What to do if your bike is stolen

This thread is meant to become a one-stop resource like roxy's 'What to do in case of an accident' thread. I don't have all the answers, but I'll add things that people post to the OP. Thanks to dicki for the idea.

So, what to do:

Before a potential theft:

• Consider insuring your bike.

• Take photos and note the frame numbers. Having these to hand is absolutely key for you to have any chance of getting your bike back. If the police do recover a stolen bike (and it hasn't been resprayed etc.), then a photo of you with the bike will help you prove that it's yours. The same goes for frame numbers. You could even take a photo of your frame number next to your face by standing the bike up on one wheel. Have I mentioned yet that you should make a special note of the frame number and keep it in a safe place? ;) Frame numbers are often on the bottom bracket shell (between your cranks on the underside of your bike, so you may have to turn it upside down to see it, and are sometimes obscured by gear cable routers (bits stuck on the BB shell)), but on some bikes they are elsewhere, especially on some older bikes. Don't give up searching for it too easily! Every bike should have a number (if it hasn't been filed off by previous thieves).

• Individualise your bike, and hide your contact details on it, as much as you can. Whether you put a note with your contact details in the handlebars, stamp your saddle (there's a particular theft problem with unmarked Brooks saddles, of which the police recover piles and piles which they can't restore to the owners), hide a note in the frame, or in a tool bag attached to the bike, it all helps. The police may find these and may contact you if they recover the bike, and you never know, an honest but unwitting buyer of stolen goods might do the same. Skully stamps saddles, for instance. Have a look here: http://www.lfgss.com/thread12271.html

• Most bikes are stolen from homes, e.g. garden sheds or communal storage, not from the street (although, obviously, this danger still exists). If possible, keep bikes in your flat or inside your house, not in insecure outbuildings or in communal storage facilities (such as those found in many newer developments). This may also have the advantage that your bike is covered better under insurance, e.g. your home contents insurance, than if you keep it in a shed.

• Communal bike storage is not in itself secure. Whether it is or not depends on how it is managed. If you must use one, try to find out who manages it; what they do to ensure that locking systems are not compromised (e.g. whether they regularly update access codes, how these changes are communicated, whether they change keys if there have been any thefts, how any CCTV works, how they ensure that former tenants don't take keys with them, etc.) Always lock your bikes well if you have to leave them in such a facility. Even if thieves enter overnight, they may not be prepared to break locks but will try to take unsecured bikes. Bear in mind that if thieves come in the night to a communal bike storage facility, they will most likely be undisturbed for hours and can steal, and have stolen, a large number of bikes in one burglary.

• Be wary of communal bike storage clusters in courtyards or under overhangs of developments, especially those visible from the street (e.g., through gates). Some planning authorities allow these, especially if they are under cover, but there have been many thefts reported from them. Groups of thieves may either have keys to gates or may scale the gates and pass the bikes over them. Outdoor bike parking in developments should only be for visitor parking.

• Generally, thieves like predictability. If you leave your bike in the same spot every day, or even in the same area, a thief may well notice and prepare to steal it, noting how it is locked and bringing the right tools as well as choosing a suitable time to attempt the theft. Try not to make it too easy.

• Ask your employer to install secure bike parking, where you can leave your bike without worrying. There have been relatively few reported thefts from work facilities, but it is still worth making the effort of trying to find out more about how it is managed, and if this is inadequate, to suggest changes.

• There's a lot of advice on here about getting heavy locks. The Kryptonite Fahgettabout is particularly recommended. However, be aware that any locking mechanism can be overridden, and the more locking develops into an arms race, the more thieves will likewise tool up. There have been reports of gangs of thieves turning up in vans with heavy equipment in the back. The upshot is that those with worse locks will be more at risk from thieves coming equipped to break much heavier locks.

• Experience shows that a smaller lock that leaves less space between the frame and the stand is preferable, as it is not so easy to cut or break it without damaging the frame (if your frame is chunky, a larger lock may fulfil the same function). There have been many reports of people using heavy locks with larger U-loops that were cut with angle grinders quite quickly. When securing bikes, rely on cleverness rather than brute force.

