Jorden’s partner was ‘so angry he couldn’t sleep’
A South London couple have been left frustrated after a bike theft outside a Central London hospital forced NHS healthcare assistant Jorden to abandon his usual commute.
Jorden, 32, works long 12-hour shifts, most of them overnight, at the hospital. After completing his first gruelling shift back after a period of annual leave, Jorden discovered that his bike had been vandalised, with the front wheel stolen and the brake cables cut.
“It’s horrible to target someone like that—outside a hospital,” said his partner David, a lab technician. “It happened to one of Jorden’s colleagues before.”
The theft left Jorden stranded early in the morning with no means of getting home. He contacted his partner, David, after his shift to inform him of what had happened. “I had to lend him money in the morning so he could get the Tube home,” David recalled. “I couldn’t get back to sleep because I was so angry.”
Jorden was forced to wheel his new ‘unicycle’ home on the tube after the front wheel was stolen from his bike. If it had not been so early in the morning, he would not have been able to do so, due to the laws restricting non-folding bicycles on the tube during peak hours.
The vandalism of Jorden’s bike was especially difficult for the couple due to the emotional and financial value that the bike holds. The bicycle was very dear to Jordan, and he had customised it over time. “He put a lot of work into improvements and upgrades”, David said. The stolen front wheel alone cost Jorden around £600.
Not only was the bike hugely expensive, but it also played a large part in Jorden’s personal milestones, most notably his cycle from London to Paris in the summer of 2023, an adventure he remembers fondly. David noted, with a laugh, that the photos of Jorden on his cycling trip to Paris were what initially drew him to his dating profile, kickstarting their relationship.
In an aim to compensate for the loss of Jorden’s beloved bicycle, David set up a GoFundMe fundraiser , with the initial aim to raise £350 to buy Jorden a temporary replacement bike. After the original goal was reached, the website raised the target to £500, a target that their fundraiser has since reached after receiving donations from 26 people, predominantly friends and family. “The money will make a considerable difference, and that was my main aim,” David said. “It’ll mean a lot to Jorden.”
When asked whether Jorden had contacted the authorities, David stated that calling the police “just wasn’t worth the hassle” as “crime like that in London is so common.” This crime, in particular, seems especially prevalent in and around Central London.
David added: “You often see empty frames with wheels missing. It’s a tactical crime. People abandon their bikes after that.” The criminal tactic that David refers to is that when people abandon their vandalised bicycles, thieves have the perfect opportunity to return to the crime scene and steal the rest of the bike to sell for parts.
You can support David’s fundraiser here at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/68wr5-help-replace-stolen-equipment
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