Stolen Vendetta Bicycle

[conorb]

Hey everyone,

I just heard from a customer of ours in the Hillsboro/Portland, Oregon area that her custom Vendetta bike was stolen last night from her locked garage/shed in her backyard. Her fence leading to the backyard was also locked.

The bike is lugged steel and features polished stainless lugs, fork crown and a polished stainless stem. The bike is painted a candy-apple blue color and the components are all Campy 10speed. Hubs and headset are Chris King and the handlebars are painted to match. Custom leather handlebar wrap from Ray finish it all off.

Here's the full gallery of the bike from our website: http://vendettacycles.com/vendettacycles/gallery/womens/The%20Abyss/album/index.html

And the flickr build set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vendettacycles/sets/72157630099176842/

If you see this bike in or around the Portland, Seattle, Eugene, or Salem area and the owner of the bike is not a woman named Cindy - then it's not their bike.

Cindy has filed a police report and I'll relay any additional information as I receive it.

Thanks,

Conor

[ahpook]

Hard to miss! I'll keep an eye out around pdx.

Hope when (not if, when!) she gets it back they string the thief up and let you go to work with the brazing torch.

[William]

Burn them!!!:butt:


I hope they get it back, and catch the culprit/s at the same time.







William

[conorb]

Thanks for all the offers of help. I think there's a large enough contingent of folks in the Portland area that if the bike is actually spotted people will know about its status.

Cindy filed a report with the local police and submitted a stolen bike report on BikePortland.org:

http://bikeportland.org/2013/06/30/blue-vendetta-custom-2012-89444

Hopefully it turns up,

Conor

[cekte]

Beautiful bike! That is truly a shame. I will certainly alert my friends and keep an eye out. A bike such as this is quite unmistakable. Hopefully it will be rightfully returned!

[Louis]

What a beautiful bike.

It's so distinctive I can't imagine that anyone other than an idiot would steal it then try to ride it anywhere close to its home. If someone went though all that trouble to take it, then perhaps it wasn't a spur of the moment thing.

Good luck getting it back home.

[KidWok]

Messed up...I regularly search for "campagnolo" on Seattle CL and will keep an eye out.

Tai

[R2D2]

Sounds like somebody knew the bike was there to go thru a locked fence and locked garage. You don't go thru all that trouble on the chance something might be there. I love my alarm system, a 120 lbs German Shepard name Zeus.

[bobswire]

I would consider offering a reward/no questions asked if returned unharmed and explain that it would be next to impossible to sell since the bike is so distinct. I would post this on every major CL in the USA and Canada with pics and offer $500 if returned unscratched But also offer a reward leading the bike and apprehension of the thief Dead Or Alive for $2500.

I would also be very suspicious of neighbors. BTW all my good bikes live in the house with me only a funky mountain bike stays in the attached garage. If that was my bike it would have it's own bedroom with private bath.

[Ahneida Ride]

Steal a bike ....

you get to spend a few minutes with Uncle William ....

Problem solved.

[yummygooey]

:no:

will keep an eye on in seattle

[conorb]

Amazingly, Cindy's bike has been successfully recovered! I just talked to her on the phone and the Hillsboro police called her this morning and she now has the bike in her possession. Honestly, I can't believe it and I'm ecstatic that it all worked out.

Currently the bike has a flat tire but appears to be in otherwise excellent shape. I'll be inspecting the bike later today for any unseen damage/concerns but I think that Cindy will be back on the road this weekend.

Thanks for all of the positive support over the past few days, it's been good to know that friends are out there when you need them.

Conor

[christian]

Currently the bike has a flat tire
Oh, the horror!

No, seriously, great news!

[cekte]

Thats awesome! Very happy to hear it was returned safely! :hello:

[KidWok]

Very happy to hear this...not enough stolen bike stories end this way.

Tai

[TBDSeattle]

I'm so happy to hear that the bike was recovered!

I had a very close friend lose her custom Indy Fab and recover it almost a year later. One of the things she did was incorporate a new wrinkle into her early morning routine: searching ebay and every CL in the world. Eventually she found the bike. It was stolen in Seattle and recovered in Arizona. Kind of a long story, but one take away was how to search every CL at the same time:

google search: Independent Fabrications site:craigslist.org/bik

I hadn't known how to limit the domain name of google searches until she showed me. Now I use that all the time to get a sense of prices for bikes and components.

I'm very happy that the bike was found!

[alessandro]

What is The Rest of the Story? How was it recovered?

[ORMojo]

Great news!

google search: Independent Fabrications site:craigslist.org/bik

That is a good techno-tip. One note on it - the "bik" at the end of that search string will only search craigslist for things listed under bicycle for sale by owner. "bid" searches items for sale by dealer, while "bia" searches items for sale by all. That said, I have found inconsistent use of those categories, so if you are really intent on searching for something like a stolen bike, you might consider running the search three times to cover all of the possibilities.

[SpokeValley]

Great news!



That is a good techno-tip. One note on it - the "bik" at the end of that search string will only search craigslist for things listed under bicycle for sale by owner. "bid" searches items for sale by dealer, while "bia" searches items for sale by all. That said, I have found inconsistent use of those categories, so if you are really intent on searching for something like a stolen bike, you might consider running the search three times to cover all of the possibilities.

Really good tips for the google impaired...like me. Thanks.:hello:

[Ahneida Ride]

This is great news indeed.

[conorb]

What is The Rest of the Story? How was it recovered?

Apparently, a couple in Hillboro saw someone ditch a bike in their front yard and when they checked it out they decided that there was no way that person would've owned this bike so they called the cops.

The police, already having a record of a stolen bicycle, contacted her in the morning, took a few photos of the bike for their records and released it back to her.

I was able to meet up with Cindy for lunch and inspect the bike and honestly, I'm flabbergasted. Other than a flat rear tire (reason for ditching bike) and a bit of dirt the bike is absolutely fine. No paint chips, no dings, no scratches, no missing or horribly adjusted parts, etc., etc. The wheels are true and once she puts in a new tube in the back she's good to go.

I expect she'll be out riding it over the 4th of July holiday.

This is great news indeed.

It is great news - even the custom stitched leather handbra wrap escaped unscathed. :)

Conor