Help what to do if you find your stolen bike on gumtree ?

[cizardev]

interesting just read your thread Rumbel. So u rang police first , then asked to view bike ? did u take photos whilst u was there, viewing the bike ? and then ring the police straight after the viewing and compared picture ?

cheers Evan

 

[Raging_Bulls]

So u rang police first , then asked to view bike ? did u take photos whilst u was there, viewing the bike ? and then ring the police straight after the viewing and compared picture ?

cheers Evan

Evan,

Here's the whole story.

I went to the police station with pictures of the bike, those of the advert and pictures of the default model. Luckily I had extensively modified the bike and most of my parts were still on there.
One of the officers was a bike nut, and he agreed with me that this must be my bike.

Then I called the seller, made an appointment for the next morning and went there with a police officer who pretended to be my father (the benefit of being 19 and rather small is that you can pose as a teenager).
He checked the bike out like a normal buyer would (feel the brakes, check the headset for play, and then turned it upside-down and checked the frame number.
As soon as he verified that it was indeed the number I reported stolen, he identified himself as a police officer.

Of course the seller didn't see that coming. Luckily for him, he had made a sort of "purchase form" (with his name, the name of the crook he bought it from, their signatures and the frame number) when he bought the bike, and it was dated 2 days after I reported the bike stolen.

According to the paper, he paid 5.000 BEF for it (roughly £100). I basically told him "Legally it's still my bike, so I could just take it away if I wanted. However I'll give you 2.000 BEF (£40) just so you haven't lost all your money."
IMO that was pretty fair. After all he had maintained it well and it even had brand new brake pads and cables.

I drove home with my bike and the police took a copy of his purchase form. Turns out the thief signed it with his own name and had been caught before with a shed full of stolen bikes. No idea what happened afterwards, but I imagine they brought him in, gave him a lecture and then had to let him go.

-----

Keep in mind that this was somewhere in 1997 and a police office in a quiet town. I doubt they'll want to let an officer go "undercover" for half a day to recover a bike nowadays.

 

[FMJ]

Can anyone here build orbital war satellites?

Yes.

Well, done a transmitter for Direct TV's satellite. How hard could weaponizing one be?

the benefit of being 19 and rather small is that you can pose as a teenager

Uh, at nineteen you were a teenager. Not much of a stretch posing as one, really. Certainly no Oscar.

 

[cizardev]

well im 17 .... so rather big benefit

nice satellite by the way.....

 

[gibbleking]

you need this ......


for all you budding evil scientists out there....now all you need is an extinct volcano

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/forum/index.php

 

[rosstheboss]

Keep in mind that this was somewhere in 1997 and a police office in a quiet town. I doubt they'll want to let an officer go "undercover" for half a day to recover a bike nowadays.

Quite the opposite, our police force love an open and shut case, it makes the books look good! You just might find yourself doing 95% of the legwork/detective work though...

 

[BertR00t]

So what is happening with this? Have you made the approach yet? Someone else may see the bargain and beat you to it if you dally...

 

[Chris]

cizardev do you have the serial number?

Without it it could be real difficult to prove even if you custom built the bike.

I know its crap but apparently in the eyes of the law some thieving scumbag might of built the exact same bike as you

 

[Rumble]

Not true, I got mine back with only photos and a 3 year old crime number. The seller won't be able to prove a legitimate purchase so your case has more weight than theirs.

 

[BobCatMax]

So what is happening with this? Have you made the approach yet? Someone else may see the bargain and beat you to it if you dally...

yeah don't hang about fella, we need progress reports

good luck!