A gang of boys on bikes rode rampage through Asda in Brighton Marina, knocking down shoppers as staff tried to tackle them.
About ten boys rode into the store at about 3.30pm on Sunday, through the supermarket and then the check outs.
More reports were made around the marina over the following hour and it was only when police arrived at 4.30pm that the gang dispersed.
Mother-of-one Sarah Lewis, who was shopping in the store, said: “It was quite a shock as a lad on a bike cycled through a checkout further down the store and staff tried to tackle him.
“There was a noise from the shop side and I looked up from packing our bags I saw more and more boys on bikes being tackled by staff as they were trying to ride through the check outs.
“The last one came right next to us and cycled into a woman using sticks. He started yelling abuse at her to get out of the way.
“I was worried for her safety as well as my six-year-old daughter, who was thankfully out of their way.
“It all happened so quickly. Everyone looked shocked and surprised.”
An Asda spokesman said: “We are pleased that none of our customers were harmed at our Brighton Marina store on Sunday afternoon, however we do not tolerate this unacceptable behaviour in our stores.
“We are proud that our colleagues acted quickly to remove the trespassers from the store within a matter of minutes to ensure our customers were not disrupted for too long, however we would again like to apologise for the inconvenience.”
A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “Police attended Brighton Marina around 4.30pm on Sunday (June 23) to reports of a large group of young people on bikes displaying anti-social behaviour.
“The group left the area a short time after and no crimes were reported.”
I have seen them a few times, one near Preston park causing mayhem! Then again yesterday riding up north street swerving round buses! Silly little boys!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPL0p13VeU&feature=youtu.be the parents of these idiots need to be informed and Sussex Police need to deal with this before someone is seriously injured, including the foolish bully boys on the bike.
Thank you, Betty Black, for pointing out the video. I’ve just watched it in its entirety and it had obviously been edited, since that ‘journey’ would have been more than the approx. 25 mins of the film. Rather like the ‘Wild West’ isn’t it. It is beyond belief that these terminally stupid and irresponsible kids did what they did, riding on the wrong side of the roads, on just the back wheel, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, dodging around pedestrians on the promenade, and then the Asda episode, and the ultra-limp police say no crimes had been reported, so no action required. Oh,come on, if we still have any coppers on the beat, patrol cars or PCSOs left here (and I have not seen any of them for years now) then they should have been spotted and dealt with (and, if not, why not?). Somebody from the public must have reported part of it, surely.
When I was a kid, many decades ago, and living elsewhere, I used to ride my bike nicely round the local streets (no main roads involved and slowly on both wheels) and one day I took a left turn without sticking my arm out – there was no traffic around, and a bulky beat sergeant suddenly appeared round the corner, put up his hand and gave me a very stiff lecture about indicating. I am not suggesting we could go back to this, but where exactly is the law and order these days for behaviour as exhibited by these imbeciles on bikes?
Apart from that, the imbeciles posted the video, many of them were clearly visible and identifiable had anyone bothered to investigate at all, and the video has been online for about 6 weeks with nobody in authority doing anything about it, it seems. Had one of these kids got run over by an oncoming motorist, I am sure the driver would have been pursued via police and courts and then the ‘victim’s’ mother would have been on the news saying what a good kid he was really and the driver should have been jailed for years etc. So, Katy Bourne, the Sussex PCC, is this acceptable to you or any normal, law-abiding people? If not, perhaps you could announce a zero tolerance towards this sort of delinquency and get your officers to do something about it. Bleating about government cuts no longer washes with the public.
In response to Cerys above, they are not just silly boys, but out-of-control idiots who are going to get someone innocent seriously injured or killed. Obviously, they are under no parental control at all, and some of them looked very young. Get a grip, PCC and the police. Cuts are no excuse for ignoring this kind of thing.
The Group has a Facebook page called wheelie_kay they are also on Instagram.
Thanks for that, LuckL. They seem to have been doing this kind of thing for a couple of years or more, but ,judging by the Facebook videos, it has escalated a lot with this latest rampage and there look to be more of them. It’s all very well for the police to say no crimes had been reported – and I expect that was very carefully crafted in weasel words – but evidence of very anti-social and dangerous behaviour and possible offences is there before their very eyes on film now. Do they only react if someone makes a formal crime report?
The Daily Express online (a national) has now picked up on this story, with the video, and I would suggest it makes Brighton Police look even more like a bunch of ineffectual, can’t-be-bothered idiots for their role (inaction) in this. The fact that they turned up at Asda after it was all over and said no crimes had been reported and it had all gone away suggests that they just filed the whole thing. The whole video of the kids’ appalling behaviour on the roads and prom before the Asda business happened is online, as is similar behaviour over the last 2 years or so (see the links provided by LuckL). As I said earlier, the actions of these stupid kids seem to be escalating and perhaps it is only a matter of time before, sadly, someone gets badly injured.