[Closed] Stolen Bike recovered but what now?

If cash converters want to not be seen as your local high street fencing company you would think they would've been happy to return the bike to you.

Maybe with a photo in the local newspaper of you and the stores manager with one hand on the bike with your other in a firm handshake as said bike is handed over.

said bike is in the custody of the local police who wont give it back to me or anyone else for that matter until the interpleader is resolved.

however i doubt cash generators want to rid themselves of the bike as they will lose out on the money they paid...even though they made money in reselling it, as the lad they sold it to is now suing them to get his money back.

i dont think the newspaper idea would be a good one for me as the thief is still at large and if he spot the article (assuming he can actually read), i dont want him knowing i've got it back as he knows where i live and may come back for attempt number 2.

Just keep your gob shut. Police know it was a genuine theft so just enjoy both bikes and be happy.

The buyer has a case against cash generator, and surely cash generator have a case against who sold it to them, as surely they take details proof of id and make you sign something saying that what they are buying is your to sell. And have no claim on the stolen/recovered property.

Because otherwise there would be no reason for them not to buy stolen property.

Exactly chip - I thought the law was really clear in that you don't have any entitlement to the goods whatsoever if you buy a stolen item.

Just keep your gob shut. Police know it was a genuine theft so just enjoy both bikes and be happy.

The buyer has a case against cash generator, and surely cash generator have a case against who sold it to them, as surely they take details proof of id and make you sign something saying that what they are buying is your to sell. And have no claim on the stolen/recovered property.

when you sell to them you are required to provide proof of ownership, proof of ID, sign the waiver saying its yours to sell and its legit and then let them take your picture
in my case the seller apparently used a fake ID and didnt provide any proof of ownership...signing the waiver was enough for the shop staff

Offer to pay the insurance company the value that you can sell the nice shiny replacement for...

Then you get the 'built with love' bike that you want.

The insurance get the money it is probably worth (the second hand resale value of a £1700 bike)

Some third party gets a nearly new bike at a good price...

🙂 everyone happy!

I thought the law was really clear in that you don't have any entitlement to the goods whatsoever if you buy a stolen item.

but the shop and the police are claiming that they didnt know it was stolen so therefore they bought it in good faith and have a legal right to claim ownership to it

what really galled me was when the police told me that once i had been paid out by the insurers that the thief had legally sold the bike to cash generators as i was no longer the owner!!

Well that sounds rubbish to me but IANAL.... Seems to me that some CC stores are quite happy to buy these things as a good profit can be made and won't worry to much about proof of ownership. They should be penalised for buying the item so maybe they'll think again the next time they get offered a bike with a dubious history.

tacopowell - Member

Clearly.

I've a bike, I built this bike with my own hands, with love,
Events have lead for this bike to be no longer my bike,
A faceless company will offer me a price I'm unlikely able to afford,
Forcing me to hand back a bike I know they don't want and in all likelihood won't do anything with.

Regardless of the insurance system, it's hard to see this bike disappear from my life because I've done the morally right thing.

You simply can't put a price on love.

Clearly, you've got 2 choices then.

1) Pay them back the £1700 they gave you for a new bike (or the value of the bike if they gave you one), and keep your old bike.
2) Pay them back a couple of hundred for the old bike.

£1700 or a nominal ammount, your choice.

Have you looked at the Ts & Cs of the insurance policy, and of the settlement documents you got? You'd have been paid £1700 in settlement for your loss - which transfers the ownership of the original bike - if recovered - to the insurer.

Regardless of whether or not it 'seems' right, that's the contract you signed.

As has been asked above already, what did you do with the £1700? If you've yet to spend it, surely you can use a small fraction of it to buy the original bike back from the insurer, leaving you with a nice chunk of cash. Say (for the sake of argument) the insurer asks for £500 for the original bike. You'll have got your bike back, plus £1200. That's not bad, is it? Suddenly that insurer doesn't sound terribly evil. Say it was uninsured - you'd just have got your bike back.

As has already been pointed out, if you've already replaced the bike with a shiny new one, then you could almost certainly sell the new one to more than cover the buy-back fee on your old one. In which case you would have your old bike back and probably a bit of extra cash too, so then you could stop whining about how much you love the bike and how you have no money.

