[Closed] "Stolen Bike Recovery Service" - interesting idea?

Sounds like a double sting to me?

Ton and some large mates ? 🙂

[i]very resonable prices[/i]

Doesn't sound good does it.
"Sounds" like a thief who cottoned onto the fact that owners of reasonably valued bikes will pay more to get it back, than the dodgy geezer down the street would.
Though including a 'home' number not a mobile, is either making it legitimate or very stupid...

Anyone fancy giving him a ring? (some-one who has actally lost a bike lately)

yeah, the spelling errors don't do the ad any favours as a 'legitimate service' IMO... would be interesting to see how/id it works... maybe I should set a bike up to be nicked 😉

Tea Leaf nicks bike

You phone tea leaf, he says he cant find it.

A while later (2-3 months, lets wait for the insurance to pay out) he arranges to drop bike off at your home address for a fee.

Tea leaf returns, nicks the old bike, the new one and your DVD player.

It seems that a "company" with the same telephone number by the name of Cidabridge is located just to the east of Catford Greyhound Stadium
I think it is a Cafe.
http://www.hotfrog.co.uk/Companies/Cidabridge

Cidabridge is actually listed under "Restaurants and Eateries", not exactly what you expect for a recovering stolen kit service... though they could be branching out..

Maybe worth buying a PAYG phone, settign up the recovery of your stollen bike with a false name/address then tiping off the fuzz that your stollen bike is in the cafe?

Harsh people thats not what its about.

Let me clear this up now.

Im an ex Police officer with a passionfor cycling and pissed that when a bikes been nicked nothings done.

In London Bike thefts are often screened out as a no hope. If Theres no or little CCTV and no suspects and the bikes not on the internet within 10 days the Met say sorry theres nothing we can do.

What happens in the majority of cases is 2 things. Bikes are stolen and sold on very quickly or dumped or in most cases the bike is stolen taken within a 3 mile radius locked up again and it sits there for about a week two weeks. In this time the bike is either posted online for sale or taken to places such as Brick Lane, Cheshire road, Lewisham or Downham. If the Bikes not sold by then The thives normally sell the pieces.

Kids normally respray the bikes which is a dead give away but professinals keep the original condition of the bike just changing afew thingsnormallythe cabling, Cranks or stem and sell the bike on cheap ie yesterday at Brick Lane a Carrea Subway with disc brakes less then a year old for £40.

Im sick of this happening and the Met Police doing nothing thats whyi thought as im around all the time (as a cycle couriour) i could also try to get back peoples pride and joy. I started in Jan 2010

as for the phone number i have no idea it was only allocated to me by BT in September when we moved

I am no bike thief or some kinda of insurance cheat in fact ive only ever come across 1 insured bike MINE!

Its a genuine service, im not a magician but when most peoples bike gets stolen theres only one person looking for the bike and thats them. Now im offering A helping hand.

I do like it when the real person turns up and puts an end to speculation.

recoveryservcie1 - good luck to you.

I hope a few of the insurance companies start using your services and in the meantime if you want some publicity then talk to http://www.bikerevolution.org you seem to have a lot in common.

seems fair enough. Whenever someone posts about a stolen bike, people in that area try to look out for it, this guy is just doing the same.

wwaswas and meehaja Thanks for your support

STW Dail Mail style frenzy over potential bike thiefs stopped dead in it's track's by honest copper shocker 😯 8)

Im an ex Police officer with a passionfor cycling and pissed that when a bikes been nicked nothings done.
...
Its a genuine service, im not a magician but when most peoples bike gets stolen theres only one person looking for the bike and thats them. Now im offering A helping hand.

sounds good to me. When my bike was stolen it was a lucky eye that spotted it and recovered it. Amplify that and recoveryservice should roll out in Bristol too...

aaaaah i was about get my pitchfork out! 🙁

do you offer a full english with the recovered bike 😉

shame the police can't do it themselves. and good on you for seeing a gap in the market.

Harsh people thats not what its about.

Let me clear this up now.

Im an ex Police officer with a passionfor cycling and pissed that when a bikes been nicked nothings done.

I'd want to see valid proof of everything down to the number of toes on your foot. In fact I'd be inclined to let the local plod know about the ad so it can be checked out - any moron can come on a web forum and claim to be an ex cop bla bla bla

However I'm open minded and would be willing to take that proof and use the service if I'd lost a bike. IF you're genuine, good idea.

