I don’t think it matters if the buyer is genuine or not. He has bought something that the seller had no right to sell. He should give it back to the OP. It doesn’t matter if he is out of pocket.

I’ve nothing to add, other than:

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.

Is exactly what happened to me when my bikes were nicked. 2 bikes nicked, one turned up for sale on Gumtree a few weeks later and you could clearly see the other under a sheet in the pics. In fact, they’ve now been up for sale on Gumtree on 3 separate occasions.

Did they do anything? Did they ****….

I don’t think it matters if the buyer is genuine or not. He has bought something that the seller had no right to sell. He should give it back to the OP. It doesn’t matter if he is out of pocket.

Exactly. Most of the bits on that bike belong to the OP, and need to be returned to him ASAP. The rest of it needs to be handed to the police, along with a statement about who he bought it from and when.

If, after that, the two of them want to come to an arrangement about the parts, that’s a separate transaction between them.

A bit of honesty gets him a pat on the back, but nothing else.

Lots of bar-stool lawyers on this thread. Not to mention “nails” vigilantes who think nothing of confronting scrotes on their turf, prior to marching them down the cashpoint to get the readies presumably.

Yeah right.

End of the day the buyer had no need to do what he’s done. He ran a couple of checks and he made a judgement call. Turned out to be wrong and he was man enough to own up and try to sort it out. He could so easily have kept shtum and nobody’s any the wiser.

Respect to him. As for culpability, a quick check online will tell you that you can’t be done for unwittingly buying stolen goods. However, if once you become aware that they’re stolen you don’t then inform the police, you could become liable. Seems like by contacting the original owner the buyer has covered that one off.

To all those who are critical of the buyer, I’m assuming that at some point you’ve bought 2nd hand online. Be it ebay, gumtree, pinkbike or even this venerable forum. Can you honestly, hand on heart, say that you know 100% – without a shadow of a doubt – that every bike, part, component, accessory, lifestyle gadget or whatever wasn’t nicked at some point?

Of course you can’t.

And regarding the argument re paint job on the bike. When I was a kid I used to respray my bike from time to time. I’m sure the quality was terrible, but it didn’t mean that I’d nicked it..

Woody- One word.

Resources.

Don’t blame the foot soldiers, blame the mess on those who created it, Westminster.

all of this makes me wonder what you guys would say if someone bought a bike: “normal” price from someone who knows bikes.

so no red flags

and it turns out to be stolen.

would buyer of such bike be in the wrong? would he have to return the bike?
just wondering.

Funkrodent pretty much has it. whytesky and the buyer are both trying to do the right thing now (even if the buyer has made a mistake in buying it in the first place). Suggesting going round the buyer’s house and threatening him just makes you look stupid.

I had an Orange Alpine and a Lapierre Zesty 517 stolen from my garage in February. Both bikes turned up for sale on gumtree in Widnes a few days later, bear in mind I live 140 miles away.
I gave the police the sellers name,address and facebook details.
Because of inter force difficulties the police said it would be difficult to get the scrote arrested.
An amount of pressure was applied to said scrote and he gave the name of the person who he bought the bikes from, in my home town.
Eventually we got the police interested and said scrote was arrested.
He pleaded innocence and eventually convinced the police that he was a victim too!! Although if you had seen his FB page you would beg to differ.
However the police stuck at it and in December the thief from my home town was convicted of my bike thefts and a host of others plus conspiracy to supply drugs and was sent down for a few years.
So after a great deal of encouragement and a lot of work done by us and friends of ours Humberside police came up trumps.

If the guy found the stolen thread on here, he’s surely reading this thread too?!?

Can you honestly, hand on heart, say that you know 100% – without a shadow of a doubt – that every bike, part, component, accessory, lifestyle gadget or whatever wasn’t nicked at some point?

