As title, this seems way too cheap to me. It has no stickers on it and the kid knows nothing about it. Not concrete proof I know, but thought it seemed a bit suss.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/761960167199977/permalink/1325886887473966/?sale_post_id=1325886887473966

One would be forced to concur that the gentleman’s advertisement appears as dodgy as ****.

Well bugger me sideways – it’s a Cotic BFe with RS Reba forks, DT Swiss x1900 wheels, SLX cranks, SLX rear mech I think too. 203mm front brake disk and 180mm rear. Can’t remember if the brakes are avid or shimano.

It used to be pink under that amateur blue paint job and used to have White pedals.

Unable to upload a picture but don’t know how. Can email it to someone if they are able to.

Stolen from Tal y Bont near Barmouth in Wales a year ago in October I think it was along with a Carrera Blast boys bike in green with blue pedals.

Tried sending the horrible little turd a message but for some reason it won’t go through.

They should change the group name to Stolen Bike Exchange. Half the adverts look just as dodgy as that one.

whytesky email me, I will upload it for you. Email address in my profile.

He looks like a charming young man on his face book page really don’t think he would be dealing in nicked bike do you !

Thank you rumbledethumps. Appreciated.

I’ve emailed you. I know nothing will come of people comparing the similarities on here but at least you can all see the OP was right in the theory that it is indeed stolen.

Tried contacting Wrexham police but there’s no answer. I don’t for one minute believe I’d get it back but I want them to know he’s handling stolen goods.

August 28th it was stolen.

Here you go mate. Hoping you get it back (albeit with an unwanted paint job).

Disappointing to see how many people are interested in a clearly dodgy bike. You kind of think people would stay clear but seemingly people just want a bargain stolen or not.

Absolutely disgusting, bike theft really angers me. For starters the law needs to get tougher, take it seriously and hand out long sentences.

The turd even has the audacity to answer people asking him questions about the bike like make model and year and he answers with “haven’t got a glue”

He might as well say it’s stolen.

Someone needs to drive over to buy it and take it back.

For starters the law needs to get tougher, take it seriously and hand out long sentences

Exactly this. It’s as if the police don’t even consider bike theft a crime these day – even for bikes that are worth thousands. Mate at work had his bike stolen from his shed. Police weren’t remotely interest and said it wouldn’t be taken any further. They guy found his bike for sale on Gumtree the following week, notified the police, yet they still nothing.

Disappointing to see how many people are interested in a clearly dodgy bike. You kind of think people would stay clear but seemingly people just want a bargain stolen or not.

We had some building work done on our house. About six months in our builders had all their tools stolen. I asked what would happen to the tools, they said that it was common to have someone turn up in their local pub offering cheap tools for sale. They were all *annoyed* their stuff had been stolen, but equally had all bought tools this way. Bizarre.

Police weren’t remotely interest and said it wouldn’t be taken any further. They guy found his bike for sale on Gumtree the following week, notified the police, yet they still nothing.

This is remarkably negligent of them.

What is the (police) complaints process? Have you pursued/followed up?

1: Take some lads and recover bike. Leathering the pikey little shot optional.

2:Find local Daily Mail owned Newspaper, pass on all details of police incompetence including names. Sell the story in a “scandal of our lazy police” way to create maximum likelihood of follow up by journo
3:do some on Wrexham Police social media channels. Basically create a shitstorm that highlights how useless they are

The police will not do anything unless you put pressure on them, even then you have to do all of the detective work.
My Barry white inbred was stolen last year, the guy had it up for sale the next day on Gumtree. The phone number in the add lead me to his girlfriend’s facebook page. They were selling all sorts of stuff through her page. I had to push the police really hard to get them to go and recover it. When they eventually went around to arrest him, he’d started to break it up. I got all the bits apart from the frame, dropper post and saddle.

To date, there has not been a conviction. He claimed that he bought it at a car boot sale.It comes down to his word against mine!

If your bike is stolen and you find it, get as much information as you can. If you can keep calm, ring the number and arrange to view. Get the address, you shouldn’t try to recover it yourself. The guy who had mine had previous for assault.

Good luck!

The post seems to have been removed.

He upped the price to £250 then marked it as sold and now he’s removed the post.

Oh well, I just hope that one day he gets what’s coming to him. I’m a big believer in karma and I’m sure a day will come when it catches up with him.

I loved that bike. Built it up myself from scratch and it was the first bike I felt truly at one with. I have since got me a Cotic Rocket which I also love so it’s not all bad.

I looked at the FB post earlier 🙁
It’s awful that someone’s beautiful and well loved bike gets stolen and trashed like that and then sold by a little shit.

Thing is with all this macho vigilante stuff is they might not be the person who stole it, it’s clear there is a market for stolen goods so you may be going bat shit crazy on the wrong person

He might not have stolen it, but it’s clearly a dodgy advert. It’s obvious that it has been stolen.

A little update for you all on this.

Yesterday morning I called North Wales police to report the fact that a bike stolen from me had appeared for sale on facebook.

After an initial wrangle with the operator who questioned how I could be sure it was my bike (only doing his job and understandable questions given it was only one picture and it was a completely different colour!) I was transferred through to Barmouth Police Station.

PC X (shan’t name him in case he doesn’t want to be named) asked plenty of questions about the bike, about the original theft and about where and how I’d seen it for sale. He said he’d get back in touch once they’d looked into it a wee bit more.

Sure enough – another call. A few more questions, emails exchanged with pictures of the bike being built etc.

A wee bit later, Sergeant X from Dolgellau Police Station called to advise that PC X was en route to Wrexham to arrest the guy selling the bike.

