What to do if your bike is stolen

Why you should register your bike...

Stolen Brompton bikes that had been marked were returned to their grateful owners today.

As tweeted by @bikeregister: #cycletaskforce http://t.co/YtRH6iIK

Sympathy for all of you guys who had their entire bike's nicked. Just got out of the Cat and Mutton to find that my rear wheel had been taken from my bike locked on the railings outside. If anyone sees a black deep V on a blue phil hub (pretty distinctive...) being sold, I will reward. Better still, if you can get a photo of the fucker's face... It's not so much the thing but the principle of the matter. These people need to feel pain!

Outside the cat & mutton seems to be a hotpsot for wanton bike thievery as this has happened to a few of my friends aswell, their entire bikes were stolen

Wanton bike?

Try calling the police or take photo's of him and send them to the Police. I am sure they would like a nice easy collar :)

Bike taken yesterday, bike recovered today. Relief.

Nicely done CTF. They responded quickly to a daft ad placed on Gumtree in the morning, calling me to say that my bike was safe by the afternoon. Throughout the process (a good few emails were sent back and forth) they were pleasantly informal and quick to respond to any queries.

On the subject of arranging a date between rozzers and tea leaf, the advice from the CTF was not to contact the thief directly. I'm not knocking a more involved strategy, and I can well understand the desire for activity (thumb twiddling was excruciating), but the official line was that I should leave it to the professionals. In the end, action was taken very quickly on my behalf.

All in all, dealing with the CTF was a very reassuring experience.

Awesome.

OK, I'd better check with the CTF what I should put in the first post. I have the feeling that different officers in different parts of the police have different preferences for how to operate. It probably all works out in the end, but I want to have that all cleared up.

Brilliant result, Nick. Really glad to hear it. Make sure you tell people about how good the CTF is.

So now I don't know whether to advise people to use Immobilise or CTF...

^They don't offer the same service.

The CTF recommends bike registration (their preferred partner is apparently bikeregister.com; though Immobilise is also on their radar).

I am depressed. dang - why do people steal bikes - why oh why

If anyone is missing parts: http://iambrianjones.posterous.com/police-in-hackney-recover-stolen-bike-parts

From 'Cycling' 28th October 1908

“Bicycle thefts still continue numerous, and during the past week offenders have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment at Wellington, Moreton and Ipswich, among other places.”

Should be stickied?

It is stickied.

Hey today my Genesis Vapour cyclocross was stolen outside the fitness first on City Road (Angel).
It has a dented right handle bar and scratches on the main frame. The seat may also be slightly blue from when I got caught it in the rain wearing dark jeans

If anyone sees it/an ad for it etc please let me know. The bike was a gift and I desperately want it back

Cheers
Seonaid

If my bike get stolen I get totally crazy!

\csb

Yesterday my friend managed to retrieve a stolen bike that a fellow lfgss member spotted on gumtree. The following advice is based on what worked for us (and is mainly a repost from the stolen bikes thread):

If you see your stolen bike for sale online this is what to do:

Arrange to meet the seller by text message in a busy public place, during the week, and in daylight hours. (eg; a tube station).
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, so in arranging the meeting yourself, you will be bypassing a lot of red tape, and allowing 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, whilst 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.

I have been looking for a bike secondhand on Gumtree and Ebay. Been doing quite well so far in finding sellers who have all the requisite info to prove it's theirs and they came by it honestly. Unfortunately for me the frame sizes always turn out too big.

I've just rung the guy about a ridgeback velocity advertised on gumtree. It's got a stock photograph. info in the title includes that it's 15" is a ladies frame and gives the retail price and it's age.

and I'm pretty sure it's a stolen bike...

I asked him if he had proof of purchase - "yes yes of course"
I said can I ask the reason for selling - "i don't think you are a real buyer" and hung up immediately!

What can I do?
It's not my bike which I'm suspecting is stolen, and I'm not in a fit state to go and meet him.
Any ideas, I'm pretty sure from his responses and his general shifty demeanor that he's moving someone's stolen bike on.

Remove the link from your post, novanino, or he will spot it and the ad will disappear very quickly (as it may do, anyway).

You can report such instances to the Cycle Task Force, and it can add to their evidence base, but they may not be able to take immediate action.

See some more info here:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread52193.html

Done. I thought it worth linking in case anyone is hunting for a bike that matches the description.

He didn't sound that bright to be honest. I doubt he'd have the nous to do that.

Just emailed cycle task force on the address given. Cheers.

Just spotted this over on CTC....might be usefull to add to the toolkit

http://bikefinder.stolen-bikes.co.uk/

great tips. my bike was stolen first day at university!

The Met Police Cycle task force are speanding lots of time at LookMumNohands, old street offering bike marking etc...

i got mine marked a few months back...don't think it'll stop it getting nicked but you might get lucky and recover it