Came across this on Facebook, sorry if it’s already been posted…

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=120657651752&ref=nf

Hope that link works, I know facebook links can be rubbish.

Anyway, if you can see it – what would you have done? I think the guy probably made the right decision for himself in the circumstances – but then he does sound like even more of a wuss than me.

summary? (work ban social network sites)

guy’s bike gets nicked. in search for a new one he finds ad for same bike online. arranges to meet seller and then steals bike back. guy has panic attack while fleeing with his own bike and dives in a bush, where he befriends a homeless man(!). has further pang of conscience that the guy he’s nicked it back off wasn’t the original thief. hands himself in(!). he and seller become friends (probably cos he gives seller $100 for the inconvenience!). everyone lives happily ever after.

You forgot… guy has panic attack while fleeing with his own bike and dives in a bush, where he befriends a homeless man (or something).

🙂

good shout – i’ve amended my summary!

Panic attack ?????? I’d be bunny hopping with happiness !

Sounds like an idiot to me.

I like my bike theft story better.

‘Twas about 8/9 years ago. My Kona Hei Hei (Ti version) and girlfriends Bear Valley got stolen from our back garden (we were – ahem – ‘upstairs’ and didn’t hear anything)

About 2 months later I saw the Hei Hei in somebody else’s garage a few streets away and when I knocked on the door of the house to discuss, the guy became very, very aggressive and threatening. I should point out that during our conversation he said that he had bought the bike 2 years ago from Halfords, when I asked for a receipt he said he hadn’t kept it, as the bike was only about £200 in the sale. Then he ‘remembered’ that it had been an ad in the local paper, etc, etc – so I said that I would call the police and went to friends house in the same road to make the call.

Sure enough, not 10 minutes later angry bloke puts ‘my’ bike in the back of his car and drives off. My friend and I follow in his car.

He doesn’t go far, about a mile up the road, but leaves his car keys in the ignition whilst he disappears around the back of the house – I am presuming by now that he is wanting to hide the bike around a friends in case the police do come round.

Absolutely sh11ting myself I jump in his car and drive it (with my bike inside) to a local gypsy site.

Ride my bike back home!

It’s not until I got home that I realised Mr Angry probably knows where I live and for the rest of that weekend I kept the curtains drawn and doors locked. Even hid the bike in the loft.

Best thing is, that by then the insurance company had paid out and bike replaced. I phoned them to say I had recovered the bike and they said that they would send me a bill.

But they never did.

“Absolutely sh11ting myself I jump in his car and drive it (with my bike inside) to a local gypsy site”

I very much like your style silverpigeon, I would imagine he would be having more problems recovering his car than getting the bike back….

Your story is way better.

That Facebook bloke could do with some balls like yours.

you’re right, silver – that is a better story!

i’m not surprised you were s***ting it! still, an eye for an eye, and all that. 😆

edit – this bit didn’t make sense as i can’t read properly!

Quite a few years ago my entire house was done over by a lodger. He arranged to meet me in town with his late rent and whilst i was away he and his mates emptied my house including my new Raleigh Racer.

Anyhow i knew who he was and i called the police. Because it was my lodger the insurance would only pay out on forced entry. The police were very helpfull in detailing the forced entrance through the patio door to which he had no key 🙂 So i got my insurance money.

A few weeks later my older borther, who also knew who this guy was, was driving down the street in a friends car. Like a scene from the proffessionals they screeched up to him and my brother had a ‘chat’ with him around the back of some garages. They then bundled him into the car and drove him to the local plod shop. When they frogmarched him into the station the police were paying a lot of interest in the car. Turns out some of the locals had reported someone getting assaulted and being kidnapped by a vehicle with the same reg no. The police were very helpfull and didnt take it any further (Had a laugh about it) and i actually got some compo when he went to court 🙂

Your bothers mates car was the one reported to the police hobo ?

That Facebook bloke could do with some balls like yours.

agreed – FB guy would have probably got scared halfway away, gone and got the car serviced and valeted and returned it with the bike still in the boot!

Your bothers mates car was the one reported to the police hobo?

i assumed the assault and kidnap was on and of the lodger, and the cops turned a blind eye.

I jump in his car and drive it (with my bike inside) to a local gypsy site

LOL

silverpigeon- nice one, good bit of quick thinking and you win today’s STW ‘biggest balls’ award

Yeah sorry, they kinda ‘assualted’ the theiving lodger and when they turned up at the police station they turned a blind eye to the bruises the guy had and the fact the public had reported a disturbance

**Takes Bow**

I laugh now, but didn’t feel like I had big balls that weekend I can tell you!

If that’s true silverpigeon, it is pretty amazing!

I just hope it was your bike and not a mistake, haha.

Rich – Tis true and certainly was my bike – I did get it back to check after all.

At the time a couple of people did point out that he might not have been the chap that actually stole it, and I have to admit that makes me shift uncomfortably when I acknowledge that possibility to myself.

But then if he hadn’t of gotten so threatening, the police could have sorted it out slightly more amicably. I did report the theft and the police had the frame number etc, so there was never going to be any doubt it was my bike.

If he genuinely was an innocent party, why all the bollox about Halfords and a local ad? If it was a local ad the police could have traced it and matey boy could have had some recourse.

Nah he nicked it and deserved what he got.

*Says me bravely…and safely far away in the Channel Islands now*

Nah, he was guilty. Otherwise he’d have put the old bill onto you over the car.

You pwned him good.

Not as good as silverpigeon’s story but when we had our bikes nicked just before Christmas we found one of them for sale online. So we arranged to meet the guy to look at the bike and sent the cops along instead of us. They checked the serial number there and then and promptly nicked the guy (and we got the bike back obviously). Still waiting for the money for the other bike from the crote’s parents (as he was underage) but we’re hopeful.

Had a similar experience to Eckinspain. Bike listed on eBay, undeniably the same one, seller had a perfect feedback rating and lots of sales but the auction was terribly described, bad spelling, overly optimistic description and his other items included another bike and a satnav… The starting price was set pretty high so I bid on my bike and won it. It took a bit of time for the police to track the guy down, so there followed a few days of stalling him, and getting increasingly frustrated txtspk emails from him along the lines of “ur doin my hed in m8!!” and “da deal is turnin sour!!!”. In the end it all worked out nicely, the rozzers swooped in and got my bike back along with about three other ones that were in his house.

In my capacity as a public servant I’ve dealt with a few people who have found their own bikes on the internet and told us about them. My own favourite was a chappy who tried to run away, tripped over the stolen bike and knocked his own front tooth out. I then promptly arrested him. Although I had to sit with the whinging ****t in A&E for about two hours.

Try ….. having lovely personalised Cannondale Prophet stolen from garage in October, only to then do first lap at Bontrager 24/12 race in Plymouth (200 miles away) in the July and then over-take a guy riding my lovely missing bike!
Needless to say I arranged for local plod to arest him on his 2nd lap!

That is a great story silverpigeon. “drive it (with my bike inside) to a local gypsy site” nice touch

“drive it (with my bike inside) to a local gypsy site”

i assume it was just left with keys in and doors wide open at said site? i would love to have seen the ensuing stripping of the car that i’m imagining ensued afterwards, akin to this:

Had a bike nicked from out of my car a few years ago-screwed the doodr to get it.
Couple of weeks later, I gets a call from LBS, “has your bike been nicked?” yes, “we’ve got it!”
Numpty had taken it for a ‘respray’, they thouht it looked a bit sus’ so phoned the Dave Yates, who traced the frame number to me. Result!
Numpty wasnt too pleased when he went back tho!