The City of London Police observed a seasonal increase in theft from gyms during January to March 2024, largely due to gyms tending to be busier during this period and due to the many offers available for day passes (to try the gym before committing to a contract), which provides thieves with considerably easier access.
These thefts occurred at gyms across the City with and no individual firm being targeted. Items stolen tended to be high value watches and jewellery and wallets/bank cards with subsequent fraud committed using the cards. The thefts almost always occurred from lockers which were forced open with implements such as bolt croppers sometimes being used to remove padlocks.
The City Police are asking all gym-goers to be aware of this trend in an effort to reduce such thefts this year. They advice would be to either leave high value items in a safe and secure place at work or to take such items into the actual gym area itself whilst working out rather than leaving them inside lockers.
Should anyone fall victim to these types of offence, the City of London Police will always consider deploying officers to forensicate the locker and lock as soon as possible, so we would ask that when it is apparent that a locker has been broken into, that as little contact with the surfaces of the locker/lock takes place so as to preserve the items.