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Thanks for the offer, Leicester, so a bit far.
What do you think of this plan:
Message him, be a bit thick, ask what size fits on it etc.
Then another message, will he take £20 less?
Then say yes, I'll have it.
Go round. Take it, and say we're taking it now, or the Police are being called.
See what happens.
We dont have any faith in the Police even ringing us back.
I need someone locally who is not a close friend (on FB) to get these details, as it was put all over FB locally by us when it was stolen, so, even though he is acting a bit thick (same tyres/pedals etc, even left the Evans sticker on it) he may look at my FB profile and see I'm after this bike.
If you think this is a decent idea, then I'll ring round to find someone to message him.
What do you think?
Hi Alan, I nearly bought a stolen bike here in Cambs a couple of details didn’t add up so I searched if it was stolen. I notified the chap whose bike it was, he contacted the police and had a similar response to you. He said he’s going round with a friend at this time, the police showed up. I think they were worried he was going to beat the thief up lol! I got a couple of pints out of it.
Anyway agree with guy you are interested ask if it’s not rusty. You need to go ASAP if you want it and call the police to say you are heading there at X time. If they don’t come just ride off have someone in your car to drive off, meet them a kilometre up the road and away you go.
The idea of taking some heavies is nice, but I personally don’t know any BIG blokes, in fact anyone I know with character are usually skinny.
Anyone from Leicester on the forum? As above just set a plan and stick to it.
It’s your bike.
A mate once replaced his stolen bike with the same model which ended up with a cracked chainstay out of warranty, he luckily found some chainstays on Ebay and bought them, they turned out to be from his own bike that was stolen a few years earlier.
Hi alanl, I'm in Lincoln so Leicester is just down the A46; don't use FB but would happily be there to provide 'support'.
DM me.
A friend in this situation learned that the police (in Notts anyway) won't do anything by default, but if you state you are going round there, they will then attend.
In his case, they told him to stay round the corner, then pretended to be interested in buying. On the bike test, he rode it to my mate, who identified it as his, handed it over to him then headed back to the house for the arrest.
I hate it that you just can't have nice things.
Hope that the OP gets his bike back. 🤞
A neighbour had his garage broken into and bikes nicked, he thought that maybe he was followed home or was followed on Strava.
was followed on Strava
Just checked my privacy zone on Strava, and was set to my old address! Sorted now thanks
Follow up, we have the bike back.
We got the S-i-L from Brighton to message him, and get the address.
We got there, and he said it had sold, which was a bit of a downer, but
said we'll look at the other bikes he had for sale.
Lo and behold, there were 4 bikes in the back garden and shed, and the
OH's bike was not sold, but sat in his living room.
He said someone was coming in half an hour to pick it up, I asked if
they'd paid, they hadnt, and said we'd take it now, so the greedy git, got
it out, a quick look over, then checking the serial number (there was
little doubt anyway, it was customised by us, and it was just the same as
when sold).
Thats when I lost my cool, and said we're taking this and we're giving you
**** all. I thought, for 2 seconds, it was going to kick off, (I was ready
for it, empty pockets, army boots, tight clothes) but he backed off, and
said he'd bought it at an auction, which was a month ago, - the bike was
stolen 3 weeks ago.
We walked off with the bike, he followed us, I said call the Police now, and we'll wait
for them, they can sort it out, he backed off again. So we went.
The S-i-L got a message from him saying he was calling the Police about us,
she replied back , yes, do it. Nothing since.
The Police dont seem too interested. We told them last night where it was,
and other presumably, stolen items were in the same place. We've rang
twice today, saying we will be there at 11.30 to collect it. Again, they
say they cannot attend. After we collected it, we rang them to inform them
what had happened, and there were £1500 of bikes still round there (he
wasnt a cyclist!). Got us thinking what amount of loss do you need to get
a response from them?
Nice work.
Nice work.
The second he backed down I'd have had the other bikes as well and listed them as recovered on fb or somit.
Never even call the cops. never have, never will.
Result!
Well done.
Brilliant news, although sounds like you got there in the nick of time before it was collected.
Police complaint?
I'm all for supporting the police, they have difficult job, but christ I don't know what else you need to do in a case like this. Many people wouldn't have had the guts to follow this up, and it's clear the Police wouldn't have resolved this.
Great result and well done for taking it back.
Great result getting it back.
I would email your MP, the police response won't get any better without funding.
At what point would it be appropriate to do a citizens arrest in a case like this? It may be risky as they may be packing, but if you had a big enough fella to sit on them you could zip tie their hands and feet and kart them off to the police station - everything else is home-delivered these days, if the police can't come out then it would be like a home delivery service for them.
You have their name and address, local Faceache name and shame and article in their local paper exposing what they're up to...barring that, sausages.
Good work OP!
Have a friend in Cologne, Germany, who watched someone steal his bike whilst he was inside the shop. He gave chase, not shouting or screaming anything. Eventually caught up with the guy, ripped him off the bike and proceeded to kick the living shit out of the thief. Had to dispose off his trainers as they were covered in blood.
By the sounds of it the thief was/isn't capable of stealing anything again.
Great news Alan! I’d be swinging back round with some rocks for his windows but sounds like the police are more deserving of those, but as he stole it from outside your house probably best not.
Real shame on the police front, thought they generally showed up if you said you were heading there. As bad as the thieves.
Before I got there, I was getting a bit worried in case it turned violent. When there, no problem at all, if he had come at me, I reckon he would soon be down. From previous encounters, these people are all big and strong when online and stealing, when they are on their own though, they are just pathetic thieving gits who wouldnt dare try to attack a bloke that looked like he could defend himself.
In this case, I dont think we would have even got into the garden if we had gone mob handed.
It was the right decision for just us 2 to go, he saw a middle aged couple after a bike, not an extremely irate Owner coming back to collect their goods.
I dont think the Police would have come with any urgency if we had rang 999 when there. What do you do, sit on his front door for 30 minutes until the Police arrive?
Then they will say they cant prove he stole it, so they won't do anything.
I'm thinking a letter of complaint would be in order to the Police. As it happens, they had a speed van out today 2 miles away on a NSL road, so there are resources to do that, but none to arrest thieves.
Your braver than me I’d have just rode off on it, but sounds like you judged situation well enough.
Always the case, money for speed camera vans as they bring in money. I doubt they’d have turned up if you’d sat there all week.
Excellent work allanl. Really impressed.
Utterly pathetic response by the police though.
Another follow up.
The idiot thief has had a visit from the local PCSO, who
only really went round to let him know that they knew what he was up to, and
they would be back if any more bikes went missing in the area.
And it has now escalated. The initial contact, the S-i-L has had a number
of messages from the thief, saying he wants our address, as he wants to
'sort this out'.
The final one says he's going to find where she lives, and come to kill
her.
Sussex Police have taken an interest in this and will be following it up.
From being a minor offence of stealing a bike, which couldnt really be
proven, it has escalated into death threats. She has kept the messages,
and passed on the evidence to the Police.
It would be hard to be any thicker wouldnt it?