STW Dail Mail style frenzy over potential bike thiefs stopped dead in it's track's by honest copper shocker

EX Cop i might add and theres nothing wrong with passion people

 

I'd want to see valid proof of everything down to the number of toes on your foot. In fact I'd be inclined to let the local plod know about the ad so it can be checked out - any moron can come on a web forum and claim to be an ex cop bla bla bla

However I'm open minded and would be willing to take that proof and use the service if I'd lost a bike. IF you're genuine, good idea.

Thanks, The best proof i could offer is 1 of 2 things. Your bike if i find it which i would have to speak to the police about any way or come down to Lewisham and speak to my old skipper. Apart from speaking to ex collegues i dont know what else you would want. A simular system already operates in LA very succesfully sowhy not in London or bristol or every where. My idea Kill the Trade in stolen bikes stop people buying them so in turn stop the thieves.

So given you have just just registered on here as 'recoveryservice1' do you have another longer serviced forum name?

And how did you know we were discussing your services?

ahh just googled 'Stolen Bike recovery'.

this thread is second...

Bit ironic that the STW vigilantes are out to get the stolen bike vigilante.

Until now ive just read the forums but never joined. However i was browsing the net looking at compition, a few people have poped up with this idea and then disappered so i thought id google it and see what went wrong the number 2 result was this forum. and thats my Gumtree add at the start so if you call 0208 285 1652 these days you dont get some restraunt takeaway thingy you get me Or catford bikes if you want to send a letter or small parcel by bike anywhere in London for £1.14 per mile but im betting you dont.

Its hard to beleive I'm justa person who wants to stop bike theifs. In 2009 we had 12 bikes stolenfrom our fleet. Its an expensive job to replace them so someones got to stop it if the Met wont i will. Im not replacing the Police or conning anyone just providing a usefull helpfull service that sometimes has a great result

I am curious now recoveryservice1, how many bikes have you recovered?

Well Good Luck. Seems like a useful service.

Mate I think you are doing the right thing, try not to rise to the miserable mary's on here, they spend all their time pissing on other peoples chips because they have such miserable lives themselves.

We need the same thing down here in Devon.

I'm not miserable and my name's not Mary :-p

Hi thanks for your support

I think devons abit to far but maybe 1 day

Once again since Jan 10 weve had 96 bikes reported to us 62 have been recovered (12 with Police help) and we still have 34 outstanding

Been thinking about doing similar 'down here' (Bristol) my old man is ex-job and has similar links into local CID etc. Like the Met in London they'd no doubt welcome the assistance.

You willing to divulge what you charge r_s?

Thats the Big Killer Question. Whats the charges. Ive justset out a rough idea on gumtree what they are but basically i just wanted to make sure that all costswere covered. Any one can report the bike to me for free to keep a look out. Recovery is generally £40 however the police are always notified and normally take the bike for a couple of days.

If you want me to Actively searchthat means getting the team to cycle adrive around which has the highest recovery rates that is around £20 but if you pay us to actively search you dont pay the recovery fee

good luck to you. I hope this goes well, and people are returned to their bikes as quick and as painlessly as is possible.

Good luck to you mate, sounds like a good idea and anything that helps crack down on the Tea leaf bastwerds is good in my book. I only posted your ad as I found it intriguing and thought the forum might as well, I did have a thought that it might be something dodgy, good to find out it's legit! We're a cynical bunch on here, but a bl00dy good crowd to have on your side re. guerrilla marketing and the like 😉

A_A - there would certainly be a lot of goodwill towards a service like that in Bristol - I'd be happy to provide a part of a baying mob 🙂
(no.3 bike nicked on Halloween by presumably other world scrote...)

Great idea. Good luck.

BTW if we pay extra can you administer some Sharia law to the bike thieves? 🙂

I'm afraid a good smack is not part of the service

Hang on hang on hang on;

How does this work? How do you 'find' the stolen bikes? Do you use your former police contacts/have access to information the general public don't?

IE; how can you find my bike, if I can't?

And when you do find a stolen bike, is it not your legal duty to hand it in to police, if you know it's stolen? And report the details of your discovery to police?

And why should I pay you, to get my own property back? If the police recovered my bike, I'd pay nothing. Why should I? It's my flippin' property!!

I don't even think it's legal to charge someone to return their property to them!

Call me a cynic, but I'm struggling to understand how you would have greater powers to trace stolen bikes, than the police or an individual.

I'm also interested in how you got an STW login within such a short time of this thread appearing.

I'm wondering why you've not got a website; coppers tend to be quite organised people in my experience.

Whilst I admire your entrepreneurialism, I'm afraid I'm not quite as easily satisfied as some other folk on here. So, forgive the questions, but to me it just seems to be someone exploiting their contacts whilst not being a proper registered part of the police/legal system. As a 'civvy', I'm not privy to the sort of info you seem to be suggesting you are, which strikes me as potentially illegal, tbh. I'm also curious as to exactly how you'd 'recover' said bikes, without the authority held by a member of Her Maj's Plod.

