Nicked bike story

Here’s s little story about my nicked bike which you might all find interesting….

So, it got nicked from the side street outside Condor on Friday night after the Rapha sale, obviously I was super pissed as you can imagine. It’s my pride and joy and takes me home over Crystal Palace twice a day (btw it’s not a fixie, so if you hate gears look away now, ha ha).

Police report went in straight away. It’s a custom build so was able to list all the components brands, colours and the lot. Didn’t have the frame number, but did have a datatag inside the frame which I got the details of from the previous owner.

Held very little hope of getting it back as you can imagine.

Went down Brick Lane on Sunday and although there was as much obvious selling of nicked bikes as there always has been, mine wasn’t there. Seeing all the shit there was really depressing actually.

No luck, started to get the insurance on the go but being a tight northerner I’d opted for £200 excess which made the claim a bit of a pain.

Monday comes, and one of you guys has actually seen the bike being nicked by a kid on Friday night, so I let the police know that there was a potential witness.

I’d been checking Ebay and Gumtree just in case the fool tried to sell it whole. Amazingly the dick did. No picture but he described the exact mix of components that made it stand out so much. He was asking for £250 – cheeky shit.

Passed this info onto the police thinking it was a done deal, get the kid trying to sell the bike and I get it back. And here’s the rub – they said: “we don’t really know what to do in this situation”. You can probably imagine the stunned silence from me. “don’t know what to do” isn’t that what they’re trained in for Christ’s sake?

After a very, very long conversation around the insanity of them not being able to help me out I took it into my own hands. Phoned the guy pretending to want to buy it, nice chap - he dropped it to £245!. Told him that it was my bike and that I thought he’d stolen it and that I wanted it back that day and that I wasn’t paying him £250. He initially denied it then I listed off every component and told him it was tagged (little did he know it was useless)

Just to say, I don’t in any way think that paying scally for your own bike is the right thing to do, but I offered him £100 to get it back and arranged to meet him. Most people at work wanted to come with me to beat the living crap out of him. The police advised not to do it because he might stab me!

Decided I’d take my chances and although it makes me sick, I got my pride and joy back for less than the insurance excess and way less than a new bike. No fuss, no fucking about.

So here’s the lesson:
Police are useless at dealing with this kinda stuff, they either can’t bothered or can’t move quick enough.
DataTags are useless – the police can’t read them
Brick lane is still hot with nicked bikes, so go down there if you've lost a bike
Get your frame number and hope the crims don't grind it off
Paying crims is sickening but, you’re on your own and I felt I had to do it.

fair play, glad you got it back :)

U PAID HIM!!!! WHAT!!!!

sorry but u met him, he had the bike, you handed £100 over to him for YOUR bike, then u walked away.

I would have punched him and walked off with MY bike.

That story sucked soooo bad, that theif is now going to think

"oh even if I do get caught STEALING other peoples property its ok because I can sell it back to them.

YOU MY FRIEND ARE AN IDIOT.

Sorry to sound harsh but HTFU.

Nick

Shame about having to bribe the fucker.

why didn't you meet him without saying it was yours...then give the cunt a slap and nick it back.

Glad you got it back but it's a shame you had to pay for the privilege of getting your bike back. That said, I think I'd do the same if I was in that situation.

Basically you've just taught the little cunt that bike theft pays. You sir, are the enemy of all cyclists and a fucking cretin to boot.

why didn't you meet him without saying it was yours...then give the cunt a slap and nick it back.

+1

Lesson learned I guess. Shame that when you organised the meet you weren't able to persuade a copper to be there too and have the thief nicked for selling stolen property. Some times the police are bleedin' useless. On the bright side you got your bike back which is the main thing.

i am with Aidan
why no take a few mentalist friends with tools to hide in case it got ugly. meet him in a public-ish place. acted all overly excited and innocent getting him all relaxed then as he handed over the bike punched his teeth in the back of his throat and politely remind him it was mine in the first place.
oh then taken his wallet and removed incurred expenses

I toyed with the idea of just pulling it off him but had no idea what kinda guy i was dealing with. Thought it could have got messy if i'm honest. It took a lot of talking to even get him to meet me.

