:evil:Long story short…..My son had his Marin Rock Springs stolen from Taunton (Somerset). I managed to trace it to Wakefield (Yorks.) Called Police, gave 'em name and address of guy in Wakefield. Police said "the officer dealing with this case won't be in for a day or two but i'll flag it on his computer" !?!? So i drove from somerset to wakefield and rang 'em again when i was outside the blokes house….surprise, surprise they turn up pretty quick, but wouldn't seize the bike!?!?
On New Years day they turn up on the doorstep and tell my 11 year son that his pride and joy will be coming home after they've finished with it.
6 weeks later i ring the cops to find out what's happenning, only to be told that the bike was somehow "stolen" from the guy who had it in Wakefield, they hadn't siezed it and it has now disappeared.
So they LIED to my son, and were so INCOMPETENT/NEGLIGENT that the bike has now disappeared AGAIN.
I did their job for them, all they had to do was pick the bike up and sort out the scum bags who nicked it. USELESS ******S

So if any of you out there hears of or knows of someone who's just got a 02/03 Silver Rock Springs TARA, with Tioga DH tyres and a leaky Air Shock, please let me know.

Pissed off dad. 👿

Feel your pain, unbe-f***ing-lievable.
We did something similar here in Spain – tracked down the thief when we found him selling one of the stolen bikes. He gets nicked by the police and admits stealing the other bike too.

Eventual outcome…sod all. He changed his mind later to say he found the bikes and the police will do nothing despite having nicked one guy in the process of selling stolen goods and having the name and phone number of the guy who bought the other bike.

Still makes me livid over a year later. If it were to happen again (touch wood it doesn't) I know what I'm going to do – and it won't involve calling the police.

Sounds about right…sadly

when my kona got nicked they phoned me after 6 weeks to inform me that they would be checking the cctv footage…which gets deleted after 4 weeks.

I got a bit pissed off with that – so they offered me a counselling course. I don't want **** counselling, i want my **** bike back!

I also caught and confronted a bike thief about 200m away from a cop van. A friend banged on the window of the van and told them what was going on and that there was likely to be a nit of argy bargy, and they told him to go away!

Drive up wakefield again dish out some justice to the thiefs windows and/or face.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article7024414.ece

about right I reckon

Poor kid and Dad.

Hope karma sorts the theif out.

You need to speak to police for to find out what their complaints procedure is and see it through.

I would suggest that the officers who lied pay up for a replacement.

Also, news article the other day that the 10,000 reported stolen bikes a year are likely to be the tip of the iceberg. Or, in other words, the coppers on this one couldn't be *rsed, in spite of having the hard work done for them.

can you lodge an official complaint or something?

I'm proper annoyed now.
Well it can't be the copper that was selling recovered bikes on Ebay because he got done.
Why couldn't they sieze it? if it was a car or caravan they would.
That stories taken the edge off my pancakes.

Useless ****s.

Lke the others said, complain. Really feel for you and your lad.

Thanks for the replies guys.
The guy in Wakefield bought off the scum bags in Taunton. So wasn't the original thief, but i'll but it went down the pub, and then was "stolen".
Taunton Police are all for us making a complaint as they blame Wakefield police for not picking it up!!
And i thought the Police were one entity.
If i find it again, true justice will be served…………

Also, news article the other day that the 10,000 reported stolen bikes a year are likely to be the tip of the iceberg

10.000 A MONTH!! 😯

and that's just the ones that are reported… 😯 😯

um, 'a year' its written..

I read it as "a month".
jay

You need the force with you,

Calling Jedi, Calling JEDI…………………….

Don't know how old your son is, but i'm 16, and if my pride and joy was stolen, I would be distraught.

Feel for your son, and really hope he gets his bike back. 🙁

had a similar thing with the marin mount vision that i gave to my father in law, and was knicked in broad daylight (at the time a known bike thief was living just over the road).

to cut a ling story short, just before xmas the police call my father in law and tell him they know who has it (chap mentioned above), he had been seen on it but that they needed to catch him with it on the road.

last week, they turn round and say that they were not able to catch him in the end and now have no idea where its gone.

I had my Marin MV nicked about 8 years ago – Police gave me a crime number but otherwise weren't interested even after I told them where it was. They went as far as telling me I couldn't go and fetch it myself, and then went round and tipped the thief off.
In the end a "friend" of mine took me to the house where he knew the bike was, and the cheeky **** who had it asked me for £100. My "friend" wasn't best pleased and lost his rag a little. Got my bike back!
If you have the ability to sort it yourself do so – and make a complaint cos they keep getting away with doing nothing except catching speeders!!!

