A CYCLIST who had five bikes worth £12,500 stolen fears thieves tracked down his home using routes he posted on social fitness app Strava.

Adam Jones’s top-of-the-range racers were taken in a break-in at his garage.

2 Mr Jones from Essex fears thieves 'tracked his route on Strava' Credit: East News Press Agency

The 51-year-old believes he was targeted because his fast times, visible on the app, suggested he had expensive bicycles.

He urged other cyclists to put their Strava settings on private, or to record their routes only when further away from home.

And he warned that criminals were clocking cyclists’ online pictures of expensive new bikes.

The PR consultant said: “We are inadvertently using social media as a shop window for thieves.

2 The app allows users to measure distance and time but can also broadcast your location to others if the settings are not on private

“I put a gormless picture of me on Facebook with my new BMC bike.

“It’s like an advert saying, ‘Come and steal me’.

The people who broke in left my wife Tracy’s bike behind and took the ones with value.

“They knew exactly what they were doing.

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“People are riding bikes worth up to £10,000 so it’s big money for criminals. I just want my story to help others from having their treasured items being pinched.”

Police are probing the raid in Barling, Essex.

Police release CCTV of prolific supermarket thief, Billy Friend, in a scuffle with security guard forcibly leaving a Tesco in Swanley with what seems to be stolen goods