Another CL story for Friday

[coelacant]

Something amazing happened yesterday- got a call from my friend Bill while at work, said he spotted a Seven Odonata bike on Craigslist that reminded him of my stolen one but couldn't be sure. So I took a look...suspicions grew, the bike looked familiar except every part on it has been swapped, the paint stripped etc.

After making a few calls, I drove up to Healsburg last nite to check it out and was able to id that it was indeed mine. There's a hidden serial number on the frame. The seller was an honest guy, couldn't resist a great deal of a nice bike bought it in a shop in Santa Cruz 2 yrs ago, didn't care that it was hot perhaps?
Now I'm back home sitting here looking at it. I gave the guy some money, felt bad that he'd just loss his job, w/ 2 small kids and needed to sell the bike. I'd probably strip the hogpog parts and send them back to him so he can sell em on CL for a few extra bucks. I don't use em anyway.
It's been almost 3 yrs from the day the bike rode off by itself outside of Arizmendi in Oakland. Made me wonder how much crack it fetched in Oaktown originally?

[thenewguy11]

I think a good question to ask (rhetorically) is how it ended up in a shop in Santa Cruz? There was a thread on here about a recent bike theft ring in Los Angeles which used a shop as an outlook to liquidate their heist. Really burns me up.

Honestly, just about every time I walk into the garage I hold my breath for an instant that all my bikes will be there.

[eddief]

don't let that pizza distract you next time from what's important. good on you.

Something amazing happened yesterday- got a call from my friend Bill while at work, said he spotted a Seven Odonata bike on


Craigslist that reminded him of my stolen one but couldn't be sure. So I took a look...suspicions grew, the bike looked familiar except every part on it has been swapped, the paint stripped etc.

After making a few calls, I drove up to Healsburg last nite to check it out and was able to id that it was indeed mine. There's a hidden serial number on the frame. The seller was an honest guy, couldn't resist a great deal of a nice bike bought it in a shop in Santa Cruz 2 yrs ago, didn't care that it was hot perhaps?
Now I'm back home sitting here looking at it. I gave the guy some money, felt bad that he'd just loss his job, w/ 2 small kids and needed to sell the bike. I'd probably strip the hogpog parts and send them back to him so he can sell em on CL for a few extra bucks. I don't use em anyway.
It's been almost 3 yrs from the day the bike rode off by itself outside of Arizmendi in Oakland. Made me wonder how much crack it fetched in Oaktown originally?

[coelacant]

It was really the redhead standing in line...

[Louis]

So are you saying that at least one LBS out there is either knowingly or not serving as a fence for stolen bikes?

That's interesting and disturbing. You'd think that they, if anyone, ought to be able to recognize a stolen bike. It's bad on them, whether they knew or were so clueless they didn't know.

[coelacant]

When it was stolen:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8168/7316432054_5e6aea41f2_z.jpg


As reappeared 3yrs later on CL.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7100/7316432116_a15bf14fe4_z.jpg

[Tony T]

I would never have identified it from a picture on CL...

>
> Spot the difference...
>

[coelacant]

It's the geometry of a a classic 70's frame, Seven don't make too many with a 43cm chainstays, mostly touring bikes, maybe a dozen, maybe just 1 road bike? mine. Easy to spot among the 1000's of modern fast looking racers, no?

I almost expected the paint would be stripped and the parts swapped but not to that degree. Little Seven decals reapplied,etc... I suspect the bikeshop had something to do with that so I'm going after it for my parts.

Stay tuned...

[slidey]

I believe this might be the article you're referring to: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/08/local/la-me-expensive-bikes-20120509

As far as LBS being involved...hmm...if a bike shop is found to sell a couple of stolen frames then I'm going to put my money on the fact that they know exactly what they're getting into and there's a good chance there's a lot more stuff in the shop that might be someone else's.

My reasoning: When a cruiser is stolen, well you expect them to be stolen. But if it's a fancy bike that got away then the owner files a complaint to the local police station. Now I've recently realised that there's a source where ordinary citizens can look up to check on stolen stuff, etc. As most things this isn't well advertised and I don't even know where it is, just heard of this being used over the radio by a good samaritan who thought he was handed too good a deal and saw that it was indeed stolen from a LBS and he returned it to the LBS, who in turn put out the article in the paper and local radio and awarded an equivalent bike to him and his family (for free, maybe). This just tells me that there's a repository with stolen bikes on there and local bike shops must know about it and being in the business, they definitely owe it to their customer's to check it regularly. Besides this if I were to find out that a LBS had more than one stolen item, I'd spread the word about their lack of integrity and never go back there.

So are you saying that at least one LBS out there is either knowingly or not serving as a fence for stolen bikes?

That's interesting and disturbing. You'd think that they, if anyone, ought to be able to recognize a stolen bike. It's bad on them, whether they knew or were so clueless they didn't know.

[Nelson99]

You know, I noticed the chain stays, but still, a remarkably good spot on your friends part. Kudos to him.

What did they do to the finish? Any damage to the frame?

Congrats on getting back an old friend.

[coelacant]

No damages, the bare ti was partially polished and looks awful, but that's an easy fix.

Some of you might know Bill Jenney and might have done biz with him before. Just last year, he helped recover a Seven Axiom ti SL to its rightful owner. The dude who had it couldn't keep his story straight, in 3 meetings he showed up with 2 different bikes, both Seven ti. We learned about his 'partner', their deep stash of bikes and bits that they can customize to suit your every desire. Imagine that?

Long story short, the Berkeley police made sure the pair cool off for a while. Bill, for his part got a few months supply of sugary fixes, a token of appreciation from the happy owner, a Cliff Bar guy.

[benitosan1972]

Berkeley Police?

Did the bike end up at Karim's on Telegraph Ave?
That place knowingly buys & resells stolen bikes,
He's been in trouble countless times, always seems
to get away with it, I don't know why. Happy endings!

[coelacant]

No, it was some 'homeless' looking guy hanging out at the marina.

[TBDSeattle]

Great story. I doubt I would have made the spot.

I had a dear friend recover her custom Indy Fab after almost a year. Stolen at the University of Washington in Seattle, recovered in Arizona.

She diligently got up every morning and did the global Craigslist search

Independent Fabrications site:craigslist.org

to search every craigslist in the country. Eventually she got her bike back with all the components but minus her King wheels.

I love that story and I love this story! Thanks for making my day!

T

[gaucho753]

Wow! A rare bike recovery story. Glad you got your bike back. I know that Arizmendi well. It's always packed in & around there. Was the bike unlocked? Even if it was unlocked, it would take some guts to just walk away with a bike in such a (typically) crowded place.

[Fixed]

Bike is happy to be back home :)
Cheers

[coelacant]

Hre's one, I just transfered everything over from the Litespeed. It dropped 1 lb, probably due to a combination of the ligher frame/fork. Stiffer frontend, with clearance for 30c tires but the handling in corners is a bit on the sedated side for my liking. Got some decals from my friend, they're billboard size nowadays...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/7382059360_6742677a5f_c.jpg

Currently SC police is looking into this, I'm sure they don't want their city to be known as a place where bike thiefs can dump their loots for quick cash.