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Just got an email saying another local has had their bike stolen, if you see it [url= http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/6595151/ ]Stolen from Cheltenham[/url]
Anyway,
There is no point stealing bikes unless you can sell them, most cases of high end bikes being nicked are certainly not a case of "borrowing" a bike to get back from the pub.
So who is buying these bikes? do the frames get binned? Do people not ask questions when they see a to good to be true offer? or is it as it so often the case me me me, and ignore the provenance of the bike they are buying?
THEY CAN END UP ON E-BAY OR PRIVATE SALES IN LOCAL PAPERS LIKE LOOT .SOME TURN UP AT POLICE AUCTIONS AND CAN'T BE TRACED BACK TO OWNERS SO IT MAY BE WORTH HAVING YOURS CHIPPED .HAVING FILLED IN A STOLEN BIKE FORM WITH THE POLICE YOU COULD NEVER IDENTIFY ANY BIKE FROM IT ,THEY BARELY DISTINGUISH A MOUNTAIN BIKE FROM ANY OTHER
I've often wondered same
ebay, gumtree and the forum classifieds I guess
sometimes buying secondhand it seems pretty safe that a bike isn't nicked, but other times there's just no way of telling - so I would guess that more people were ignorant rather than were knowingly receiving stolen goods.
Well I reckon I've spotted two in the last week
[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/have-we-considered-would-it-be-possible-to-have-a-dodgy-bikes-spotted-section ]Are these yours?[/url]
PC Nutter (yes really) was the cycle officer in Shrewsbury in the early 90's
perhaps he still is...
his default answer to this question was 'Liverpool'...
seemed reasonable.
THEY CAN END UP ON E-BAY OR PRIVATE SALES IN LOCAL PAPERS LIKE LOOT .SOME TURN UP AT POLICE AUCTIONS AND CAN'T BE TRACED BACK TO OWNERS SO IT MAY BE WORTH HAVING YOURS CHIPPED .HAVING FILLED IN A STOLEN BIKE FORM WITH THE POLICE YOU COULD NEVER IDENTIFY ANY BIKE FROM IT ,THEY BARELY DISTINGUISH A MOUNTAIN BIKE FROM ANY OTHER
Broken down and sold piecemeal. Quite often a frame will get binned cos it's about the only thing that's identifiable (frame number or possibly postcoded/chipped).
Parts raise far less suspicion that full bikes. Sometimes the bits get swapped/built up onto other bikes - a mate recovered his stolen bike with a variety of parts on it that weren't there when it got nicked. He recognised it by the distinctive frame and gently persuaded the owner that it might be better for him if he just gave it back. 😉
THEY CAN END UP ON E-BAY OR PRIVATE SALES IN LOCAL PAPERS LIKE LOOT .SOME TURN UP AT POLICE AUCTIONS AND CAN'T BE TRACED BACK TO OWNERS SO IT MAY BE WORTH HAVING YOURS CHIPPED .HAVING FILLED IN A STOLEN BIKE FORM WITH THE POLICE YOU COULD NEVER IDENTIFY ANY BIKE FROM IT ,THEY BARELY DISTINGUISH A MOUNTAIN BIKE FROM ANY OTHER
Speak up sunshine.
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Well I was told one of my LBS's (2 wheels in Stourbridge) had 60 bike stolen lately (in the local newsrag - we didn't get the edition)... that's gunna take a while to shift on eBay & be very identifiablw (lots of BMX kit I assume).
Holland was mentioned as a destination, by one know-it-all
Many stolen things are not sold on for decent money. Your pride and joy if stolen by kids or junkies can often be sold for buttons - a bit of quick dosh. For someone that doesn't give a f... popping a shed and nicking a £2K bike is nothing and they are happy to get a trivial price that will get them a bag of smack, a four pack and a take away.
The fence then has more connections and less desperation. It is the fence that most likely sells parts on ebay. Alternatively someone in their cicrle will buy the bike to use as their own for a while. Hence you get clueless blokes riding XTR equipped carbon wotsits.
A mate in Bristol had his bike stolen by someone he knew who'd taken it during a party. It was an old Marin his father had given him, not particularly special but special or valuable to him. Anyway he sees this young hood giving a prostitute a backie on his Marin and stops the guy and says he wants his bike back as it was his old mans etc. the young hood says no way I paid twenty notes for it. Mate offers bloke £20 to 'buy' his bike back and young hood agrees after he has dropped the prostitute at clients house round the corner. Five minutes later young hood returns with bike and my mate buys it back... 
hope he replaced the saddle? 😯
I'll ask him 😉
Thing is, as long as there's people looking for bargains, there will be a market for stolen bike stuff. Whilst everyone on here may claim to be all righteous and lily-white, truth is a significant enough percentage of folk will chose to look the other way/not ask questions when offered hookey gear.
