Bike Theft Etiquette

I have an unfortunate conundrum. Had a lovely Major Nichols FG stolen from my garage last night, along with two of my housemates bikes. Insurance won't cover it as there are no signs of forced entry, which suggests that somebody in my house left the door open.

Now I know I will get flamed for 1) not having my bike insured separately 2) not insisting on keeping my bike in the house. These are both fair points, but our garage door does have good locks (if you lock it), insurance would have covered it (if you have locked it), and my housemates constantly put my bike in the garage when I leave it inside. I have frequently hammered home the need to lock securely and CHECK (even though we don't live in a high theft area).

Obviously someone in my house left the door open last night, but asking a student for £700 combined for the 3 bikes is nigh on impossible, as well as a little unfair. Any ideas on how to resolve the situation such that the atmosphere in my accomodation doesn't become unbearable?

To quote a certain person in the news at present, shoot the offender, tear of their head and pour acid down the hole.
Alternatively why not try to discuss it and come to a mutually agreeable solution.??

ride the student to work?

or delete this thread [evidence] and fake the break in dude.

When I lent my bike to my cousin for the day, it got nicked despite him using 3 locks on it (damn thieves). Obviously I was annoyed but it really wasnt his fault and didnt expect him to pay me anything, but he insisted that he pay me back. To compromise, i said he could give me some money for just wheels and frame because he didnt have much money.However, if your housemate hasnt locked the garage properly then it really is his fault and he should be a good enough human to own up and pay his dues, or at least offer to pay part of the replacement

Seriously?

If one of your housemates left the door open and often move your bike into a less than safe location then it's their fault and their responsibility. If insurance won't cover it, they should at least give what they can towards a replacement.

I'm sure he can find £700. Student loan should be coming through in Jan, right?...

I'm sure he can find £700. Student loan should be coming through in Jan, right?...

They'd only spend the loan on booze otherwise, tbh.

Unfortunately I don't think the culprit understands the fact that some bikes are quite valuable.

The perfectly innocent statement when I texted round to ask if anyone had noticed if was open this morning was "how weird, my bike was closest to the door and it was still there ."

Answer - because it is a 15 year old Appollo MTB that weighs about 400kg.

I am fairly sure that convincing somebody who knows or cares nothing about bikes that you could easily spend £400 and only have accounted for wheels and frame would be nigh on impossible.

Obvious moral of the story - don't live with people who don't understand.

"Obviously someone in my house left the door open last night"

But has the person responsible admitted to it? puts a rather different complexion on matters.

Unfortunately I don't think the culprit understands the fact that some bikes are quite valuable.

Only one way to educate them!

No, she says she checks every time she shuts it, and I'm sure to her recollection she has. But neither I nor my fellow victims have been in since the start of the week, and she goes in every morning without fail.

In every other respect as a housemate she is extremely thoughtful and conscientious, I just think it was a lapse of judgement and an unfortunate lack of understanding about bike value rather than stinginess. Somebody who knows and cares how much bikes are worth would a) always check the locks b) be getting ready to fork up a wodge of guilt money.

Suffice to say from this point forward, I'm going nuclear on insurance. Open door policy all the way.

Fake a break in to the house, steal the ipods / macs / prosumer SLRS / tablets / that belong to your housemates and toddle down to cash coverters and pop into a bike shop on the way home.

Sorted.

obviously she didn't mean to do it but it's outright neglect, which means she is just as guilty. why should you be out of pocket £700 because she was careless. explain to her why it costs so much, show her the equivalent from online shops/here/ebay etc. Say that you cannot afford to replace it and shouldn't have to and see if you can come to some sort of arrangement for compensation. leaving it alone will just build your resentment for her.

How sure are you that it wasn't forced? I would look more into the security of the locks, and do some research to see if there's any vulnerabilities.

I thought I'd left our door open, despite never having done it before, when we were burgled recently but the police said it was easy to slip open. Sure enough the lock showed the signs a couple of weeks later and broke of it's own accord.