If you wish to be a good samaritan, fine. I appreciate such an enterprise would incur costs to yourself. But if you find my bike, then I'd be happy if you just did your civic duty and reported it to the correct authorities. Which is what I'd do, without expecting any kind of payment. Otherwise, it seems to me to be something that profits from crime.

Jeez elfin, don't like the mans idea then fine, just ignore. Always got something to say....

Its no different from using a Private eye is it? Its the age old thing, don't like the idea of that scheme/idea, could be misconstrued, so lets not do anything and let the thieves have an easy ride, just in case eh?

a lot of insurance companies emply recover agents for stuff like yachts etc, I don't see this as being any different - was why I suggested he get contactracts with them - if he recovers a bike after the insurance has paid out then it's the insurance companies property. Would be worth their while for high value bikes and kit to give him 30% of any recovery.

Jeez elfin, don't like the mans idea then fine, just ignore. Always got something to say....

Oh, sorry, I assumed I had the same right to express my views as anyone else on this forum. Sorry for not getting your permission... 🙄

The idea, in principle, I have no problem with. It's how Recoveryservice actually goes about recovering stolen bikes, using the same resources and powers available to the rest of us 'civvies', that I'm curious about.

Do't worry Si; I'm sure Recoveryservice can speak for themselves...

Elfin I would surmise that recoveryservice 1 doesn't spend all his time on t'interweb talking sh1te like you do 😆

That's how he finds bikes you can't.

Maybe some unfortunate person can try out recoveryservice1's service and report back? ...Well, that unlucky person will be me.

Lawrence (recoveryservice1) - I've had a Giant FCR 2 stolen from me recently in Sutton. I can't find your advert on Gumtree. Can you please send me your contact details and I can send you the full profile of the bike?

As per the original Gumtree Ad:

Laurence on 0208 285 1625

If you have had your bike stolen in the last 24 hours then please get in touch, recovery rate of 65% and very resonable prices email for further detials or if its an emergency your bike has just been stolen call 0208 285 1625

Again listed on this page:
http://ukstolenbikes.com/?p=550

Sorry been so busy i havent had a chance to answer any questions

Powers we have are the same as any member of the public

How it works?

The system has spent a year in devlopment using ideas from 3 main sources, The Met Police, Catford Couriours and Chatting to Bike theives at Brick Lane (2 of the 3 are now in Prision the thirds on a suspeded sentance)

In South East London a bike is called through to us as stolen, We then send two of our riders to meet with the cyclist and take details, ie crime number or help them report it to the met, the bikes details and so on. This is then communicated with the rest of the team. Stright away an online search begins and all 6 riders the start searching every road shed allyway, estate everything in a 6 mile radius with the support of a 2.0Ltr Vauxhall Vectra estate car. Most bikes that are stolen are either dumped and sold very quickly or there stored somewhere for a couple of weeks and then sold on.

In the Majority of cases we find the bikes within 2 hours of them being reported to us usually locaked up and altered in someway ie a wheel removed pannier rack removed. We then checkthe frame number against the one weve got or if dont have the frame number we send the car to collect the victem and come and ID the bike. If they make a positive ID we attach 3 D-Locks to the bike and flatten the tyres and call the Police. The Police then normally seize the bike for around 48 hours and then it can be returned to its rightfull owners.

How are we Drifferent?

Theres 6 of us who are dedicated to getting rid of bike crime and stopping the supply of stolen bikes. Basically deny criminals the use of the bikes. Were drifferent because regually visit common stolen bike haunts Brick Lane Portabello road, Lewisham Stn, Downham Playing field ect. When a member of the public looks for there bike its normally just them and maybe a friend were an experienced team.

People believe that maybe this is a scam.

This is what i say to those people.

Think what u like, if your bike gets stolen then report it to the police but bike crime is given low priorty CCTV of the area is looked at and a report is sent to the cycle task force thats it. Maybe an odd bike turns up abondand but that sits in the yard for 3 months and if no one claimes it after 3 months its sold, mostly for scrap.

Tell the that to the 68 bikes that weve recovered and returned to the right owners (as of 16.30 on 11/11/2010)

Tell that to ETA who have awarded us a contract to find stolenbikes in Central London.

Im sorry to hear about the stolen bike in sutton, please email anprtraffic@hotmail.co.uk and will treat it as a pirority case

Wow, that's quite a service, I'm surprised you never got an apology from the mighty Elf 😉

Holy thread res....etc etc