{"id":84895,"date":"2025-08-21T00:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T00:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84895\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T00:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T00:15:10","slug":"moment-cycling-mikey-confronts-two-mobile-phone-thieves-on-e-bikes-before-they-start-filming-and-taunting-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84895\/","title":{"rendered":"Moment Cycling Mikey confronts two ‘mobile phone thieves’ on e-bikes before they start filming and taunting him"},"content":{"rendered":"

By DAN WOODLAND, NEWS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 19:55 EDT, 20 August 2025 | Updated: 20:01 EDT, 20 August 2025 <\/p>\n

Controversial vigilante Cycling Mikey filmed himself confronting two suspected mobile phone thieves before they began taunting him.<\/p>\n

The Youtuber, whose real name is Michael Van Erp, uploaded footage of the tense confrontation to social media, showing him tailing a pair of e-bike<\/a> riders after a supposed theft in Chiswick.<\/p>\n

One of the men, who is seen wearing a black helmet and a balaclava, suddenly stops his bike, realising he is being pursued by the vigilante cyclist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Oi, boi, no way? Oi, it’s Cycling Mikey!’ he tells the other man, before racing over to Van Erp. ‘Wagwan Mikey,’ the man repeats, seemingly taunting Van Erp, who appears initially shocked after being recognised by the pair.<\/p>\n

The controversial cyclist then brandishes an item from his pocket and waves it at the supposed thieves, warning them ‘I’m going to call the police now’.<\/p>\n

‘Why are you hiding? Horrible little thieves,’ Van Erps adds as he backs up against a nearby wall, before dishing out a final jibe as they drive away: ‘I will finish you.’<\/p>\n

The suspected thieves later published their own footage of the encounter, with the caption ‘Cycling Mikey pulls out a flicky’ – a flicky is often used as slang to refer to a flick knife.<\/p>\n

However the Youtuber later confirmed was merely a Sharpie pen rather than any weapon and insisted he has never carried a knife.<\/p>\n

\"Controversial <\/p>\n

Controversial vigilante Cycling Mikey filmed himself confronting two suspected mobile phone thieves\u00a0after a supposed theft in Chiswick<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Youtuber, whose real name is Michael Van Erp, tailed the pair to a bridge before one of them stopped and recognised who he was\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The two e-bike riders begin taunting Van Erp before he brandishes an item from his pocket and waves it at them\u00a0<\/p>\n

Van Erp told LBC: ‘I don’t carry a knife and never have. You can just about see it my own video – it’s a rounded black plastic object.\u00a0I don’t think you could hurt anyone with it.<\/p>\n

‘Amusingly it’s a Sharpie, but there’s nothing sharp about it, just a rounded plastic pen. Mind you, they do say the pen is mightier than the sword!<\/p>\n

‘Despite my dislike of those suspected thieves, I would not wish any harm on them or anyone else.’<\/p>\n

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of footage circulating on social media which appears to show an incident in Gunnersbury Avenue, Chiswick, on an unspecified date.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘No arrests have been made at this stage.<\/p>\n

‘Anybody who witnessed the incident is urged to contact the police by calling 101, or 999 in an emergency.’<\/p>\n

Van Erp has gained national notoriety for his videos in which he rides through London with his GoPro and attempts to catch drivers on their phones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The road safety warrior claims to have caught more than 2,000 offenders since first strapping on his ‘helmet-cam’ back in 2006.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Van <\/p>\n

Van Erp (pictured) has gained national notoriety for his videos in which he rides through London with his GoPro and attempts to catch drivers on their phones<\/p>\n

Van Erp routinely catches motorists committing road offences, including using their mobile phones behind the wheel – and even once caught a driver inhaling nitrous oxide.<\/p>\n

After recording, he sends his videos to the Metropolitan Police, and after they take action, he posts his videos on to his YouTube channel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to his X account, he has reported 2,280 drivers since 2019, which has resulted in 2,649 penalty points, \u00a3165,000 in fines as well as 35 disqualifications from driving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Share or comment on this article:
\n Moment Cycling Mikey confronts two ‘mobile phone thieves’ on e-bikes before they start filming and taunting him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By DAN WOODLAND, NEWS REPORTER Published: 19:55 EDT, 20 August 2025 | Updated: 20:01 EDT, 20 August 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,2093,44,82],"class_list":["post-84895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-dailymail","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}