My bike was stolen on Tuesday. It’s just gone up for sale on Gumtree. There’s a mobile number. Through the power of Google, I now have a name and address. Unfortunately, it’s in Sheffield, and I’m in Warwickshire.

I phoned my local police station and they put me through to some sort of national crime desk, where they said that it ‘couldn’t be actioned immediately due to being in a different area. So I’d like to contact the police in Sheffield directly, this is proving rather more difficult than anticipated.

Does anyone have a direct number for any of the police stations in Sheffield? I’ve tried going through 101 and contacting South Yorkshire, but I had to wait 10 minutes for someone to answer the phone, at which point they put me on hold, it started ringing out some more then disconnected. -_- This guy’s sold quite a few bikes on Gumtree over the past year. :/

Wow, that sucks.

Surely a crime is ‘in progress’ being the sale of stolen goods? 999?

https://twitter.com/syptweet
This might be worth a shout if everything else fails.
Or you could always be cheeky and call:

Contacting us from abroad:

Please use 0114 2196905 if you are calling us from abroad – Don’t forget to add the international calling code (+0044)
Good luck and may the scrote suffer.

Easy for me to say but I’d be up there banging on their door whilst dialing 999 at the same time saying there was about to be a breach of the peace.

I hope you get the bike back Mrs Toast.

The police suck balls in this instance. The same happened to me a few years ago with a stolen motorcycle, bits of it appeared for sale just 12 miles up the road but as far as Northumbria Police were concerned it might as well have been on the f-ing moon because the bike was stolen in County Durham 😡

I really hope you get a good result.

Which area of Sheffield?

S9.

Think all the stations in Sheffield now use a central switchboard. Have you tried 0114 2202020?

Good luck!

Ignore my last post. I’m afraid that number no longer works.

“once” they get it back (I’m an optimist, see), can you properly id with frame numbers etc ? If so, I’d be sure to tell them when you do get through

Direct to the local policing team for that area? An email here.

http://www.southyorks.police.uk/local-police/arbourthorne-darnall-manor-castle/meet-the-team/inspector

This one is for the South Yorkshire headquarters: 0114 296 4357
Or you could try the ask-the-police site: https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/contactform.mth

They may be able to get someone to contact you or help you with contacting the right people.

Hope they catch the B**tard.

The only real question to ask is….

What costume are we all wearing while recovering Mrs_T’s bike?

Hi mrs Toast im in s13,I know quite a few guys who are in the force, I will contact them tomorrow with your details if you wish, is the seller Daniel, he as two bikes for sale, s9 is pretty rough.

I know a rather large rugby player and a good few more dozen chaps in Sheffield as well…

Yeah, tried the 0114 numbers and 101 several times now – it just rings out. The one time it connected after 10 minutes, I started to explain the situation, they put me on hold and then redirected, which then disconnected.

Eventually cracked, called 999 as it’s a crime in progress, they said they couldn’t deal with it as it’s not an emergency (even though on the website it says to use 999 if a crime is in progress) and put me through to the Warwickshire Crime desk. Which rang out repeatedly, then disconnected me.

Easy for me to say but I’d be up there banging on their door whilst dialing 999 at the same time saying there was about to be a breach of the peace.

If he wasn’t 90 miles away and I wasn’t a 5ft 3 woman with crap knees the upper body strength of a kitten, there would definitely be peace breaching of the Liam Neeson variety going on.

Yes Alan, that’s the fella.

plus one for national police system, pretty poor show

Bump! Somebody must be up for a rumble!

Totally not stoking the fire here, but it’s a shame really. If you Google the phone number on his Gumtree advert, you see his attempts at setting up a little business. Does look like he was quite driven, guess it’s not going to plan.

It’s definitely the same bike though! Even down to the Hope bolt seatclamp I stuck on (which was an odd size), the Superstar grips, removed remote lockout cable (it was rubbish and barely moved), the zip tie on the front!

Were I not planning his demise I’d probably invite him around to do some gardening work, we’ve got a pond we need to shift.

The police really don’t give a shit at times! 13.5m telly handler being driven down a main road towards Notts one Saturday morning a few years back. Did they find it, did they ****.

Aye,but when you google him you also bring up a few bikes for sale. Scumbag.

Arrange to buy it, meet up in a public place, grab bike? Whilst wearing gopro?

wrightyson – Member
The police really don’t give a shit at times!

It’s either that, or that they don’t have infinite resources and have to prioritise jobs depending on their importance.

I wonder which one of these it really is?

Aye,but when you google him you also bring up a few bikes for sale. Scumbag.

Yeah, there is that 🙁 Some decent bikes too!

I was just stoking the fire really.

Finally got through to South Yorks police – the guy was initially sympathetic and said that they’d have to wait until Warwickshire contacted them, but I think I piqued his interest. I gave him the details and he checked them himself, and said, “He’s had quite a few bikes for sale…”

Incident created, they’re going to search. Hopefully soon!

Silly thing is, I’m not actually too put out as I have insurance replacement on the way, but I’m excellent at holding a grudge and want justice. This guy has probably sold several stolen bikes judging by his Gumtree history, and he’s been on Gumtree for over a year. :/

Plus he only offered it for £250 and put shitty pedals on it. Bastard!

good luck – i saw 3 of my bikes on Ebay but by the time the police contacted Luxemburg and got the scrotes address they were long gone – 3 weeks later.

but I’m excellent at holding a grudge and want justice

Good on ya! Best of luck and it’s sounds like (albeit painful) progress.

