What to do if your bike is stolen

Register the frame serial number on www.immobilise.com before your bike gets stolen, so if found by police it can be returned.

I have no connection to the site (other than as a user of it myself), but it's one of the few databases that the police bother to check. You can record any serial numbers on there eg xbox etc so if a thief gets caught with some stuff the police can actually prove it and get a conviction. Most items and bikes are sitting in police pounds or returned to thieves because no-one ever knows their serial numbers!

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• you can also register your bike on the immobilise property database. 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.
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oops didn't see that. i did do a search for 'immobilise' vefore I posted. That post didn't show up for some reason. Anyway it's still good to plug it! The more people that use it, the more the police will use it too. And hopefully the more scrotes will get caught.

My Specialized Langster got nicked yesterday from Chelsea, just been to Brick Lane but nothing there. Just trying to do my 3 posts, before I get a full description up. Bikeshd is a brilliant idea, and good tip

Thought I should share my story of when my uninsured 2009 allez sport got stolen last summer, it may be useful to those who see their bike on gumtree. To meet or not to meet, that is the question.

I saw an ad there - generic photo, brief description, poor grammar and posted 24 hours after it had been stolen. I simply had a hunch it was the one and I rushed to a police station but they were of no help - they said there wasn't enough evidence on the ad but strongly advised me not to meet the guy as he could be dangerous. I wasn't going to let this slip so I did answer the ad pretending to be a buyer. I sent two emails from different addresses (neither my main one) and the one he replied to was the more 'normal' sounding one (ie with a name). I also used a spare sim card for 'my' number. He rang the following day and told me to meet him at Highgate Station and only gave me 30 mins to do so. I rang my two tallest mates who happened to live near there and they agreed to help, thankfully. As I got to Kings Cross I saw some British Transport Police and explained what I was doing. Again they advised me not to meet him. At that moment, I got another call from him asking me to switch stations to Tufnell Park - the BTP remarked that this was a common tactic to foil the police, but again refused to help.

When I got to the station, my mates hid round the corner and waited for an agreed signal from me indicating that it was indeed my bike. Despite the bike having been stripped bare, I recognised my new saddle and gave the signal. My mates walked over calmly and we all held the bike. I asked if we could turn it upside down to inspect the frame number. Luckily I still had the receipt and to my utter relief (and his disbelief) the numbers matched. He muttered 'I've been stung' and I told him, politely, to walk away, which he did. What I didn't know was that my mates had called 999 while they were waiting and it so happened that the North London undercover robbery unit were in that area having just finished elsewhere and were positioned across the road watching the whole thing. They promptly seized him.

I was lucky, it was a huge gamble but it paid off. If you do decide to meet, I'd say make sure you have a pre arranged plan with mates, only meet in open public spaces and be prepared for a sudden change of location. Try not to arise their suspicions, and don't provoke them. I doubt the seller in this case was the one who stole it, but I think he knew full well that it was stolen and tried his best to avoid police presence.

Two bikes stolen last night, Mitcham

Hi, my friends in Mitcham had two bike stolen from their garden shed last night. Here are the details. Images to follow...

BICYCLE 1: LADIES PUCH ROAD BIKE, SINGLE SPEED, YELLOW GRIPS, YELLOW CHAIN AND TYRES.
BICYCLE 2: GREY MOUNTAIN BIKE, TREK Y-FRAME, FULL SUSPENSION AND A VERY DISTINCTIVE EMBROIDED SEAT

ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THEM WILL BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.
07906886312

bike Shepard give a certificate which you can print to prove the bikes yours.

shows a map of where bikes were stolen and also supplies RF ID tags for identification.

http://www.bikeshepherd.org/

Anyone get there Brother frame stolen recently?

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/brother-singelspeedfixie-frame/83245726

for just the frame and cranks its up for the bargain price of 500 quid.

anyone recognise it?

I saw it at Brick Lane market today at 4pm, a young father (standing alone with just the one bike) sold it for £15 to an old man, who then offered it to me for £20.

Thought I'd post the picture here just in case anyone's looking for it, it was on Sclater Street just off Brick Lane.