What lock is it?

this^
theives are ridiculously clever, similiarly when we were burgled we assumed the backdoor was left open but where told by the SOCOs that it was forced entry albeit crafty forced entry

As a further point, anyone got any ideas on how I might best go about tracking it down (at least as an outside chance). Two things which are out of my favour:

a) Southampton doesn't have a used bike 'scene' that i could go and check out.

b) My bike has a flat, the tyres are super tight (need serious effort with metal levers), and I have deep rims which require a presta extension (which I don't keep on the bike).

Whatever pikey has nicked it will therefore be unable to ride it, and it will be hard to sell a bike which a customer cannot ride away. Since there is not the same 'scene' as there is in London, there is not an obvious place to go and look. My worry is that it will be either stored or dumped.

http://www.gumtree.com/sports-leisure-travel/southampton

also setup an ebay alert.

I'd point at http://bikeshd.co.uk/ but its only good for london sadly

This is really tragic.

Presume it was a forced entry. Report the theft.

Tell the fuzz just how rare these bikes are, maybe they'll realise there's a decent chance it could be recovered ... make sure you post a good description/photo on all the forums... Retrobike and CTC in particular, someone might spot it. And here! What colour is it? Size? Details of frame?

I'm really sad for you.

I hadn't even quite finished building it up, so no photos. It's a gunmetal grey Major Nichols built frame, circa early 1980's with 'Phil Corley' lettering on the downtube in white. 56/54 frame size (if I recall correctly). Black Brooks B17, some of Varno's deep V black rims laced to brand new 105 hubs, BLB toeclips with black leather double footstraps, drops with black cotton bartape, Cane Creek levers, modern Campag Veloce on rear, no front brake (hadn't even finished building it), old mismatched tyres with conti gumwall on rear.

It's a pain in the ass, but I'm OK about it. It may yet reappear, hopefully the fact that it's not in rideable condition means that somebody will have to sell online rather than down the pub, so I stand more chance of finding it on gumtree or eBay. Police were helpful but I don't have much faith that they'll turn anything up. The fact it's highly distinctive and they have an excellent description should raise the chances a little of getting it back.

My feeling is that it may be sold in full or part to someone in the large Southampton student population, in which case since I work on the campus I would be highly likely to see it at some point. If that happens and I stick a D lock on it, what are my legal rights to recovery if somebody has bought it? (realise there is probably a thread for this, sorry)

That's shit news and probably why a lot of insurers take a dim view of multiple occupancy households.

My delinquent flat mate cut his girlfriend some keys once and she couldn't understand why I was furious when she didn't lock the door properly which was every time... She no longer has keys.

p.s. I hope you get it back!

If you see it and stick a D-lock on it I'm pretty sure your entitled to it back if you can prove to the police that it is your bike, generally speaking if you buy stolen goods and the police find out or whatever then they are confiscated from the buyer as evidence. In your case it would then end up being returned to you once they had chased up whoever sold them the bike etc, its down to the buyer to make sure everything is legit. People think to HPI check with cars but it goes for everything really, people are stupid!

I hope it does show up, I would crawl into a hole and cry if my bike was stolen!

If you spot it, totally D-Lock it (though maybe not the rider if someones on it, I suspect that would be assault), the fact its been stolen doesn't mean it isn't yours. If you find out who was riding it/bought it, push for the police to at least caution them for handling stolen goods.

This is one of the methods availiable to help stop thefts. If you do get it back, and the person is issued with a caution, try and get it into the student/local paper. If people know that people are being done for handling stolen goods having bought cheap bikes, they might be a bit more wary about buying dodgy biikes, which should cut the demand, and thus cut the theft rate. Thats the theory anyway.

So based on the insurance co's argument, any break-in that has not left obvious damage, i.e. lock picks/bumps, bouffing doors etc won't be paid out on? Bollocks. I've had two cars emptied where they haven't left a mark on them, yet half a dozen failed attempts where they have obliterated the locks on various cars and got no-where. Clever-thief vs. fail-thief.

One mans good lock is another mans joke lock.

If it was infact left unlocked and you can proove which one it was, make them pay, their ignorance that other peoples property just might have value does not wash.