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Thanks for posting on here and providing context.
@hippy, @velocio, maybe make the below part of the first post on this thread?
Did you report the burglary?
Have you passed all the information mentioned above to the officer who is investigating your theft?
How long has it been since the bike was stolen and since this person contacted you?(feel free to PM me rather than start a long conversation here but for the benefit of other forum users:)
Take screen shots of every interaction with the person who called (you will need to provide the exact time you were called as well as your telephone number and mobile phone provider) this will enable a request to be sent to the phone company to release details of the telephone number/subscriber who called you, however, as with many things, it's never as simple as it sounds.
I can't go into too much detail as to what can or cannot be requested but it's the first thing I would do if I were to be assigned this crime.
It is (in my opinion) likely that the person who called you bought the bike in good faith (or why would he call at all) but now has gotten cold feet as to contacting you again. The legislation around property (TORT) law is complex, but it does provide a defense of acting in good faith and this would result in the requirement for you to take the person to civil court. Sadly, it's another area in which the victims of crime are let down. It's a fine line to walk to protect people from malicious claims and to support real victims. After all, the person who paid cash for your bike is likely to be a victim of the person from whom he bought the bike.
I have persuaded people to return bikes, though this really oversteps my role and the official line is to advise them to take out a civil action if there is insufficient evidence to bring charges and we will provide details of the other party once requested through the proper channels.Just in case I haven't mentioned it before (and unrelated to your case)
Please make a note of your frame number, register it with as many property marking sites as possible. Take photographs of your bike after any significant modifications (perhaps not if you change a bottom bracket) and don't skimp on locks. With regard the frame number, I compare it in part to reporting your car stolen. If I were working in the front office of my local police station (Stoke Newington when I joined) and someone came in to report their car stolen and described it as, "a blue one, with gears" I'm not sure I'd be confident we would ever identify it in a month of Sundays and I'd ask them to return with some more details. Bikes are no different. With no frame number, it would take an officer with a knowledge of component parts to identify a bike (RIP the cycle task force) which cannot be expected of a non cyclist beyond the make and model.
Arvy.-
Needs a tldr
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Thanks, Arvy. There is still this thread:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/176548/
I've run it past Kieran before and have just updated it to reflect the current situation of the Cycle Task Force(s) having been disbanded. I've also added text from Kieran to it in the past.
I don't think there's new info in his more recent posts.Having said that, more people read this thread, so perhaps it might make sense to merge them (but I think that's still laborious).
psg1ben
Oliver Schick
Sadly, cycle crime does not fall under the Metropolitan Police or MOPAC priorities and as such does not receive specific funding. This means that it falls to neighbourhood and response team officers who are often unable to dedicate the time to investigate or the staff/skills to respond to the meeting place due to workloads and commitments.
With regard the evidence, each case is obviously different and I've personally had 2 occasions where the victim swore blind the bike for sale was theirs, I've set up a meet, inspected the bike and found them to be a different bike (frame number). Of course, I've looked at the photos of the bike for sale and also formed the opinion that the bike could be theirs, considered the timing/location of the sale and researched the seller as far as is possible. A lot of what we did was possible down to the relationships built up with platforms such as Gumtree which takes endless meetings and information sharing protocols which most officers just will not have the time to do.
My advice always has to be, leave meeting any seller to the police. I simply can't advise anything else. The legislation however for the police arranging to act as a buyer is covered under RIPA (google it) and carries a high degree of specialisation to use.
If you do arrange to meet the seller, tell the officer investigating the offence, they may be able to sort something out but they will probably tell you the same thing - don't meet the seller.
I do believe that we all have a part to play in reducing this sort of crime, be it as a buyer refusing to buy suspicious bikes, an owner effectively locking and marking the bike or as a victim taking some proactive steps to look for CCTV or visit forums such as this. Of course, the Police (whom we all pay for with our various taxes) are ultimately charged with preventing and investigating crime but with the changing landscape of modern life and crime, not all offences are equal.