Yeah, to be fair when I’ve actually managed to talk to an officer they’ve been great, but the contact system is a mess, with the removal of being able to talk to local stations replaced with chaotic crime desks that don’t answer the damn phone (presumably because of the cuts), and end up cutting you off when they do because they’ve tried to divert you to someone else.

The theft of a bike isn’t exactly crime of the century, but what upsets me more is the idea that this guy has been quite happily flogging stolen bikes (I doubt mine is his first, anyone missing a Mondraker Summum recently?) for a year on Gumtree without consequence. I’m getting my insurance replacement next week, but I don’t want other people to have their bikes nicked, because not everyone will be covered.

Anyhoo, the police are apparently going to pay him a visit this morning, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed!

Dont know how to access his history, has he ever sold a Heckler?

Glad to hear the fuzz are paying him a visit, given that you have supplied his contact details.
It sounds as though he may turn out to be a serial stolen bike fence or tealeaf.
I hope you get a result, regardless of any insurance payout as I am sure he, or his cronies will be back for that too in a few weeks.

Not seen a Heckler on his list – he’s currently selling my bike, a Giant Talon 2, and recently sold a Mondraker Summum and a couple of Boardman Hybrids.

Thanks for checking

Bike seized, investigation pending! Looks like the pillock removed my purple pedals for the purpose of the Gumtree photo, but put them back on, which isn’t at all suspicious. 😉

Woohoo! This thread needs celebratory picturing!

Fingers crossed for a result then. Well done on persevering!

HA HA!! Excellent result!!

Well done on a bit of perseverance!

*steps back from pitchfork*

*removes Avengers stylee leather outfit*

Nice one mrs_T

Looks like the pillock removed my purple pedals for the purpose of the Gumtree photo, but put them back on, which isn’t at all suspicious.

Oh dear. 😆

Hell hath no fury, gentlemen, hell hath no fury…

And also massive thanks for the kind words, advice and offers of help!

Great news on the bike! they shift these round the country quick enough to sell on, would be gutted if I lost one of mine. Hope never have to test the insurance.

Good result 🙂

Great result 🙂

so what happens to the Insurance replacement one that’s coming next week now then ?

n + 1 ? 🙂

It’s owned by the insurance company now, so it’s up to them!

Glad its sorted.

Really does hint of it all being very organised crime if bikes are getting from down south to the Midlands.

I hope they dont just get this bloke, but look at the whole supply chain and who his pimp is 😈

Edit: Does that now mean no insurance replacement bike 😆

Result! Unfortunately that’ll only be 3 hours community service for him. 🙁

molgrips – Member

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

no I was refuting stats, with more stats- if you actually read the link, then adding my own anecdotal fleshing out

anyway very pleases the bike has been recovered !

You did better than my mate who had his Canyon Strive pinched and a year later I spotted it pop up on ebay. Friend called Police who made excuses about areas with now being 60 miles away andhow it would be hard to prove theft and did nowt. Very disappointing.

This thread has been a roller coaster but so pleased for the OP and her tenacity. I hope the prick gets nailed for it! I’ve only had one bike stolen but had the misfortune of watching it happen right in front of me.. bike was never seen again. Not a pleasant experience. hope the OP keeps us posted on the outcome(s)

Congratulations on the recovery, excellent result.

Multiple calls which routed nowhere before disconnecting is not due to cutbacks its due to rubbish inefficient telephony. In my experience Old Bill have always been rubbish, long before their purse strings were tightened.

Mrs Toast – Member

Bike seized, investigation pending!

enfht – Member

Congratulations on the recovery, excellent result.

In my experience Old Bill have always been rubbish

🙄

Alles klar

Trying twenty times before someone actually helps isn’t rubbish then Ernie, you’re right.

I had my van full of tools stolen in Ealing.
2 scroutes were caught trying to board a ferry at Dover in said van complete with false plates minus most of my tools.

Some one spotted the reg on the tax disc did not match the false plates, did a check on the reg on disc which showed as stolen.

When I picked up my almost empty van from Dover I asked the DCI I was dealing with what would happen to the two scrotes And I was told they had let them go.

