Derbyshire teenager ‘devastated’ after motorbike he got from his mum stolen and thrown into pond

Callum Conneely, 16, from Heath, was woken up by his brother shortly after 11pm on Saturday, March 8, to hear that his motorbike was stolen.

A neighbour who witnesses the incident said that the motorcycle was dragged through the garden by a thief who also caused damage to a fence.

Callum said: “I was devastated as the bike was my pride and joy, and a costly gift from my mum who put a lot of work into buying it for me for my 16th birthday.

“I immediately called the police to report the theft, which unfortunately resulted in a lack of interest and no useful help in preventing the crime continuing, even when it had just happened.”

Callum went on to walk through the Five Pits Trail in a hope of finding his bike.

He said: “I found my smashed key-barrel casing and multiple tyre marks imprinted into the mud surrounding the Williamthorpe ponds. Unfortunately I was unable to locate my bike.”

Callum continued his search the next day but as he could not see the bike anywhere he decided to check if it was not thrown into a nearby pond. With a help of his friend, Callum used a magnet and rope to the search the pond.

They threw the magnet into the water and saw oil and petroleum rising to the surface.

Callum, who used his bike to get to school, said: “By then I realised this was the worst case scenario. I requested help and was kindly assisted by family friends who helped in retrieving the bike.

“We then finally managed to recover the motorcycle from the pond after hours of great struggle, it was unfortunately severely damaged due to submersion under water overnight and vandalised parts.”

Callum added: “Since then, the police haven’t showed much interest into finding the culprits who did this to me for no reason whatsoever. I have had no further help and now have to accept the loss of my bike.”

A spokesperson for Derbyshire police said: “We received reports that a motorbike had been stolen from a property in Bracken Avenue, Heath, just before 11.30pm on Saturday 8 March.

“The victim then contacted officers the following afternoon to say he had located the bike in a nearby pond.

“We understand the impact these types of crimes can have on victims and do take them seriously, working hard to ensure offenders are brought to justice.

“However, the force does receive a high volume of non-emergency calls each day and demand has to be triaged based on factors such as the risk posed, the potential forensic opportunities, as well as any other lines of enquiry officers may be able to follow.

“Due to the specific circumstances of this incident, it is still being reviewed by officers and the victim will be contacted in due course.

“While we do understand the impact of this crime, we also have to allocate incidents accordingly based on the risk posed.

“An incident number is provided to victims at the point of reporting an incident, with a crime number then following once the matter has been passed on to the correct team for enquiries to progress.

“However, if someone is left without an incident number for any reason, they can always contact us via the online portal or by calling 101 in order to obtain that reference number.”