Good,sounds like you may get a result;but can I just say…tyres and logos not matching tsk,tsk,tsk.

The only way, despite the easy trail of evidence that someone posting their ill gotten gains on the internet leaves, if only the authorities could be arsed or just as much most likely have a clue if they realised how easy it can be to track someone down. Is to agree to meet said crim in a car park with a handful of readies with some mates and kick the living out of them.

If the investigating authorities could give a toss they could request off Gumtree the IP address that posted the advert, they could then request off the ISP concerned the billing location of the IP address, or if it’s a mobile phone/device locate it to within a few metres when added to its calling patterns and address will most likely give the game away as to the owner…

may you get your bike back mrs toast (and the scoundrel feels the long arm of the law).

Police Cuts: Watchdog’s Warning To Home Office

The Home Office has been accused of making deep cuts in policing without understanding how it will affect the public.

…….between 2010 and 2014 the number of officers dropped by 16,659.

If the investigating authorities could give a toss they could request off Gumtree the IP address that posted the advert, they could then request off the ISP concerned the billing location of the IP address, or if it’s a mobile phone/device locate it to within a few metres when added to its calling patterns and address will most likely give the game away as to the owner…

To be fair, before I got his full name and address, the police in Warwickshire did say that they’d have to contact Gumtree to get his info, but that it ‘couldn’t be actioned immediately’ and ‘may take some time’. When I eventually got through to the South Yorks police, they initially said that they couldn’t do anything until Warwickshire contacted them, but I think the chap took pity on me and realised I had a lot of info.

Just have to wait and see what happens next! It’s been a bit of an eye opener for me, I didn’t realise that the police literally can’t access crimes reported in other regions (their crime reference numbers are even completely different formats)!

Been having a nosey at the other stuff he’s sold on gumtree. Could the Boardman bike be on this list……?

http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Bikes-worth-thousands-pounds-stolen-Cheltenham/story-26479581-detail/story.html

Not a million miles from you, and the date of the robbery fits in with the ad date.

Russell96 – Member

… they could request off Gumtree the IP address that posted the advert, they could then request off the ISP concerned the billing location of the IP address, or if it’s a mobile phone/device locate it to within a few metres when added to its calling patterns and address will most likely give the game away as to the owner…

Yes, you just ring up and get all this information with no problems, delays, jurisdictional problems for overseas servers or cost and then you pass it to an analyst to work out the call patterns (obviously they are not up to there eyeballs in drugs jobs, murders, internet enabled CSE offences, etc)and go around there and recover the bike, presuming you had enough for a warrant and the add wasn’t posted on a mates computer or at an internet cafe.

Thing is, crime is falling and the police want to continue to have a large number of forces and officers, and for many law abiding tax payers, our only contact with them is when things like this happen. It may not be rape or murder but it does upset us, the customers. So they should take it seriously and where we can give info which might deal with some scrote, they should at least try. Not launch a man hunt, but try…

I’m not sure this is the right thing to do but mrs Toast (or Mr Toast if you could bring him with too?) – YGM.

Thing is, crime is falling

I call bullshit on that

http://blogs.channel4.com/simon-israel-home-affairs/20-cent-crime-unrecorded-year/1041

my experience of police dealing with stolen stuff in the last few years

-mobile phone stolen from bag on bus- police insisted i fill out a ‘property lost in the streets form’
-lost wallet, cards used online, police told me to fill out online fraud survey, but none of it was applicable to me
– bike stolen from hospital bike rack, was told they are loosing several bikes a week there, told police, ‘they should really do something about that’ said teh PC, got a text next day telling me no further investigation, brick lane market next weekend, saw a parade of stolen high end bikes being wheeled out and sold on, but not mine, police had beena round earlier, checking stalls didnt extend into road!
– camera stolen from delivery room while in theatre as wife was delivering baby, found it on ebay, police said, ‘just buy it back, not worth investigating as he’ll just claim he bought it at a boot sale’

good luck mrs toast, I hope it works out for you, sad that you have to do the polices job for them though, cant wait to see what the next load of cuts does to the police

my experience

You’re refuting stats based on personal experience? I call bullshit on *that*.

I have the deepest sympathy Mrs Toast, I would be mortified if my pride and joy went from the garage.
Just to put some perspective on why you aren’t getting the service you would expect from the police though. Here in Lancashire we have lost 800 officers and can expect to lose up to 1000 more in the future if the government follows through on its promises. Last night you wouldn’t have needed all the fingers on one hand to count the number of officers covering Nelson, Colne, Barnoldswick, Clitheroe, Longridge and all the population in between (that isn’t for each town, that is the total officers covering the full area). It isn’t much better in the daytime, and those officers now work resource to threat, which means they only tend to deal with the more serious, immediate threat type incidents (violent domestics, child abuse and neglect, high risk missing persons, etc), of which there are plenty. The ensuing admin to these is overwhelming and there is precious little time to deal with anything else. We rely massively on PCSO’s, Specials and volunteers, but with the best will in the world they cannot deal with the vast majority of what needs doing.
Back office staff have been similarly slashed, and there aren’t enough people to answer the phones and log the complaints, again emergencies take priority. I know for a lot of folk on here (including myself), having their bike stolen is one of the worst things that could happen to them, but unfortunately this is well down the scale in the grand scheme of things, and in this modern era of savage cuts to public services difficult choices have to be made about what can and can’t realistically be dealt with.
Really do hope you get the bike back