Oh, [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/insurance-pay-out-what-would-you-do-with-2100 ]and was it £1700, or £2100[/url]? Obviously, getting the Dialled back would be great, but did you get the Canyon and another bike, or just the Canyon?

This happened to a colleague of mine, he told his insurers and they said keep it.

It usually works out better telling the truth at the start.

[i]Finally, DezB, I think your logic is as skewed as your moral compass.[/i]

I haven't said what [i]I[/i] would do...

This happened to me. I told the insurance company and they just said keep the bike. They faxed over a letter so the Police would hand the bike over to me. In all honesty they really aren't bothered. What Are they going to do with a bike for them it is all small change.

Just got home, Insurer hasn't followed up my inquiry that they said they would within the 24hrs from this time yesterday (poor customer service!)

I've replaced the stolen bike with the £1700 payout,
Its a completely different type of mtb so I'd be keen to keep both.

Just to clarify,
I HAVE contacted the Insurers to let them know of the recovered stolen bike!

Hopefully I can get some sort of resolve from them by tomorrow!

[quote=tacopowell ]tacopowell - Member - Quote
[b]Called Insurance company, They'll be contacting me within the next 48hrs with an offer.[/b]

They did say they don't normally take back bikes, I suspect the £1700 valuation may allow them to make an exemption, although that is a valuation of a new bike and not the value of the actual bike itself.

The way I see it is I pay a premium to protect myself from bike thieves and the Insurer is there to replace the bike when I fall victim,
I now understand that the bike is the property of the insurer (or at least they lay claim to it)
but when I've been reunited with a custom built bike that I've spent many of my hard earned pennies on and gave many hours building and maintaining,
it's very hard to see that bike in my possession, knowing I may have to hand it back (don't have spare £££'s) to a faceless company that in all honesty isn't going to do anything with it.

POSTED 1 DAY AGO # REPORT-POST

You said 48hrs yesterday?

You said 48hrs yesterday?

So I did, I meant 24hrs,
Non the less they hadn't any records of yesterdays call!

I've replaced the stolen bike with the £1700 payout,
Its a completely different type of mtb so I'd be keen to keep both

I'd like a free bike too. You may well end up getting almost that, and still you're complaining about having to wait a bit for a phone call?

And?

And?

£65 later and it's mine again,

A great and somewhat surreal result even with the increased premium but the reality is that i'd simply prefer not have my bikes stolen in the first place.

I'll no longer be keeping it in the shed, instead keeping it up my bum hole for added security. 😉

£65 😯 you were robbed, again! 😉

I got to keep mine for £0 then again it had been missing for a year and pretty much shagged.

Good result tho. best to be honest and upfront and feel better within yourself.

best to be honest and upfront and feel better within yourself.

That's great news, although I think it'll be worth even less than £65 once it's been up your bum hole. 😀

Great result.

Well done OP. You did the right thing and you've had a result with everything above board.
It's a horrible feeling when your pride and joy gets nicked and I hope the positive outcome has made up for all your upset.
The thing that really bothers me is that many of the posters on this thread would happily rip off their own insurer and feel justified.

many of the posters on this thread would happily rip off their own insurer and feel justified

Well, to counter that (and not to defend any criminal activity you understand....but

many of the insures posters in this thread use HAVE happily ripped off said posters and feel quite justified charging their over-inflated premiums

😉

many of the insures posters in this thread use HAVE happily ripped off said posters and feel quite justified charging their over-inflated premiums

That may or may not be true, but the answer to being screwed over is not to screw someone else over. In that schema, everyone pays more for everything, money goes round in circles and the only people who actually profit are criminals and lawyers.

I'm glad the OP got his bike back, and let's face it, £65 is peanuts. He can also avoid the stress of continually looking out for a stolen bike which is worth way more than a cheap bike.

Hmmmm
I need to get friendly with an insurance company bike reseller! £65!

Good news OP!

He can also avoid the stress of continually looking out for a stolen bike which is worth way more than a cheap bike.

I'm going through this at the moment. Every time I start looking, it makes me feel sick.