Birds reclaim stolen bike shocker. Pls Advise

... the bike looked powdercoated, ...

aahh... I was just logging back in again to post about the powdercoat. Was it coated when she bought it? If so that's a clue no?

Sounds more organised than some random crackhead nicking and selling in a short space of time. And how many powdercoat facilites are there? As forumengers are good customers of powdercoating places maybe we could get some vigilante action going?

That's a good point. Thing is there's plenty of carsprayers around who are already invovlved in shady motors, its not that hard to paint a bike if you got the kit, and a lot less risky that doing cars.

@Mark - I am not trying to be harsh. I just get shat off with the idea that buying a stolen bike is not that bad. fuck, it even warrants sympathy in a forum of people most affected! most people on this forum... ah fuck it.

Don't stop Richie, I was with you up to that point.

Of course buying a stolen bike is bad, I don't think anyone is saying otherwise. But it seems pretty clear that she's just naive and she turned down an offer to buy the bike back off her - so she obviously feels guilty and upset, lesson learnt. Helping her build up a beater at a cheap price seems like a nice thing to do, and I'm all about doing nice things these days - wasted too much of my life on anger and conflict.

maybe we should take pics of stolen bikes to armourtex incase they turn up there, i'm sure they'll notify the loser seeing as they have regular customers from this forum

Yeah, admittedly I know very little about this stuff, but I was picturing leads to a kind of car and bike wholesale operation. Are we actually finding ourselves having a common cause with motorists?

I am guessing that stolen cars get more police attention given the higher value of cars. But if the bike tealeaves overlap with the car theft gangs and we can somehow bring this to the attention of the police, then maybe we are turning up the heat just a little bit on the gumtree and brick lane idiots who so far are doing their shit pretty much in the open.

Again, I am pretty much out of my depth here.

Don't stop Richie, I was with you up to that point.

Of course buying a stolen bike is bad, I don't think anyone is saying otherwise. But it seems pretty clear that she's just naive and she turned down an offer to buy the bike back off her - so she obviously feels guilty and upset, lesson learnt. Helping her build up a beater at a cheap price seems like a nice thing to do, and I'm all about doing nice things these days - wasted too much of my life on anger and conflict.

what about just giving the girl some free advice on how to avoid the sitch again? the same way that (leading on from my little sook ^^^) everyone on the forum should be doing with friends. we have all been asked advice by someone about buying a bike. we should be making it clear that it is not fucking on to buy from brick lane, and that gumtree is dodge county.

(if you are winding me up, fuck it, you win :P)

I'm curious to know just how common this whole situation is. Someone mentioned that the bike looked powdercoated, and I agree, so I'm assuming the thief had to take apart the entire bike to get the frame off to Armourtex. Sounds like a whole criminal operation.

I'm curious too.. She said she bought it for £150. The seller must have powdercoated it, with the forks, so that's more than £60 gone out of his potential profit of £150. He must have had all the tools needed to strip it + reassemble it at his disposal, too. Something doesn't add up here..

Hang on, all this stalking amourtex business, the girl had the phone number of the bloke she bought it from. Surely we should be trying to get hold of this?

I'm curious too.. She said she bought it for £150. The seller must have powdercoated it, with the forks, so that's more than £60 gone out of his potential profit of £150. He must have had all the tools needed to strip it + reassemble it at his disposal, too. Something doesn't add up here..

Maybe the seller stole it from the original thief....

Hang on, all this stalking amourtex business, the girl had the phone number of the bloke she bought it from. Surely we should be trying to get hold of this?

And do what with a PAYG mobile number that probably isn't used any more?

lpg, I've heard of powdercoat for £40 and frankly if some scrote nicks the bike to get £30 of gear and the dealer moves it to the powdercoater for £45 who flogs it for the not unreasonable bike price of £150 he's going to make about £70 out of the deal (doesn't have to profit from his own respraying). Not bad for an afternoon's work.