Jay

if that happened to me, i would punch the lights out. But i'd post bags of dog turd through his letter box, smear it on the windows, car and whatever else. cheeky gets

….. and that's just the cops!! 😯

Find his home address and spray paint "I am a bike thief" on his crappy little Saxo. In big pink letters.

We had two bikes stolen, one 5 days old and again no interest.

About a week later we spotted one of them, phoned the Police who said they would be right on to it and never heard anything for about 3 weeks.

When I contacted them again about it, the officer dealing with the incident told me, to my face without a word of a lie, "Oh really, no one told me. If you think you saw it, why didn't you just take it? That's what you should have done!".

WTF?

I'd take the police and the theif to court.

The evidence that the bike was yours and was stolen should be with the police and the evidence that the police failed is…well…evident.

Speak to a solicitor.

huskyboy64

what area of wakefield.
my lad had a bike nicked in lupset a couple of months ago.

police aint interested in any bike related incidents whether its theft or cyclists being assaulted by irate landowners,they just don,t want to know,got to wonder why we let them take so much out of the public purse!!!!

Ton….The bike was stolen from Taunton but ended up in WF4.

Had my van broke into and some tools stolen, gutted coz one of the items was my dads apprentice socket set? Phoned old bill telling them, said thief had even left visible finger prints near the glove box in the dust! Did they come out? Did they ****!!! I hate pikeys and the idiots we employ to catch em!

Not into police-bashing but must admit that when it comes to bike theft, they're just not interested. Perhaps it's because they know that in the huge majority of cases, there's zero chance of recovering the bike(s).

My 2p;

Write out the sequence of events with a clear timeline and include all communication you had with the police.

Don't make it emotional, stick to the facts. Give the names/numbers of officers where you know them.

Send that document with a covering letter explaining the emotional impact it has had on you and your son and send it to the PCA and copy in the Chief Constable of both forces involved (I assume Avon and Somerset were in there somewhere) and your MP.

If you feel you have a case for compensation for the police's failure to sieze the bike initially then say so.

Reading this is making my blood boil .. hope the op gets something sorted out!

It seems we employ lots of people with our public money to sit around and do sod all! It's a great society we've created where nobody wants to do anything or do their job if it actually involves them having to do something?

My dog locked itself in the car once – I jumped out at a junction to help an old person across the road, not a busy road and I know the person and they are not very stable on their feet, and left the keys in with engine running, ok bit stupid maybe 😳 , but the dog jumped up onto the door and pushed the door lock down, couldn't get back into the car, went to local plod, minutes walk, who said 'can't do anything, we don't do that sort of thing anymore…' thanks for doing nothing! Local locksmith helped me get back in and didn't even charge me for it.

Just out of interest,is the average plod actually aware of how much a modern bike costs?I used to live on a farm and keep my bikes in a big container.There were a group of "travellers" in an illegal camp nearby.When they left,they cut a large hole in the container and took my Orange 5 and Cotic Soul with them.The police took three days to visit and then when they heard what they were valued at,suddenly became interested.

shakes head……….i know what i'd do

Another similar story happened to me.

I was walking my girlfriend home and pushing the bike (little jump bike, valued at £1500). I was jumped beaten up and they ran off with the bike.

Phoned the police, they asked us to drop by at the station (which was a fair bit out for us). Took the details of the incident, but didn't ask anything about the bike itself.

The amusing bit was that the girlfriend knew who the guy was, gave the police their name and address. Yet they didn't' even think to go round until they were made aware that an acquaintance and I were going to pop round for a chat.

Surprisingly the police said that had no evidence it was him that either took the bike of assaulted me and left it like that.

Couple of weeks later I phoned to see what was going on to be told that the case had been closed, which annoyed me greatly. As we knew who it was, where he lived, he's been seen out and about on the bike by several people yet nothing was done and they closed the case without telling me so and letting me wait for them to get in touch.

I found out through my own sources that the bike was stashed away for a while then sold on to someone in the same area.

Anyway, a year later the police get in touch with me and say that they have enough people who were victims of this guy to try and put him away and wanted to know if I would testify in court against him.

Nothing has been heard or done since.