What to do if your bike is stolen

There are certain areas in e.g Hackney that are bike theft hotspots. There should be some way of sharing this information with others online. There used to be a google maps mash up of bike thefts (i couldnt locate it now) but it was very little used. If people shared when they had bike/parts stolen you could build up a picture of the most risky places to leave a bike. There are also places where its common knowledge bikes are sold on. If you can get the police to mark you bike and you happen to locate it you have no chance of getting it back unless you can prove its yours. Ive heard of many poeple buying back bikes that have been stolen.

It's a really good idea. I work in web development and I'd love to explore something which surfaces issues like this, or at least try to do something as opposed to nothing other than, oh my bike has gone (again)

Worth looking into at work.