He said he was Dover port police that was seperate to Dover police and as the van was stolen in Ealing it was the mets job to investigate and when he rang his appropriate colleague in the met to say he had two prisoners in custody for them to collect he was told they would not be sending anyone to pick them up and just to let them go free.

I was down thousands but that did not matter.

So glad you got it back! The first time my Lapierre was stolen, and returned, they’d ‘pimped’ it with shit peddles, grips with flanges (argh!!!) and broken the maxle. Thieves are arseholes.

Thieves are arseholes.

This.

Maybe we as a nation should tattoo gay porn onto them and parachute them into ISIS controlled territory until we run short of them.

Great result Mrs Toast and well done for persevering.

Cases like this certainly show that a bit of social networking can help out. I would hope Cyber-Vigilatism catches on.

Excellent news Mrs Toast, am really pleased to read that you have your bike back.

I’m normally one of these bleeding heart liberals who believes in the value of rehabilitation, but if someone nicked my bike I’d want to see them clapped in irons and breaking rocks for the next decade or so.

PJM1974 – Member
Excellent news Mrs Toast, am really pleased to read that you have your bike back.

I’m normally one of these bleeding heart liberals who believes in the value of rehabilitation, but if someone nicked my bike I’d want to see them clapped in irons and breaking rocks for the next decade or so.

I’d be using them to break the rocks…..

Why not twitter/Facebook link this thread to the relevant Force or print and post to the Chief Constable of whatever they are called now.
Good work btw and I hope there’s s prosecution though I doubt it!

*removes Avengers stylee leather outfit*

Go on, keep it on. You know you want to….

great news Mrs Toast.
as for the bike it does now technically belong to the insurer but they wont have possession of it yet. you can therefore contact them and offer them a salvage fee and they will give you the bike back( effectively buying the bike back from them) they should be happy to do this as it saves them the hassle of trying to dispose of it themselves.

as for how good the police are in matters of bike theft…that does vary from force to force.
when my first bike got stolen they didnt give two sh**s.
when my second one got taken it was the same again. then i managed to track it down and asked them to try and recover it, mainly so they could try and nail the scrote who took it in the first place. i got them the address of the seller and they executed the warrant and recovered the bike…then they demonstrated their complete incompetence and i completely lost my faith in law enforcement!

The whole low-level crime situation’s a mess, firstly you’re lucky if the police do anything about it (without you doing most of their work for them first) and secondly even if they do intervene chances are the scrote will go free. That said I don’t know what the solution is, can’t really expect the police with it’s current funding level to spend hours on each low-level crime reported and can’t give the scrotes a proper punishment as it either violates their human rights or would mean they’d need a gazillion more prisons.

No update from the police yet, but Aviva have but my claim on hold as they’d apparently not processed it yet, despite having taken my excess payment and Wheelies giving me a date for delivery. I kind of understand it as my bike has been recovered (mostly thanks to me), but I’m now in the situation that my bike is 90 miles away and being held as evidence, I have no bike to commute to work on (unless I use my full susser, which I can’t do as they were also supposed to be sending me a replacement lock!), and I’m £150 down.

Still, worth the hassle if the scrote gets a criminal record and thinks twice about stealing/flogging stolen goods.

Git.

So it’s been two weeks since the police recovered my bike, and I still have no idea what’s going on. Has it taken any damage? When am I getting it back? What action is being taken against the scumbag who was selling it, knowing that it was stolen? Was he the one who stole it? Despite repeated requests for a progress report, I’ve got nothing.

Judging by the variety of beach-based photos aforementioned scumbag is updating his FB profile with, he appears to be on holiday. How lovely for him. In the meantime, I’m left with no idea if the police are going to prosecute, no commuting bike, and the knowledge that if I’d made no effort to find my bike, or kept my mouth shut (or at least not bothered to tell Aviva until I had more info from the police), I could have been riding around on a brand new insurance replacement for the past week.

I was so pleased that I’d solved crime, but it seems like it was actually the wrong thing to do. :/

Hoof him in the spuds?

Can you not claim for expenses from the insurers? Tell them you either want a new bike, or a hire bike untill yours turns up? Make it enough of a hastle/cost that they just give you the new bike?