Who buys top-end kit? Mainly keen riders, not some bloke down the pub looking for a cheap commuter. Same as who buys drugs? Not just scabby scrotes on council estates.
So the romantic notion that other mtbers would never steal or buy stolen goods is just that. Nothing more. Truth is, if it were just clueless scrotes stealing all the gear, then you'd not find top-end bits going for silly money on Ebay and cycling forums, and so many stories of houses being specifically targeted for expensive bikes. Just loads of commuting bikes and tat really.
Trust no-one. Suspect everyone. It's the only way.
mr potatohead - MemberTHEY CAN END UP ON E-BAY OR PRIVATE SALES IN LOCAL PAPERS LIKE LOOT .SOME TURN UP AT POLICE AUCTIONS AND CAN'T BE TRACED BACK TO OWNERS SO IT MAY BE WORTH HAVING YOURS CHIPPED .HAVING FILLED IN A STOLEN BIKE FORM WITH THE POLICE YOU COULD NEVER IDENTIFY ANY BIKE FROM IT ,THEY BARELY DISTINGUISH A MOUNTAIN BIKE FROM ANY OTHER
Do you need a new set of these?
[img] http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSOBTIm58HxfUL1nzi3Uz_siBXTI7yiJz0UFFLLA2y9tXjY7oHlNA [/img]
tomaso is correct IMO, most bikes are nicked by junkies, most petty theft is carried out by junkies, and sold on for peanuts. Hence why you should always go to your local nasty estate to search for your bike, its probs being ridden around by some daylight waster who paid 20 quid for it.
most bikes are nicked by junkies, most petty theft is carried out by junkies, and sold on for peanuts.
I'd say that's only true of stuff that's locked up with crap locks, left unlocked outside shop a for a minute, stored unlocked in someone's garden etc. Reality is that most actual junkies simply aren't that well organised to stake out someone's house, work out what's inside, when the owners are out, etc.
Nah. Most high-end stuff taken from secure garages, or using industrial lock-cutting gear is done by organised thieves who make a living out of doing so. People with knowledge of what they're nicking, and with a knowledge of how to get rid of it for maximum return.
I had a kona stolen back in 2009 and kept checking the usual places, then only yesterday it turns up on a police auction!
say that's only true of stuff that's locked up with crap locks, left unlocked outside shop a for a minute, stored unlocked in someone's garden etc.
Exactly and this is the vast proportion of theft that goes on.
Nah. Most high-end stuff taken from secure garages, or using industrial lock-cutting gear is done by organised thieves who make a living out of doing so. People with knowledge of what they're nicking, and with a knowledge of how to get rid of it for maximum return.
This is much rarer.
I had a kona stolen back in 2009 and kept checking the usual places, then only yesterday it turns up on a police auction!
The Police nicked it!!!...Bastards
i know some one that did 5 years over a stolen bike, he didnt steal it but the guy who did never walked again. If you ask me it was stupid because he didnt get to ride the bike as he was in prison, but then again the guy never stole another bike, because he had he cant walk any more. Swings and roundabouts 🙂
sOrRy FoRgOt
In answer to the OP question, there is a pawn shop in manchester opposite the market that is worth a look. He's allways got two or three high end bikes in there.
he didnt steal it but the guy who did never walked again.
Lovely. Permanently disabling someone over a bike. Fantastic.
Where in Manchester?
he didnt steal it but the guy who did never walked again.
Lovely. Permanently disabling someone over a bike. Fantastic.
I agree it was ****ing stupid...what a waste of 5 years of a life. Couldn't give a **** about the burglar though.
As others have said many are stolen by drug addicts and sold on for a pittance to pay for their next score. Had a spate of stolen bikes (and other property, sat navs etc) disappearing into building sites and being bought by the workers. Not tarnishing the trade as a whole but if theyre that "fell off a lorry" bent they have no feeling of ties or responsibility to a local area.
Ive dealt with a few that were stolen by the sort of estate thieving kids that twoc cars and mopeds. A few of them were pretty slick, one stripped down, resprayed and re-stickered a high end FSR, another who had more spanner ability than many LBS employees and routinely stripped and swapped parts, building bikes for him and his mates to ride/rag/jump until they got bored.
