Moped Crime – the misnomer

We have all surely heard of “Moped Crime”. To me, an ex-copper, a moped has a motor and pedals (So… no brownie points for guessing how mopeds got their name). If you are as old in the tooth as I am then you will remember what mopeds looked like. THIS is a moped –

I know this because I bought, and rebuilt, one of these for a girlfriend (and reluctantly admit that it went better before I rebuilt it than it did afterwards). The bikes being stolen, and ridden, for bagsnatching crime etcetera are lightweight motorcycles and motor scooters. They are not mopeds.

So who got it so wrong, the police or the media? Perhaps it doesn’t matter. It certainly doesn’t if you are Humpty Dumpty*: ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.‘

*Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll, 1872.