Insurers are increasingly requiring bicycles to be secured with two locks.
Many bicycles are stolen every day. Frustration everywhere at bicycle dealer Roel, who says that his customers should fear the theft of their electric bicycle. “Sometimes I think: it's bad that I have to sell locks at all. You used to be able to park your bike on the street without using a lock”, the owner sighs.
Several police zones have seen a worrying trend in recent weeks. According to the Antwerp Gazette the so-called Polish key is appearing more and more often. A gang is at work in the Noorderkempen that eagerly uses this, both in Turnhout and Hoogstraten the police zones have already sounded the alarm.
The Polish key is a kind of key that allows you to open a fixed mortise lock from AXA super fast. Most bicycles that are produced have a fixed lock of the AXA brand. The Polish key is simply for sale on various foreign webshops and at a cheap price. "The key can be used seven times, the eighth time it breaks," said Roel Slegers in a response to GVA journalist Britt Peeters.
The Polish key is a simple and effective way to open bicycles that are locked with an AXA lock.
Bicycle thieves often have one specialty and therefore often leave a bicycle with two locks. For example, use a ring lock and a chain lock.
It is not surprising that insurers are tightening their requirements even more. Electric bicycles are expensive, extra protection is in order. Organized gangs of thieves are targeting those bicycles. The Polish key is also not unknown in the Netherlands. There, too, the tool specially made for cracking AXA ring locks is known to the police as a 'Polish key'. The first 'Polish keys' turned up in Zwolle. It works like this: the thieves hammer the tool into the lock and turn the key with a lever.
AXA locks
AXA cannot stop the production and sale of the 'Polish key'. There is no law that prohibits that. You may also produce and sell a crowbar that you can use to break in.' But you should not promote the key as a means to open an AXA lock. And AXA immediately adjusted the locks so that the Polish keys no longer work.
Ring lock manufacturers know that thieves are very ingenious. To be able to produce such tools, you need to know your business.
At AXA in Veenendaal – the undisputed market leader – they are used to a lot when it comes to ingenuity from thieves, but this surprised them. “We immediately ordered those Polish keys,” says Jeroen Stel of AXA Bike Security in an email reaction to the Cyclists Union. “Because we naturally want to understand what is happening. And I must say, we were really impressed. It's not a bad boy's job. To be able to produce such tools, you need to know your business. Such a wrench only works if the steel is hard and tough at the same time.”
De locks from AXA have different options. Several types of ring locks are equipped with a plug-in option, so that the bicycle can be secured to the fixed world for extra security. The locks are also available in several colors to suit every bicycle. In addition to separate ring locks, AXA also has fully integrated locks in the bicycle.
