A TEENAGER helping keep the county fed in lockdown was stunned to discover someone stole the wheels off his bike while he was working a nine-hour shift.

Finlay Brown, 17, from Oxford, discovered his means of transport has been vandalised after finishing the punishing work shift at Marks & Spencer in Summertown.

The Cherwell School pupil has been working at M&S both in the city centre and in Summertown for the past eight months.

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Now, during the coronavirus lockdown, he has been designated a 'key worker', helping keep the country going.

On the day his bike wheels were stolen he was working a nine-hour shift in M&S on Saturday where he was continuously lifting and stacking products.

At 10pm he finished his shift expecting to be able to finally cycle home. Instead he found his bike frame still locked and attached to the bike rack with both wheels gone.

He described his bike as a ‘new blue Trek hybrid’ that was just three weeks old.

Finlay said: “Working in retail is harder than ever during the pandemic.

"A combination of being short-staffed and customers requiring larger amounts of shopping than usual, this can create a sense of urgency and rush for retail workers.

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"As an operations assistant, I can feel this pressure."

Finlay lives at home with his parents in Summertown and is fortunate enough to be able to use his dad’s bike for transport.

Now more than ever, the teenager relies on his bike to get himself to work during lockdown.

He explained that this is because both of his parents are over 60 years old and his mum is 'high-risk', and as a result are both self-isolating, leaving Finlay to get the family food shop and essentials on his bike.

Finlay reported the theft to the police.

He said: “I was on my shift which was 2pm to 10pm and I when got back both my tiers had been nicked.

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“I was just standing there looking at it for a couple of minutes. You hear about it a lot how people get bikes stolen and you don’t think it will happen to you.

“I reported it to the police, I called 101 and it took a while to get through to an actual human and then I told them what happened and they said they do not enquire into nearby CCTV cameras and that I would have to do that myself.

“Even if I had CCTV footage, I would have to know the person’s name, which obviously I am never going to find out.

“It’s a crime that happens so much and its really annoying they get away with it. They will just carry on doing it and there is nothing we can do really.

“This is such a common crime in Oxford that seems to me has become decriminalised.”

He added: “I had never used the police service but now I can really understand what continuous cuts to our police services does.”