• At any rate, never use a cheap cable lock on any bike--they can be easily snipped. Full locking advice is here.

• Also be aware that a lot of thieves steal components, such as saddles and seatposts, cockpits (handlebars/brake levers/shifters), or wheels. It is not recommended to use quick-release levers anywhere on your bike in London. They were developed for quick wheel changes in races. You don't need them on your commute. Get normal wheel nuts and carry a spanner with you. There are also special locking mechanisms with which you can further secure components, such as pitlocks or a saddle chain/wire loop. Experience does not suggest that additional cable locks looped through a D-lock to secure the wheels are very useful. They are so easily snipped. It's much better to just not have quick releases or to secure wheels in other ways.

• For a bit of light relief combined with serious awareness of what you shouldn't do, there's a long thread here with often comical ways in which people 'lock' their bikes--there appears to be a virtually infinite variety of mistakes that people can make, so don't make them:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/163494/

• With a bit of experience in London, you'll develop an instinct where it's fairly safe to leave your bike and where it isn't. Choose well-overlooked spots where there is a lot of activity.

• Bikes that evidently look very 'used', e.g. dirty or scratched, are of little interest to thieves. However, if it's a fashionable kind of dirty bike that doesn't look very 'owned', they may think that they can sell it on, anyway.

• Thieves prefer medium-sized bikes. If your bike is very large or very small, it may not be as attractive, as there are fewer potential 'customers', and it will stand out more. However, very large or very small bikes may still be targeted for components. Be aware that the size of your bike, which if it fits you are powerless to change, may be a factor in how much it is at risk.

• Thieves' activity is often very recognisable to people living near them, e.g. bikes going in and out of the house all the time. Do report this if you can.

• There used to be a Cycle Task Force in the Metropolitan police. This has unfortunately been disbanded (as of 2018) so is no longer available to take on cases. You will need to contact your local police.

• You can also register your bike on the Bike Register or Immobilise property databases. This could help the police in case they find your bike and need to return it to you. It is often impossible to return such bikes without this information being available to them. As you can see below, the police advise registering with both Bike Register and Alpha Dot (although they don't provide the latter service).

Note that the Metropolitan Police no longer support Immobilise for stolen bikes and have switched to Bike Register. Their advice is that you should re-register your bike on Bike Register if you have previously registered it on Immobilise, as the two companies do not appear to share data.

The police run regular bike marking sessions around London and it is there that you can have your bikes registered.

• The police also offer security marking of bikes using Bike Register. There will hopefully soon be a nationally unified system of bike marking. In the meantime, look out for events at which your local police do security marking for free. Marking events are usually listed here--you can enter your postcode and the site will display marking events closest to you; it includes events run by the police, local authorities, and other organisations:
  
  

http://bikeregister.com/events

Here's some of this advice directly from the police, thanks to @Kieran_Ferguson_PC_2224T :

If you are reading this post, chances are you have had your bike stolen either recently or at some point in the past.

Could I ask, nay, implore that if you still have your bike, you go now and make a record of your frame number and take a couple of photographs of your bike. When you change a component or two, take another photograph. The frame number will be the best piece of information you can supply to the police as it is by far the easiest and most effective way we will be able to link the bike back to you.

The photographs will also assist in proving provenance should there be some question as to ownership.

If your bike has been stolen, consider contacting the shop from where it was purchased. Some will keep a record of frame numbers against customer details.

