Stealing your stolen bike back

[tsarpepe]

Interesting story:

https://www.salon.com/2020/02/22/how...along-the-way/

[Monsieur Toast]

That's a lot of words to never once mention how the bike was originally locked up except for, "I had axle locks, so I thought there was no need to lock up my bike with two locks while I was in the music store ..."

Had a friend up in Portland get his Cielo stolen. Thief posted it on Craigslist, friend met the thief for a test ride and rode away on it with his middle finger in the air. Good times.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Monsieur Toast

Had a friend up in Portland get his Cielo stolen.

That Green one I saw on CL last year maybe? And now again I see with damage that to me looks like lock pry residual listed again. Maybe by your friend and not a thief, more happy ending...

[BobO]

I didn't realize that sort it of crime was so ubiquitous in Portland.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by BobO

I didn't realize that sort it of crime was so ubiquitous in Portland.

Riding past encampments with piles of bike parts is common place everyday on my rides. This is a bicycling mecca pretty much, with a huge homeless population. It is a food source pretty much, animals [us] go where the food is, in this case the cash cow ten of thousands of bikes provides.

When the contractors are sent out to clean up vacated encampments, you ride past trucks and trailers with predominantly the junk bulk being bike parts. The less desirable fodder left behind being generally the junk not saleable.

ubiquitous? you might say.

[BobO]

It interesting, we also have a huge homeless population but the bike theft doesn't appear to be even vaguely close.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by BobO

It interesting, we also have a huge homeless population but the bike theft doesn't appear to be even vaguely close.

Car theft not much better either. My kid got my Del Sol, my daily Driver for 4 years, one year later got stolen. Got a replacement Civic EX 10 years newer, Del Sol was recovered, sold it due to all the interior damage. Forward 8 months, Civic EX attempted theft. But the key/Chip thing thwarted the theft, but not the interior damage.

Lesson, don't skip the Comprehensive coverage. Glad my kid listened. Hassle mainly non financial. More the 16 year old parts sourcing delays and car rental nonsense... Rental damage wavier expense not withstanding.. yada...

[tylercheung]

MY understanding that in LA ( and maybe SF), there are pro theft rings, but they don't risk reselling bikes/parts in the same city, they transfer to another city.

I had held up home of my lavender/purple Sweetpea Cycles frame showing up somewhere but no dice in any of the CA lists yet.

[Mike Lopez]

Years ago when the real Reynolds Composites still had a factory in Vista Ca we had a break in and a number of items were stolen including some employee bikes.

One was a Ti Lemond team frame that showed up in a bike in Alpine. They actually called us saying they'd just bought it from a tweaker for $100 and would sell it back to us for the same amount. The owner gave them their $100 fee rather than hassle out another arrangement.

The fun one was a custom Serotta built for Dan. It showed up at a very high end shop and was advertised online. Dan and I visited the shop armed with the police report and a letter from Ben stating that they'd built it for him. Both documents included the serial number.

We strolled in casually and Dan inquired about the bike and it was brought out for him to look at. The guy even said it looked like it would be a good fit for him. Imagine that!! After chatting for a few minutes Dan said it looked great and that he was going to take it. When the purchase price came up Dan said "You don't understand. This is my bike and I'm gonna take it!". He then handed the employee the documents and the guy said they didn't matter and we couldn't take the bike. We just walked away, with the bike, and told him to call the police and we'd wait outside until they came. We did so and a few minutes later the manager came out, apologized, and we were on our way. Guess they didn't want to get investigated for receiving/selling stolen goods. If the little shop in Alpine had heard about it and called us I strongly suspect the hi end shop much closer to our factory knew the story as well.

That was a fun day for the whole Reynolds crew. Dan and I got to do the repo and the rest of the guys got to watch it live on the shops web cam.

[Heisenberg]

Originally Posted by tylercheung

MY understanding that in LA ( and maybe SF), there are pro theft rings, but they don't risk reselling bikes/parts in the same city, they transfer to another city.

I had held up home of my lavender/purple Sweetpea Cycles frame showing up somewhere but no dice in any of the CA lists yet.

this. generally speaking, if your nice bike **** gets swiped in SF, it's a battle against time to get it back before it disappears - especially if it's a garage break-in situation vs. jacked on the street. i've been exploring ways to build bikes with built-in, self-charging GPS trackers, but it's tricky. i had an acquaintance lose a custom steel bike in a garage b&e - it turned up rebuilt and repainted (with the original marque, no less!) in los angeles a couple of years later.

cheaper (or perceived cheaper) bikes that get stolen on the street here usually get traded for meth/opioids and hacked up in any number of the "mobile bicycle repair shops" we have on the sidewalks. the cops try, but the reality is that the stolen crap problem is ubiquitous, has far more dire causality (aka vultures preying on the vulnerable), and it's mated to dysfunctional municipal government...but i digress. vigilante action is the most effective theft recovery methodology here, from my anecdotal experience.

i had a bike stolen from my work over ten years ago in salt lake city when i was a broke college student. ellsworth specialist dirtjumper. cool build. when i filed the police report, the cops told me i could "lay a beatdown" on whoever had it to get it back. i found it a couple of hours later at a known junkie hangout spot in a park under a very large gentleman. luckily for my frail 19 y/o ass, there was a patrol car 50 feet away, and it was an easy transaction.

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by Heisenberg

this. generally speaking, if your nice bike **** gets swiped in SF, it's a battle against time to get it back before it disappears - especially if it's a garage break-in situation vs. jacked on the street.

Yeah, unfortunately I don't think Erik Nohlin ever got his stolen bikes recovered and that was with a lot of press attention. If you live in a city, especially SF/OAK, PDX, SEA, your best bet is to have a good insurance policy and practice non-attachment towards material objects.

San Francisco has deprioritized property crime to the bottom of its list.