Northerners, too bloody polite!

Happy you're reunited with your bike.
Not happy that someone has pocketed 100 quid for nicking a bike, off of the bloke he nicked it off???

U PAID HIM!!!! WHAT!!!!

sorry but u met him, he had the bike, you handed £100 over to him for YOUR bike, then u walked away.

I would have punched him and walked off with MY bike.

That story sucked soooo bad, that theif is now going to think

"oh even if I do get caught STEALING other peoples property its ok because I can sell it back to them.

YOU MY FRIEND ARE AN IDIOT.

Sorry to sound harsh but HTFU.

Nick

+1

I found it cringeful reading the story. Why tell the thief of the situation at all?

Shouldnt have even bothered telling the police, and the only one to be in fear of getting stabbed should be the filthy thief, with a seatpost.

I don't think people should be so tough on northerndave, he did what he felt was right and he got his bike back... Personally, I woulda lamped the little cunt into next year... But that's me...

Just highlights how little the Police care about bicycle theft..

If they had the inclination they could have quite easily gotten your bike back for you.. They could have contacted the guy acting as if they wanted to buy it, arranged a meet, arrested him on suspicion on theft, called in your witness and probably charged him..

Surely they could even let him go and just take the bike that is so obviously yours?

whoa. firstly, im surprised the guy turned up to meet you in the first place. either he's stupid and desperate or he had his gang waiting around the corner or something backing him up.

no way id turn down the offer of mates to back me up. if you had a bigger gang, you couldve gone away without handing over your hard earned cash. fck that. also, wouldve taken a pic of the cnt as well and hand it over to the cops

anyway, you're not the only one, another dude here paid something like £50 to get his bike back. i understand that you were prob desperate to have it back and that's the quickest easiest way at the time

I'd rather buy my bike back for £100 than risk not seeing it again.

I toyed with the idea of just pulling it off him but had no idea what kinda guy i was dealing with. Thought it could have got messy if i'm honest. It took a lot of talking to even get him to meet me.

Then why the fuck tell him it was your bike. Why not just act as though u wanted to buy it.

you have just fueled the illegal trade of bikes.

That guy is £100 pound up for stealing your bike, actually where do you live I could do with some money, I will give the bike back tomorrow no questions asked, and if you could wire the money into my account that would be lovely.

To be fair, you're more interested in getting back on your beloved wheels than railing against bike crime.

What did the crimbag look like?

Having set up this sweet little honey trap why did you not then arrange for the Police to meet you there as well?

northerdave, okay, you got your bike back, but it could have gone better.

Greasy_Slag is right, a few friends would have made all the difference.

Can't think of any friends to help?

You only had to ask mate. We'd be your friends like the Three Musketters.

Well, for that day anyway. :)

Glad you got it back anyway.

Anybody reading this, ask for help, if in the same situation.

Where had he agreed to meet you? Was he on his own?

Yeah, calm down everyone.

There's no way he should have paid to get his bike back and he could have done it differently and still got it back, but the point is he did get it back.

The problem with saying that this teaches kids that crimes pays is that they already know it pays.

The real issue here is that the cops didn't give a shit.

Actually asked the police about sending a copper down with me but they said it would take days to sort out!!!! See everyones point about paying a the thief but my main concern was getting it back in once piece before someone else picked it up from him. He would have sold it anyway, when i was down brick lane you see money changing hands all over the place.

Moral of the story: Arrange to meet said fuck at a particular time and place. Call police anonymously and suggest there an arm deal going down at your meet. I reckon tha fuckin swine will probably make a guest apperance then.

DON"T PAY THESE FUCKING THIEVES YOU ONLY INCREASE THE CHANCE OF YOUR BIKE GOING WALKIES AGAIN. INFACT FUCK IT. NEXT TIME YOU GO TO DRINKS I'LL TAKE YOUR BIKE AND YOU CAN GIMME SOME CA$H FOR IT

tho I'm appy to hear you got it back. How was it locked?