Found a Stolen High End Bike - what to do?

[Meleager7]

So, our house backs onto Commercial, and there is about 20-25 feet of small trees, scrub brush between my property and the commercial back lot.

3 Days ago I noticed someone had ditched an intact black bicycle back there. I figured it was someones crappy bike , they wanted to get rid of it , and illegally dumped it there.

I figured I'd deal with it today.

I go have a look and the bike is not crap, its a high end Cannondale mountain bike. I looked online and that model goes for near $1500 new. And between Thursday and today, the back tire has been removed !

So clearly this was not a thief ditching a stolen bike, but rather a place they've stashed it, since they returned to the site to part out the bike.

I decided to report it to the cops, and they said an officer won't collect the bike, it will be the Summons Unit who will come on Monday to collect what is left of it.

I took the bike out of the bushes, and I'll store in my house until Monday.

The reason I took it, is because I fully expect the thief to return for the rest, and with it being gone now I want them to know their hiding spot is compromised, and hope that they will move on.

My question to you guys , is what are the chances this low life will come back, see "his" (insert twisted logic here ) bike is now gone, lash out and put a brick through my window on his way out!??

I figure if i had just left it and done nothing, there'd be a new stolen bike in that spot in a week or two .....

Thoughts please!!?

thanks,

M7

[bellicose]

Unless he saw you do it, any experience I've had in similar situations, is they'll move on.

[coyote]

Bike thief doesn't know you found the bike.

Keep doing the right thing and don't worry about that dirtbag. As far as he knows another turd made off with the rest of his score.

That's assuming he returns.

[FredMnkyDad10]

He likely will think the commercial ppl took it away during clean up or some else saw it and took it.

I doubt he would spend much energy trying to figure out who. He would just move on to another victim stealing their bike.

[glaman5266]

This was my thought. If it was closer to the commercial building/property the perp might not even try to figure out who took it (if the person is smart enough to know what's good for him/herself). I'd just keep a close eye on the backside of your property for a little while just in case.

[BrickHaus]

Okay, hear me out... you got a rattle can?? Lmao.

But in all seriousness, Ive had friends get ownership of nice bikes legally as they would buy them from crack heads, or find them dumped like yours. They would call the police, and get told we don't have time to mess with a stolen bike. So said friends would get a report from the police that no bike was reported stolen at the time of acquisition, and bam. They own it.

Its kinda lame, but I know at least 3 friends who got high end bikes over the years.

[the_matrix_guy]

Either way, it’s not a bad idea to put up some security cams. Security cameras have come along long way, resolution has gotten much better, lots of companies don’t even require subscription, and many models are solar powered and can record all night at 1080p and you can use a dedicated hard drive to dvr everything via wi-fi with no required monthly sub. The monthly subs are usually reserved for cloud uploading services nowadays. The wired options are better though if you dont mind having an electrician install them or maybe you are handy with the electrical. But overall its a good deterrent, IMO. Technically speaking anyone can cover their face and still commit a crime but, like I said, its an added level of security that can nudge someone to go elsewhere for their shenanigans

[Tracker]

bike should have serials, hopefully whoever it got stolen from filed a police report with those serials

if not, like brick said, "possession is 9/10ths"

you can check with local cyclist groups on FB to see if theres a place to report found bikes

[Chuck E Ducky]

Yeah that will be registered with a Canendale dealer. I bet you can find the owner if you run the numbers on it. I bet if you email Canendale you can find the original owner.

[Pumpytrilly1]

He probably stole that bike to fix his bike. Doesn't care or realize it's value as Walmart has high value looking bikes. Cops will come grab it and auction it off when no one claims it. Life goes on

[zinger565]

Bike Registry and Bike Index will let you run a search on the serial number and see if anyone has reported it stolen.

http://bikeregistry.com/search_bike.php

https://bikeindex.org/bikes?stolenness

[chrislognshot]

find rightful owner

[Meleager7]

Thanks for all the input, police summons unit will come Monday to pick up what's left of the bike, and hopefully they can trace the owner and get it back to them.

I'll be keeping the back porch light, and front porch lights on overnight for the next little while.

I am hoping you guys might be right , that the thief will probably just move along, and get back to ruining other peoples days.....we'll see! I hope it doesn't escalate to the point of needing to put in cameras

I did warn my neighbours on each side of me there is clearly an active thief in the neighborhood , and to make sure they lock up all their cars, sheds, etc at night

Other than hiding in those bushes, dressed as the clown from the movie IT, I think i have done all i can do for now!

Cheers, M7

[Tarsun2]

they cant really ask the manager, "hey, what happened to my stolen bike that i ditched back behind your building...".
also the bike was probably stolen because it was quick and easy. Tracking you down and getting deeper into it is probably not something he'd be looking to get into.
cameras are great and have been useful for us in recovering probably over a grand in merchandise at this point. (and its not a thief like you'd think).
believe it or not, the biggest loss to us is when USPS, FedEx, or UPS marks an item as delivered and dosent actually deliver the item. Well watch the cameras and watch the truck drive buy and never stop, then 10 minutes later, it will say delivered. Sometimes it say delivered before the truck even comes by. super frustrating.
$500 window AC
$200 multi tool
and a bunch of small stuff in the 5 years that we've been at the house.

$1,500 is not that much in the mountain bike world. A good quality entry level mountain bike will start at that price and go up from there. They dont hold their value very well either. At 1500, the rims and front sus' are probably the most valuable parts. you can check the value of most used bikes on "bike blue book".
(just as a reference, when i rode often (about 5 or 6 years ago) i rode a Santa Cruz V10 with a PUSH tuned rear and a BOXXER WC fork).

i agree that you should have done what you did too. its nice to hear someone doing the right thing.

[Tracker]

2k is full squish minimum, 1500 will get you a mid tier alloy hardtail

[Paintslinger16]

I can tell you from the point of view of having a car stolen, we didn’t want it found after the second day of notification of insurance company.

Don’t get me wrong having it stolen sucked, ( my car but my son had it out of state, got car jacked with no injuries)
for many reasons.
But once reported to police, and him initially getting interrogated to rule out him having something to do with it.
All that starts over with the insurance company, about four days later all the hurtles are over, insurance was about to pay out and they found it abandoned.
it had already been towed and was in the private impound lot, it was trashed inside and out needed tires and brakes, the key was missing and was involved in at least 4 robberies was chased or my plate was reported.
Robbers had my key, I had to pay the tow, the impound fee, the cleaning, the key and new brakes and tires.

it’s not like I would have made money, but all that cost me money.

[punkncat]

I sold a car to a guy that I knew...would say "a friend" but you find things aren't as they seemed sometimes after having some perspective. Anyway, this was back a bit before all the computers and cameras that could tie things together, so leaving with a valid (looking) tag could ride for months and up to that year. Probably six or seven months later I get a call from the Miami Police Dept. asking me if I owned a light blue Isuzu Impulse and when the last time I had been to Miami was. The short of it turned out that the car had been used in a couple of high profile drug deals, gotten involved in a massive shootout and left abandoned on the side of a road just down from the altercation. One side of the car looked like swiss cheese, no glass, tires all down, holes in everything. They wanted to know if I was going to come get it and pay the impound fees...."nope". Signed a bit of paper they sent over and that was that.

[MAr]

Check Garage 529 see if it is registered

https://project529.com/garage