No I can’t say 100% but neither do I pat myself on the back for a kick ass bargain that seems a bit too good to be true. I’ve bought several second hand frames, couple of wheelsets etc and yes, somewhere between none and all of them could have been nicked but I bought them from here for the most part and I did some basic checks like asking for frame numbers and searching for them online. In this day and age, there’s not much more you can do.

It seems to me that the buyer of the stolen bike did check, and he didn’t think he was buying something too good to be true, because he wondered if it might be cracked or something under the paint.

It’s probably as well to not judge others too harshly when they don’t do things our own experiences have taught us to do.

It seems to me that the buyer of the stolen bike did check, and he didn’t think he was buying something too good to be true, because he wondered if it might be cracked or something under the paint.

Regardless of whether you thought the bike might be damaged under the paint job, the post screamed “nicked” – seller didn’t know anything about the bike, couldn’t answer any questions.

On the occasion I have bought second hand, I have always hit the seller with technical or difficult questions that only a genuine, knowledgeable owner is likely to know answers to, and then asked for original proof of purchase. If someone said “I don’t know anything about it”, I’d run a mile.

I guess the lesson is that due diligence is key when buying 2nd hand.

Good Evening STW’ers,

A little (or big and final) update for everyone.

I spoke to PC X today re the developments. I advised that the buyer contacted me and said they’d bought the bike, realised it was stolen, was willing to return bike, make statements, provide names, addresses, photos etc.

PC X said that having arrested and interviewed the seller, there would be no evidence that he’d stolen it. Furthermore, proving that he’d bought it or kept it knowing it was stolen would also be very difficult to prove given that he’d not admitted to knowing it was stolen during interview under caution.

In the defence of the buyer, PC X said that the seller seemed quite genuine about his story of buying it last June off Facebook and that his story, during interview, matched his mums story of her giving him the money for it for his birthday. PC X went on to say that despite how dodgy the ad looked, he doesn’t believe the lad stole the bike. Obviously doesn’t mean the seller is completely innocent of dodgy involvement in this bike but it shows that the buyer, having performed some checks and visited the home of the seller and also having seen the condition of the bike, was quite easily led to believe it was a genuine sale by a genuine muppet who genuinely had no idea about bikes.

So, that’s it. Case closed.

North Wales Police were amazing. Sure, they didn’t get there before the bike had sold but that’s down to logistics, resources and timing. Besides, lets face it, the end result would have been the same. Well, almost the same. They would have arrested and questioned the seller and seized the bike but ultimately they wouldn’t have got a conviction as they wouldn’t have been able to prove he knew it was stolen property. I also felt (and still feel) guilty that North Wales Police took so much time and spent so much resource investigating and following up on this.

As for the buyer – well, I think he’s nothing but genuine. He took the time to find my contact details and get in touch. Was willing, from the beginning, to assist in whichever way he could and has been brilliant throughout. I felt guilty, snd still do, about being a bit of an arse with him initially. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by making contact on Monday morning (well, actually, he did make the first attempt on Sunday evening).

The bike? It’s in bits in the buyers house. I’ve transferred ownership of it to him. He’s kindly agreed to give me the frame. Sadly it’s a little scarred – he tells me that the serial number has been ground off. I’ll have to carry on digging around to find it and maybe have it re-etched.

What does the future hold for the frame? Who knows. I’ve seen a set of Pikes for sale that would suit a BFe perfectly. I’m tempted. Seriously tempted. I’m going to have to satisfy myself that they’re not stolen first though. Now THAT would be embarrassing.

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!

There are certain people that coppers get to know and really **** loathe, I suspect that if the chap in question was one of them, then they might like any excuse to piss the guy off…

Edit: Just read the post above, great to here how good North Wales Police are.

There are certain people that coppers get to know and really **** loathe

If PC X in Barmouth knows Scrote Y in Wrexham then he should be rightly bloody proud of himself! That’s some local knowledge!

Lol @ Bregante

Very true indeed. Not massively local. I’m sure there’s some collaboration between stations though.

he tells me that the serial number has been ground off

And yet he believed it was genuine, WTF?