Recognize this happy couple ?

[Fatty]

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/12/19/surveillance-images-show-couple-steal-expensive-bike-from-wheaton-store/



https://cbschicago.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/bike-thieves-2.jpg?w=338

[soulspinner]

Low life a wipes.

[Cicli]

Crazy. Wheaton is a nice area too.

[Veloo]

Mr & Mrs Trash.

[purpurite]

I was just going to post this... about a mile from my house. I hate people.

[berserk87]

Smile! Your'e on Candid Camera!

Nothing like getting good-quality color images of your perps. They will be caught.

[tuxbailey]

Smile! Your'e on Candid Camera!

Nothing like getting good-quality color images of your perps. They will be caught.

I rarely see such a perfectly captured image. They will be caught.

[BobbyJones]

if its a situation anything like a lot of LBS experiences, Maybe they we're legitimate customers who just got tired of waiting to be acknowledged.

Kidding of course.

[campy man]

I must be living in a cave ... people are paying $7K for these bikes :eek:

[purpurite]

A reward for a pricey (low) production bike, with no description of the actual stolen bike is a tough one. I'm guessing those two mopes aren't from around here.

Would be nice to know at least color, size, serial number, components, etc. That bike will turn up somewhere, even in pieces. At least the community could keep their eyes open for the salvage work.

[NHAero]

This time of year the current year models are heavily discounted. It is possible this bike had carbon wheels or similar bling on it to bump the price.

So everywhere I look, this bike is between $4200 and $4800, and even loaded retail has it at $5800 (which is still insane). Is that a store owner inflating the "value" of this bike, or is there a possibility that there are $2500 worth of upgrades on this thing? Rhetorical question.

A reward for a pricey (low) production bike, with no description of the actual stolen bike is a tough one. I'm guessing those two mopes aren't from around here.

Would be nice to know at least color, size, serial number, components, etc. That bike will turn up somewhere, even in pieces. At least the community could keep their eyes open for the salvage work.

[needmobikes]

Please post any updates on this thread if media reports on their capture

[JAllen]

It's funny how they look like a couple of college students or something else low key.

It takes all shapes and sizes I suppose...

Sent from my 306SH using Tapatalk

[Formulasaab]

So, just an observation...

- Dude WALKS in seriously prepared for the job. Gloves on AND right pant leg strapped to keep it out of the chain. I'm guessing he went home, shaved, and put in his contacts.

- Bikes are on the floor fitted with pedals.

- Though not pictured, he presumably rode away with it.

At the shop I worked at this summer, very few of the bikes, and NONE of the high-dollar bikes, are fitted with pedals... Until a customer comes in for a test ride.

At the shops you frequent... Pedals or no?

[purpurite]

I thought that, too. I have never seen a high-end bike that was fitted and rideable in a store like that.

That store is about 2 miles from 2 different major expressway arteries in the Chicagoland area. He wouldn't have had to ride very far to throw it in a pickup truck and be easily invisible in this area.

[purpurite]

New information on this heist coming soon. I talked to the store owner today, and they are keeping some info under wraps while things work themselves out, but the whole thing should be coming to a conclusion in short order. There are dozens of cameras in that shop--HD and full color, and they have a lot of angles of exactly what happened. I think it goes without saying, but the thieves were not tremendously smart.



I think at this point, saying anything more here would hurt the investigation.






The next bit of info you see on this one will probably be on the news. :banana:

[needmobikes]

Justice... Coming soon

[Peter P.]

Thanks for the update. The suspense is killing me!

[ElHardeen]

Had some busy moments in the store, but thankfully never had a bike walk away.

Definitely a strong argument for not leaving flats on higher end floor bikes.

[purpurite]

I guess he didn't ride it away, but they threw it in the back of a waiting vehicle--but yeah, still, shouldn't have had pedals on it. Also in the front of the store, too, and while I get the idea of window candy, maybe a little too inviting to just walk out with a big dollar bike.

BTW, there are $15,000 bikes not that far from where the Pivot was nicked. They did a quick once over, and took the one with the biggest price tag that they saw. Crazy stuff.

[purpurite]

So apparently, after talking with the shop owner again today, there is noting developing with this deal at this point. Sounds like the police effed it up.

Here's what I was told...

They got the Pivot back, with the exception of the rear wheel. Criminals are at large, still.


The day after the burglary, the media had completely blanketed the Chicago area with their photos and the story. A few strange-shaped boxes were brought into a local UPS shipping outlet to be shipped to somewhere in Connecticut. The store employee recognized the guy, and alerted the authorities about the shipping attempt. They had multiple boxes with a disassembled bike and a lot of other items, and a shipping address where everything would be shipped.

The police seized the shipment and alerted the authorities in Connecticut, who promptly found that the address was an empty apartment and likely just a drop-off.

So the boxes of bike SAT for 5 days with the local police, not opened. Once they did open the boxes, they found that the rear wheel was missing, obviously in another box somewhere. They missed an opportunity to track the boxes, collect the receiver and catch the perps, but at least they did get the bike back.

Shame they didn't get these DBs.



The store owner did have some other interesting bike theft stories from his history owning the shop. The common element with all of them, regardless of what is stolen, all of the thieves are remarkably stupid or brazen, or both.

I did notice that a lot of the high end bikes were either without saddles or pedals in the front of the store, though.

[ajhapps]

I worked in a shop back in the late 90's. We had a high-end bike stolen when I was there in a pretty crappy way.

Basically, an individual came into the shop and did some test rides, spoke a pretty good game about looking for a top-of-the-line road bike, etc. He mentioned in passing that he was in town from Europe, and that pricing in the U.S. was much better, so was really happy to have found our shop.

He then called the shop 3 days later, described himself and the bike he wanted, and asked if we could take a credit card over the phone and deliver the bike to his hotel (The Four Seasons) as he was getting ready to leave for another work trip. We were a bit reluctant, but nothing pointed to fraud at that point.

Well, the credit card was stolen. I'm guessing he just posted himself up in the lobby of the hotel and received the bike when it was delivered. Never feels good to get duped like that. All of our guts told us not to do the transaction, but sometimes you just trust that people are actually good humans. After that, we had a big sign behind the register that said, "All payments must be made in person"

[ultraman6970]

This reminds me a jackie chan movie.

[jhat]

I'm used to live a couple of miles from that shop, they have been in business for a very long time. Too bad, they have some very nice stuff there.

[EPIC! Stratton]

We'll, they used to hang horse thiefs ;)

Seriously though, what a pair of jerks. It's not yours. Don't take it. Hope they catch these dinguses.

[wombatspeed]

Bicycles were legally regarded the same as horses in Wyoming until not too long ago. The spirit lives on in the slogan of the local bike shop:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/astronomyblog/15378147576