Stolen bikes

Or this works just as well

Cops won't do anything.

It's not advertised for sale anywhere. I've just been approached by someone who's been poking around looking for them (local shop owner) for the reward I'm assuming. They aren't all with one person (apparently). I paid for the first one mostly because i wanted it to be incentive for this person to find the others ...

haven't decided what to do about the rest.

Wait, so someone has been looking for them, found one and got it back for you for a reward. And now they’re out finding the others for another reward? And this is a business owner? How kind of them.
And how are they retrieving them from the thieves to give back to you?

¯_(ツ)_/¯

So the 'local shop owner' knows who the 'new owners' are / likely are?

Yeah, I guess

I am a female academic ... I run around the Kalahari dessert for work and stuffs, but I don't think I can fuck with people who technically might know where I live.

I took 2 tall big guys from work for the retrieval of the Surly. But I can't organise a sting operation when I don't know where all of them are yet ...

wtf
And the police are aware of this?

Yeah, I mean it's all very dodgy. Cops are like we can talk to shop owner ... but his line is, you offered a reward and I'm retrieving them.

Feeling your pain :(

I fuck over shop owner and I lose trail to bikes ...

is this one of the many ropey 2nd hand bike shops in cambridge? I always wondered where the bikes came from

hopefully you get them back. such beautiful builds

Yeah I've found out some weird shit about this town in the process of all of this ...

1) Get the guy to find the road logic and bring it to a meeting point (not your house)
2) Call the cops, inform them of your meeting, tell them this guy is trading in stolen goods
3) Cops get guy in cuffs. Guy spills beans on where the others are / what his source is?

I need to know he has knowledge of the others first ...

Tell him politely you’ll put a brick through a different window for each bike he doesn’t retrieve

Seems like a shit situation. It's easy for us all to talk about sending a couple of lumps round, not much help in reality (unless anyone wants to organise a mob day out in Cambridge?)
How are you communicating with this shop owner? If in person I would start recording your conversations, much harder for the police to ignore if they/social media are presented with evidence of handling stolen goods

I think the bit about knowing where the stolen goods are and withholding that information until you pay him would be of particular interest to the police

Yeah I was being facetious and not very helpful but the dude doesn’t deserve paying

Yeah I know, I agree but it's a balance between getting your stolen shit back and doling out sweet street justice

Whats to say the bike shop owner isnt reading this thread?

Saw the stolen thread on STW and felt really gutted for you as thats a lovely collection. Think very lucky to get even one back. I would continue with your approach of retrieving them one by one.. You could continue to keep the Police informed but cant guarantee they will do anything. Resources now are so stretched they wont follow up on cases unless they are sure of a result, and it depends on what else is happening. Its wrong, but it is what is. If you do want to motivate the police you could escalate it to the desk sargeant and then the duty inspector.

The bike shop owner has a flip phone

#frozensausageoption

So shit..... I would be tempted to ask the police what kind of crime they would prioritise, and investigate immediately. Then manipulate your wording so that it fits that sort of crime? Does that make sense? Money with menaces/malicious threats etc......

I’m not cool enough to know what this means

And yeah what @yokes said ... it’s a balance between justice and getting my shit back safely ... dumb criminals do dumb shit

A friend of mine had his CAADX stolen from outside his boxing gym in Aldgate on Monday. It's pretty much stock from what he tells me. Tiagra groupset, 58cm in the cherry red colour (see pic).

If anyone sees a big CAADX on sale locally, let me know.