London Evening Standard/London

Bicycle thieves are being targeted in a police sting using decoy bikes covered in an invisible liquid that marks the offender for months.
An average of almost 1,500 bikes were stolen in London every month last year and City of London police have decided to try to cut thefts in the Square Mile by using “trap bikes”.
The bikes will be marked with Smart Water, a colourless liquid carrying a unique code containing ownership details that is visible only under ultraviolet light.  Plain clothes officers will hide near the bikes in the hope of catching the culprit in the act. When suspects are arrested they will be scanned with UV light for traces of SmartWater. The liquid cannot be washed off and is said to stay on skin and clothes for months.
Last year, an average of 38 bikes a month were stolen in the City, while across the capital an average of 1,447 thefts a month were reported to the Metropolitan Police.
More than 600,000 cycle journeys are made in the capital each day and the City has become attractive to thieves because workers often ride high-spec models bought under the subsidised Bike2Work scheme.
But police said owners often use flimsy locks to secure them and thieves who cannot break the locks are removing gears, handlebars, lights and saddles to sell online.
Acting detective chief inspector Doug Blackwood, of City of London Police CID, said: “People spend £2,000 or £3,000 on a pedal bike and then lock it up with a rubbish cable lock rather than investing in a high-value, proper D-lock. So people are coming in and stealing these very expensive bikes.”
Of the sting, he added: “If someone gets away from us they have got an indelible mark on them that will link them to that matter at a later date.”
Owners are also urged to use visible security markings and register the bicycle on bikeregister.com