Tweet
His bike survived deserts and mountains...ONLY TO BE STOLEN ON ORCHARD ROAD
Briton Greg Browning holding up the cut cable lock that had secured his touring bike, which was stolen outside Ngee Ann City. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
IT HAS been the adventure of a lifetime for English cyclist Greg Browning: pedalling nearly 30,000km from London to Sydney, through some of the harshest terrains on this planet.
But it was in Singapore that his journey hit its most demoralising roadblock.
After surviving searing deserts in Uzbekistan and steep mountains in Sichuan, Mr Browning's bicycle met with an inglorious end - it was swiped in broad daylight in Orchard Road.
'My first reaction was of disbelief. I've been in so many countries where people said I would get robbed, and then this happened in Singapore, which I was told was one of the safest places in the world,' he said.
The 25-year-old Briton, whose journey has been reported in Eastern European media, cycled in from Johor on Tuesday.
On Wednesday at around 3pm, he went to Ngee Ann City to do some shopping with his girlfriend, Ms Anya Petrova, a Russian cyclist he had met in China.
They parked their bicycles by the side of the shopping centre, on the pavement of Orchard Link, and chained their bikes to a railing with two cable locks.
When they returned 1-1/2 hours later, they discovered his three-year-old, British-made green Condor bicycle missing.
The thieves had cut the cables and tossed them into a nearby hedge when they made off with the €1,000 (S$1,970) touring bike. His girlfriend's bicycle was spared, as it had an extra padlock securing a wheel to the frame.
'I couldn't believe it. My bicycle looks quite weathered, not like a shiny racing bike at all. It happened in a busy place as well,' said Mr Browning.
The couple made a police report and checked with security guards at the mall. They were told that as the theft had occurred outside the mall's premises, it would be difficult to assist them.
But in response to queries by The Straits Times yesterday, the Ngee Ann City management said it has security camera footage of the incident and will hand it over to the police. According to the Singapore Land Authority's land information service, the pavement on Orchard Link is technically state land.
Mr Browning, who hails from Hertfordshire in the south of England, set off from London in February last year. So far, he has visited 23 countries.
He intended to reach Sydney within 16 months, on a budget of €4,000. With a quarter of that left for the remainder of the trip, he is planning to find temporary work in Darwin to earn cash to pay for a new bike.
On the theft of his beloved bike, he said: 'I've been through some physically tough times. But nothing was as sad as this.'
Comment