, from the CCTV footage, they could see the trucker’s name, but I believe no one was arrested.

I would like to say from the Bermudian community, we are sorry to Christian Anders for this appalling situation and to all the other Bermudians and expatriates who have been affected by this. It’s not what Bermuda is, but unfortunately it’s what Bermuda has become. We can do much better.

Here’s to hoping that a solution can be found because at the moment, no one seems to care.

WILLIAM MAYO

Warwick