Hang on, all this stalking amourtex business, the girl had the phone number of the bloke she bought it from. Surely we should be trying to get hold of this?
no stalking going on here, i meant... if your bike was stolen, maybe it would be a good idea to give them a pic so that they can contact you, if it turns up there.

woah, i bought my current bike from brick lane but from a dealer i KNOW is legit, he is there every week, gives receipts and has a designated plot there from which to sell. brick lane is not a complete right off, just the majority.

How does everyone know it's power coated? It looks painted from the picture but I don't see how everyone can tell it's powder coated from that little picture.

woah, i bought my current bike from brick lane but from a dealer i KNOW is legit, he is there every week, gives receipts and has a designated plot there from which to sell. brick lane is not a complete right off, just the majority.

you know what you are doing. as this case proves, if not, best to stay away, shirely?

you know what you are doing. as this case proves, if not, best to stay away, shirely?

absolutely.

And do what with a PAYG mobile number that probably isn't used any more?

The thieves probably aren't that smart, or wouldn't do it every time they sold off a job lot of bikes presumably. It's surely the best lead?

no stalking going on here, i meant... if your bike was stolen, maybe it would be a good idea to give them a pic so that they can contact you, if it turns up there.

Great idea, we should definitely follow this up and establish a contact there with the forum.

^ You underestimate them. And even if you got the number, then what?

Can't believe you really considered of building her a bike, even at cost! Fuck me sideways, I'm going to nick a nice Pista Concept or Cinelli Mash, just what I'm after. If I get caught you lot will sort me out with something anyway. What a great community!

Glad you got your bike back though. Fuck the girl, what did she think she's doing? Just because you don't know doesn't mean you're not guilty!

Despite what many people think I do doubt that you have to return stolen goods that you bought in good faith unless there is a totally solid proof that they were. I also doubt that in the case described anything but a frame number and a receipt would have gotten the police to seize the bike and return it.

The girl was unfortunate/silly in buying stolen goods but was damn honourable in returning them without being arsy about it --she could have said no receipt no bike -- and not accepting the money back.

There are millions of people who would have said 'no receipt no bike', told the police to take away robofoxx locks and ridden in the sunset with the bike. The law unfortunately sides often with the less scrupulous party (been in that unpleasant situation).

I have no spare bits but I'm happy to donate 25 quid if a substitute bike happens.

Click the image, tommy, it's massive. Still .. it could be spraypainted .. which would make more sense.

^ You underestimate them. And even if you got the number, then what?

Give it to the police to do their job. Maybe they do change phones, maybe they don't. There's no way of knowing without phoning it, for which you need their number.

I'm curious too.. She said she bought it for £150. The seller must have powdercoated it, with the forks, so that's more than £60 gone out of his potential profit of £150. He must have had all the tools needed to strip it + reassemble it at his disposal, too. Something doesn't add up here..

Plumbing pliers are surprisingly effective at removing old headsets and BB's and looking at the picture they didn't completely remove the headset anyway. We have no idea how sound the build quality is at the minute so don't be fooled by the difficulty of stripping an old frame down and then re-building with incorrect tools.

Maybe the thiefs arrange a group discount to maximise their profit with whoever does their powdercoating/re-spraying. Doesn't matter really as we're never going to devote the time and effort into investigating this and neither, it would seem, will the police.

Lock your bikes well people and keep looking for all the stolen bikes we know of. This is probably the best we can do.

well done robofoxx. knowing or not the bike was stolen and i am happy the is back with the owner. if people didn't buy stolen stuff there would be no marketplace and all the fucktards who steal bikes would have no "job"

Maybe the girl powdercoated it after buying it? Thus negating the theif / powdercoat conundrum altogether!!

I have no spare bits but I'm happy to donate 25 quid if a substitute bike happens.
that's what i like about this forum, offering money to a complete stranger who had the misfortune to purchase a stolen bike unwittingly, i hope it stays this way.