Not all bikes have frame numbers, but most do. Once you have that number, visit bikeregister.com and create a free account where you can upload details and photos of your bike. There are other commercial sites and they are all useful - such as;

alpha-dot.co.uk
immobilise.com/about
selectadna.co.uk/dna-asset-m­arking/dnabike

The Bikeregister scheme have a sticker and a marking kit which we (along with British Transport Police and City of London Police) offer for free if you attend one of our marking events. Follow the link below to find events in your area:

bikeregister.com/events

The sticker and marking kit are a little obtrusive but easier to find and read for officers on the street who are able to confirm who is registered as the owner of the bike there an then at the roadside. The Alpha Dot scheme is different in that the marking is very discreet and less likely to be obliterated by the thief but also not as easy for the officer on the street to find and impossible to read without the correct equipment. We do not offer this service for free but it can be purchased at many bike shops or on the internet and I would suggest that it would be well worth having both to cover all bases.

We have thousands of bikes in back yards of Police Stations across the Met for which we are unable to trace owners. Some of this is caused by poor descriptions of the stolen bikes (it was blue. Yeah, and it had 2 wheels) some because of the property system we use but almost all because the frame number was not provided to the police when it was reported stolen.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me (about cycle crime related stuff of course).

[I've removed Kieran's address, which was here, as he is no longer able to work on bike theft.]

In the event of a theft:

• Report the theft. Following the demise of the Cycle Task Force, unfortunately they are no longer able to take cases. However, bear in mind that it helps the police to see a picture of your stolen bike.

• City Police: If your bike is stolen in the City, call the City of London police 020 7601 2000.

• There are various DIY techniques that people have used to get their bikes back. It is not advisable to put yourself or others at risk, but it is of course understandable why people resort to DIY action, e.g. because the police couldn't help. Hopefully, the police will be able to increase its action on theft again in the future, so that DIY bike recovery will become increasingly rare.

• There are various sites that attempt to help in the event of a theft. Unfortunately, they come and go. It's usually best to look in the 'Stolen bikes' thread to see if information has been posted on the latest ones. In the past, some have tried with trying to find your bike on-line by scraping together pictures from around the web, e.g. from sites like Gumtree, where stolen bikes are often advertised for sale very soon after the theft. A Gumtree ad may also help the police. Stolen bikes also sometimes turn up on eBay.

• You can set up alerts for items that match what you may have had stolen on some sale sites. Here are instructions on how to do this for eBay and Gumtree:

http://gumtree.nickelled.com/HowToSaveASearch?&ngroup=faq

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/buy/searches-follow.html

• You can ask the forum to look out for your bike. Post on the Stolen Bikes thread. It sometimes works--someone may spot it and can PM you or post on the thread. A few bikes have been reclaimed after being spotted by people from the forum. Unfortunately, the nicer bikes tend not to be recovered. But it does happen.

• However, be cautious about posting on-line when you've found your stolen bike on Gumtree or other web-sites. The thieves may notice that the ad is being watched. Report such ads to the police in the first instance. They may on occasion be able to take action. If you post about it openly, you may jeopardise your own chances of getting your bike(s) back. Good luck.

• Advice from gaz1979: If you spot your stolen bike for sale on-line, one option that has been known to work is to arrange to meet the seller by text message in a busy public place, during the week, and in daylight hours. (e.g. a Tube station). You should then contact the police station nearest to where you have arranged to meet the seller, and explain the situation. The police don't have the authority to pose as buyers; they need special authorisation to solicit the appearance of a suspect by lying to them. In arranging the meeting yourself, you allow the police to act on information about where and when a suspect is likely to appear in possession of stolen goods. This bypasses a lot of red tape and allows the police to act far faster than they would otherwise be able to. DO NOT go to meet the seller yourself; it is more than likely not worth the risk. The police will take care of everything once they know the meeting place/time. They go in, pose as buyers and make the arrest, while you stick around to give statements/get your bike back. So: ARRANGE THE MEETING YOURSELF VIA TEXT MESSAGES.
  THEN CALL THE LOCAL POLICE AND LET THEM DEAL WITH IT.

It is strongly discouraged to attempt to confront thieves yourself without police back-up. Some people have recovered bikes in this way, but you put yourself at grave risk if the thieves turn out to be violent. Don't do it. A bike isn't worth a serious injury to you.

And here is some advice from a bike thief.

This is by no means complete. Please post things to be added!