Last night I got a call to say that they’d arrested him, taken him into custody and questioned him. They’d also searched his house. Sadly the bike had sold two hours previous and he’d managed to delete all the messages exchanged between him and the buyer.

He also claimed to have bought the bike on bookface the previous summer. Completely believable and impossible to prove otherwise. The fact remains though, he will have known it was stolen at the time he allegedly purchased it so he is still in the wrong.

So, the bike is unrecovered. I hadn’t expected it to be recovered so I’m not too fussed by that anyway – it wasn’t the reason I’d called the police. If it had been recovered I would have sold it and donated the proceeds to Barmouth Lifeboats. I will still be making a donation – unconnected to the police in many respects but they work closely together.

What I am over the moon about is the way in which North Wales Police handled it. I cannot believe how seriously they took the matter and how swiftly they responded. Sure, they didn’t get there in time to catch the scumbag in possession but that’s life. Even if they had got there in time I’d imagine a conviction would have been difficult for them to achieve anyway.

The bottom line is though, Mr Dylan Bagnall – if you weren’t already, you’re now known to the police. I actually suspect you’re known to them anyway so this incident is one extra mark on your cards. You got away with it this time but your Sunday was ruined by a knock on the door from the boys in blue. I hope your cold roast dinner was nice when you got home. I’m sure you’ll be bragging about it to your mates but in truth, I bet a little bit of poo came out while you were being arrested, held in custody and questioned.

His facebook page is gone. He’s presumably stupid enough to think that deleting a facebook account removes all evidence of stuff you’ve posted previously. He set up another one with a single picture – a picture of one of his dangerous looking dogs but it disappeared soon after. Were you trying to convey a message Dylan? You sad sad man.

There’s another page with the same name but they have a middle name – I suspect he’s his son. I hope he turns out to be a better person than his father.

Anyway, that’s it. I can only say that North Wales Police were absolutely amazing. I thought, like many have said on here, that they wouldn’t really care but they did. It seems their mentality is that if they investigate the “grass roots” of crime so to speak, it leads to bigger things.

PC X from Barmouth, thank you – I’ve no idea if you’re allowed to accept gifts but there’s a bottle of whiskey or a bottle of fine wine with your name on it when I pass through in March.

Thank you also to the OP, peanutcracknell. Without your vigilance this never would have got to where it did.

That’s heartening. Well done North Wales Police.

Big thumbs up.

Bang on they know it’s robbed …wait for the rat and knock f##k out of him and his mates !

Can police contact facebook to track down the old messages between buyer and seller?

Shame not to get it back, but hey, at least they had a fair crack at retrieving it.

yorkshire89 – I’m sure they probably could but in all honesty I very much doubt it would be worth their while.

Sure, it may help recover the bike but I doubt it would get a conviction. No way would I expect or even want North Wales Police to use valuable resource to achieve something which is of no benefit to them. I’d only want them to spend time and money if they’re likely to achieve something.

I was actually quite embarrassed that PC X took so much time out of his day to travel from Barmouth to Wrexham. And then back again!

Did anyone happen to save an image of the Bfe in blue as it was advertised?

Yes, me. No idea how to post it here but I can email it to you.

The “I just sold it” excuse seems to be a common one. I suspect it should be “I knew it was dodgy so keep it at my mate’s in case the fuzz come round”.

No, he really did sell it. He marked it up as SOLD on his facebook page yesterday afternoon and then he deleted the ad. Or someone did. Presumably when PC X knocked on his door.

I also know it was sold because I’ve just had an email from the buyer!

I also know it was sold because I’ve just had an email from the buyer!

Plot thickens. 🙂

Indeed it does. I’m contemplating posting his email up here (minus the name – that wouldn’t be fair) but he seems like a genuine chap.

I also know it was sold because I’ve just had an email from the buyer!

I’d be suggesting to him to return the bike to you or face being passed to the police himself. Suggest to him that he should go and see the little rat he bought it off to arrange a cash refund there & then.

Regardless whether that Dylan kid nicked or just fenced it, he’s clearly a wrongun and deserves anything that happens to him as a result. Sadly, the system doesn’t punish hard enough for what some perceive as low level crime.

I’m not gonna be doing that andyrm. I’m not sure the seller is the sort of person that the buyer would be comfortable approaching.

If you and the buyer go back to the police with the bike, surely they have the ability to extract the cash from Dylan Bagnall*? They’ve been helpful enough so far, so perhaps having the bike as evidence may help get a conviction?

* let’s keep his name up the search engine listings

but he seems like a genuine chap

He genuinely thought he was just getting a great deal by buying a bike from a facebook page that the seller appeared to know nothing about? Or did he genuinely believe that the deal was worth turning a blind eye to the fact that it was clearly stolen? If it’s the latter, he’s exactly the reason people steal bikes…

Interesting end to the story. Some sort of closure OP.

orangespyderman – He genuinely thought he was just getting a great deal by buying a bike from a facebook page that the seller appeared to know nothing about? Or did he genuinely believe that the deal was worth turning a blind eye to the fact that it was clearly stolen? If it’s the latter, he’s exactly the reason people steal bikes…

Or did he genuinely buy it so the evidence didnt go missing and now they have the seller and the goods and is willing to work with the original owner and the police in getting someone punished for it?

You wanna buy a bridge?

Or did he genuinely buy it so the evidence didnt go missing and now they have the seller and the goods and is willing to work with the original owner and the police in getting someone punished for it?

Or this, yes. If it’s this, then he definitely deserves pints/pies/pudding.