...does make me wonder, if I ever see someone selling my stolen bike maybe I can't just punch 'em up, it may have changed hands several times =( I cetainly couldn't hurt the old grandad who was selling it, even if I knew it was mine

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Please don't use this thread to post stolen or potentially stolen bikes, but use the 'Stolen Bikes' thread instead:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread123.html

Your story was a true triumph. Well done for your courage and strength of character in seizing your bike. That behind the line attitude the law seem to take, is just proof to show what wimps and even lack of authority, they'll take to 'maintain peace' even as the evidence shows concrete.

I left my bike outside Stoke Newington station (North London) 9 days ago, secured to a bike rack, as my chain broke whilst i was cycling to work. Having bought the bike at an auction two years ago, and it proving dysfunctional within a week or two of purchase, i spent nearly £250 replacing key part of the bike and finally got it up and running. I returned a to the bike park to find it stolen. A colleague of mine told me that the lock i had on it wasn't up to scratch and i should invest in a better one, but just as i was about to take his advice it dissapeared.

I'm not sure when the bike was stolen, or if indeed what stategy i should take in finding a bike, in a city seemingly with an expanding measure of bikes. It popularity seems to be rising alot.

A community support officer i bumped into recommended reporting it stolen and i did, But she did say that Hackney is the worst borough (in her opinion)for bike theft. And i don't even live in there. A local bike shop said try gumtree and the brick lane market on sunday.

I guess i want a triumph story like you and want some way of getting my bike back. A confrontation wouldn't scare me though. Not for his sake.

Thanks

This story might be relevant to this thread.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/london-man-jailed-for-selling-stolen-bicycles--31144

Excellent advice. Are there any concealed GPS trackers out there with a realistic battery life?

Hopefully I'll never use these information but it is really useful this thread. Compliments!

yeah great advices. good solid thread info

Excellent advice. Are there any concealed GPS trackers out there with a realistic battery life?

http://www.immobitag.com/uk/How_does_ImmobiTag_work.html this?

Hello,
I'm a french.
My girlfriend had her bike stolen in mid of july, and old peugeot bicycle, with ladie fram.
After being very angry, I thaught, impossible to do anything.
But as a big surprised, we've found the bike in Soho, so we decided to put a kryptonite on it (so now you have the lock of the untitled guy and our lock).
I went to police station, and they said that we had to declare before that the bike was stolen. That now we have to buy a snip and cut the lock by ourselves.
Because I think It's a really stupid answer, because I think I'm going to have trouble in the street, Do you know what we could do ? (I have to precise also that I don't have any tools here, and that i already registred the bike as stolen on Bikeregister).
Sorry to put my first reply for this !

This is the bike before being stolen for info (we remove the light to put knog lights, remove the straps on pedals, change the lock on the wheel)

youfelldown - if you have proof that the bike is yours, then there shouldn't be any problem cutting the other lock. If police question you, just explain situation and show the proof. Also a good idea if you have police report that the bike was stolen. The owner of the lock may complain about damage to his property, but you could always counterclaim against him for losses because of his using your bike without your permission.

Thank you.
My girlfriend is in touch with Cycle Task Force and did an online police report. Wait and see, they seems to be more reactive and pay more attention to the problem than others police officers.

The CTF will no doubt tell you what to do, but yes, it always helps if you complete a theft report. The more reports that are made, the better.

If I recall the law, and I'm sure others will correct me if I'm out of date (I learnt this thirty years ago), if the stolen bike is sold before you report the loss to the police then the new owner gets good title to it (unless of course he knew it was stolen). This to me would be why the police made the comment that they did.

If I recall the law, and I'm sure others will correct me if I'm out of date (I learnt this thirty years ago), if the stolen bike is sold before you report the loss to the police then the new owner gets good title to it (unless of course he knew it was stolen). This to me would be why the police made the comment that they did.

The new owner could potentionally be charged with handling stolen goods. What you describe would be true in Germany, but not in the UK.

If an insurance payout has been made, you might need to buy the bike back from the insurance company, as it now belongs to them, but the cost for this is likely to be nominal.

http://www.lfgss.com/picture.php?albumid=118&pictureid=11435

Thanks to the Cycle Task Force, my girlfriend gets his bike back. Without them, we never didn't manage to get it back. They listened to us, called us back, helped us whereas the met didn't do anything.
Now they have marked our bikes, you should all do that it's free.
If you have a problem don't hesitate to contact them.