Is it just me who is reluctant to buy part from people on here when their entire forum history seems to be in the classifieds? Maybe it's wrong of me, but I'm suspicious when I see a person selling gear all the time, I know I have loads of spare parts but some folks seem to do nothing but buy bikes and strip them to sell for parts. Now, why would they do that....
might be because some people are too lazy to split up whole bikes as they would rather take a rock bottom price
if i had time on my hands i would consider buying full builds from here and splitting for profit
fortunately i dont have the time, so i dont even have to consider if the 'whole bike' for sale is dodgy or not.
just saying like, would also be breach of forum rules and the unwritten rules of stw.
Saying that bike theft is mainly done by junkies and petty criminals is a bit naive imo. Take all the bike thefts that happen at places such as Cwm Carn,Afan etc and last years bike fest at Ashton Court where a transit van made off full of high end loot having bolt cropped the gates to get in.
I suspect these frames are moved on to Europe as only the less sophisticated/intelligent thieves put there loot straight on ebay these days. The components would be easy enough to shift on over here and less traceable but the frames are more of a risk and surely far too valuable to a criminal to just bin.
I'm not suggesting that all such sales are dodgy, but for my own peace of mind, if I have any suspicion, I walk away.
Is it just me who is reluctant to buy part from people on here when their entire forum history seems to be in the classifieds?
I use other bike forums just to sell, so I hope people on Pinkbike, Bikeradar and SDH don't all think I'm a thief.
But if someone has sold quite a bit of stuff on here I'm more likely to buy from them than if they only have a coupel of posts in the classifieds - as I can at least assume that many of the previous buyers have got their bits safely.
I suspect many of us have bought stolen bike parts without realising it, but I do really wonder what happens to the bikes that get nicked from shops. There was a spate it seemed abotu 6 months ago, lots of very rare bikes, many not even for sale.
In the last 3 years I have seen bikes in various properties. Two or three years back I went to an address in reading the house was a complete mess fat kids with fat step dads. It seemed odd to me there was a nice looking trek fuel and an orange 5 in the upper bed room behind a stack of clothes. After fitting the new taps I was on the phone to the local police. The young lady on the phone took the details and 20 min later I got a call from the local reading police. They said thanks and yes these bikes fitted a reported theft 2 months back. Don’t know any more from this point but I think the bikes where stolen to order or the nice people where waiting a few months before ebaying them.
pete,
given youre description of the family more likely a drug addict nicked them, sold them to his handler, who sold them to the sort of person that buys his families xmas presents off a bloke down the pub that fell of a lorry.
I have dealt with burglars who've had request lists, but its more likely to say "mountain bike" (or dyson, flat screen, etc) than Orange 5.
Steve, many of the semi organised lot wont have the sort of connections to formally move stuff on to Europe (unless they have eastern european mates who take them off their hands and take them home) theyre probably more likely to turn up in another city. Police crime records are only held in each force, so if a bike is nicked in oxford (thames valley) and turns up in nearby swindon (wiltshire) a police officer finding it wont be able to find a record of it as stolen.
I have registered my bikes and other valuables at www.immobilise.com
which many forces do use and is an independent property database (spun off from the national mobile phone register) to get around this failing. The people you mention would only have to drive between cardiff and bristol for their bikes to disappear from police radar.
I think that there are many many people who would be quite happy to buy an expensive, top of the range bike knowing that it has been stolen. They think that if you can afford a nice bike then you most probably have it insured as well, so the original owner doesn't lose out as the insurance will pay out. Nippers will steal a bike, give it a respray and sell it on to their buyer for £100 or so, giving the thief a night out for his of her efforts.
Car stereo's use to be the product of choice for thieves years ago but car manufacturers have changed the design of I.C.E a bit to deter thieves.
I also believe that (as stated above) bikes also end up in other countries as they must be pretty untraceable once they leave the U.K. A luton van full of bikes, once a month would make a bit of money for a couple of lowlifes willing to take the chance.
you just need to maker a explosive seat post on some sort of remote. if you bike gets stolen, press the button and the guy will be killed instantly. allowing you to make the world a better place and get ur bike back.
There's a stolen Trek here in Chester in the possesion of local Junkies. Police and LBS have none reported stolen, I've posted it on a few sites (Inc here). No doubt it will be swopped for some wraps if it's not already been trashed. Gutted I couldn't find it's owner, it had matching bling, you could tell it was cherished once, I wouldn't be surprised if the owners on holiday and may not know it's gone yet.