PEOPLE living in a quiet street in Edinburgh said they feel “unsafe” in their own homes after a burglary and threats from a gang of balaclava-clad men on high-powered e-bikes.
The group of four descended on Coillesdene area of Joppa in the early hours of Tuesday morning last week and began attempting to gain access to houses.
The gang reportedly scoped out a number of properties in the area before making off with a set of keys and a vehicle parked in the drive of one house.
Amy, 29, who preferred not to give her last name, said the gang was captured on CCTV cameras scoping out the area at around 8pm.
When the theft took place much later on, the burgled family were reportedly still in the house.
Amy described her shock at hearing of the burglary: “Our family home was burgled when I was at school, and we weren’t in the house at the time that it happened, thankfully.
“I think it’s so much more terrifying to think that someone’s in your space, which you feel is safe.”
Incredibly, just a few nights later, on Thursday, Amy said she was watching TV when she “heard something in the street”.
When she got up and looked out the window, four men in balaclavas on e-bikes were driving down the street again.
Footage captured of the gang shows men on e-bikes loitering in the street before one of them performs a wheelie and races off.
Locals believe this group is the same one that burgled the family early on Tuesday.
While police are not banned from pursuing people on e-bikes, they often decide not to if the risk to the driver is too great – for example if they are not wearing a helmet or they are driving erratically on an illegally-modified vehicle.
Amy, however, said she believes this is giving criminals and masked youths “free rein to intimidate people”.
She added: “Ultimately that’s what they’re trying to do by being seen in daylight with their balaclavas on.”
Similar gangs have also been seen driving dangerously on the Portobello Promenade.
“There’s children and dogs and goodness knows what else [on the promenade],” she said.
“They were intimidating any local people that they drove past, which is just horrible because it’s such a nice area to live in.”
“There are so many young families, and there are elderly people living on their own in the houses near us. It’s just scary for us and I don’t feel safe in the house on my own.”
Amy has lived in the Portobello/Joppa area for around a year and a half, and said that she has never seen anything like this: “Safety has never been a concern for us living here.”
“My grandparents lived in the house before us, and as far as I was aware, it was never a problem when they were living here.”
This comes after a gang of masked youths threatened a security guard with hammers and smashed up several cars at a student halls in the south of the capital last month.
In June this year, a hit-and-run involving three Surron-style electric motorbikes left a woman in hospital, sparking calls for tougher action on “reckless” e-scooter and e-bike riders in Edinburgh.
Amy claimed that, when she contacted police about the apparent return of the gang, police closed the case and told her to “let them know” if the group returned.
“The police seem to think it’s only going to get worse. I know there was something in the news yesterday about them banning e-bikes, but its not going to be a quick fix.”
She explained that she would like to see a greater police presence on their streets: “I’m not expecting them to sit on our street – that’s completely unrealistic with the pressure on the police.
“But some sort of presence for a couple of days afterwards, just so that these guys who clearly haven’t been deterred are aware that people know what’s going on and they’re being watched.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 1.20pm on Tuesday, 1 September, we received a report of an attempted break-in at a property on Coillesdene Crescent in Edinburgh that happened in the early hours. Enquiries are ongoing.”
They later added: “Around 8am on Tuesday, 1 September, 2026, we received a report of a break-in and theft of a vehicle. The vehicle was later recovered. Enquiries are ongoing.”
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