With some of the treads on here about the poor souls who have had their pride and joy nicked by some scrote, what do you do in the event that you can confront them?

I had a situation about a year ago where a work colleague had his nice new Gary Fisher nicked and about a month later I saw the bike being ridden by some neerdowell along a cycleway. Without thinking I chased the bloke, confronted him and got myself into a stand off situation at which point he pulled a knife from the folds of his grubby tracksuit and convienently found himself a half brick that was just lying around. It was at this stage that I realised that I wasn't about to give him the thrashing of his life and proudly return the bike to it's rightful owner, instead I made some vauge threats about the bike owner being a guy you dont mess with etc etc and eventually we went our seperate ways.
I realised my mistake imediatly and came to the conclusion that I should have simply covertly followed him to his journey's end at which time I could have called owner or possibly the police!!, stated my whereabouts and let them get on with it.

What do you lot think?? Follow and formulate a better plan or steam in?

Know your limits. Think you can take it on? Take it on.

Don't think you can take it on? Don't.

Simples.

fight it like fire …. assess the situation dont try and be a hero , no one thanks a dead man.

but if you think you are qualified and competent put the fire out

yeah, as much as you love a bike it can be replaced, life can't!

Knives are all too common and the scum who carry it are usually too stupid to think about the consequences.

Follow and report to police.

Could be armed with knives etc.

Bike replaceable, human life-not.

If you're going in, go quick and hit pretty hard and know how to stike by following through as you don't want these guys getting up.

Or use your brain, takes pics with your mobile, call cops and wait.

The one I was after didn't turn up 😥

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/photo-of-a-bike-thief

call cops and wait.

Ha HA Ha, better make yourself comfy!!

Can't believe it… no one has said own him with your bombers yet!

Seriously, use your noddle, do the sensible thing and let let the professionals deal with it. If they don't want to know then you are a little bit stuffed and tbh they probably have more important things to deal with.. like parking tickets.

The cops will want crime numbers and proof – "how do you know it was YOUR bike Sir?"

Even more complicated if it's a mate's bike.

Get a pic of the scrote- preferably a good facial. The odds are if it's a 'known' then the cops will just love an excuse to kick his door down for a section 18 search.

Or wait till they leave it/lock it soemwhere and then put your own lock on it too and call the Police.

A mate of mine works as a dairy truck driver and had to into central London to drop off some milk. Baring in mind he's a typical Dorset truck driver, he went out for a stroll and got held up by 3 yoofs in an underpass by kifepoint and was ordered to hand over his wallet.

At which point he cuffed the ring leader round the side of the head and told him not to be so bloody stupid and go home before he got a thrashing.

😆

Or use your brain, takes pics with your mobile, call cops and wait.

I was once in the queue at the supermarket after work, and saw some scrotes trying it on with my bike lock outside. One was sitting on my mates recently stolen on-one.
I dumped my shopping, went out, unlocked my bike and wandered off. I stood a good distance away and called the cops and another mate (bike owners housemate) who I knew worked nearby. A WPC on a bike and my mate on his bike arrived at the same time.
We all rode over and performed a BMX Bandits style arrest! Nice.

Guess what.. Nobody was ever charged.

Get a pic of the scrote-

That's going to be hard….

– preferably a good facial.

That'll be even harder!

What amazes me is that people claim they have seen someones bike, I find this really hard to believe because I've seen dozens of near-identical bikes out on the road/trail, even common customisations, you'd never be able to say "thats my bike" unless you got a frame number!

never be able to say "thats my bike" unless you got a frame number!

Friend of my mum's had about £4000 of nearly new trek road bike (he was in the national squad at the time) stolen several years later it turned up in a lockup of a guy who sells plenty of used bikes on ebay. Apprently he was steeling them, storing them for 2 years and then selling them once the insurance had paid up and original owners had given up looking.

He managed to identify it by a few scratches and upgrades.

Own them with your Glock.

For all you know the git sold the bike to this guy when first you laid eyes upon it.
But when he pulls a blade err on the side of discretion and back off.

I followed a guy that did something similar, he was only about 13 and I followed him to his house then called the police, made a statement out and the old bill went round to the boys house where the father told the boy in front of the police how stupid he was to allow himself to be followed.

Next time take a piccy of the fella if you can

Thing is that i actually got a bike back by the act first think later method…saw a much younger kid on my old Marin (years ago) and near clothes lined him off it. Went through the correct channels (the police) to get it back as his mum wasn't far behind him and had a fair bit to say about the situation, but eventually she conceeded that it was mine and her husband had got it from a suspect source. Thats the problem, you can easilly get caught up in the initial suprise of seeing the bike and dive into confrontation. I really think that the stake out is the best and probably safest way…plus it gives you a chance to call your mates/posse if it comes to it.

place your valuables on here, and if you suspect you know where your stuff is, call the police and they can cross reference it with this database.

never challenge a scrote as they invariably carry some sort of weapon and you don't know what diseases they have!

Big Dummy Glocks are so last year…… you need an AS50 for a non confrontation take down 😳

I find this really hard to believe because I've seen dozens of near-identical bikes out on the road/trail, even common customisations, you'd never be able to say "thats my bike" unless you got a frame number!

You may not be able to prove it in court without documentary evidence but ….

If you took – say – my current MTB & lined it up with another 10 of identical spec, I reckon I'd pick it out in less than 10 seconds. There's just too many little unique things that make it, well… unique

you need an AS50 for a non confrontation take down

Blimey, you'd need dental records if you hit a scrote with that!

I have a true but hard to believe story on this subject..

A mate of mine had his bike nicked from his kitchen.. reported it at the local police station and then proceeded to get drunk and mourn the loss of an old friend.. certain that he would never see it again..
jump to two weeks later.. mid afternoon.. driving through the town centre in his transit after an early finish at work.. he spots a scrote pushing the bike across the road at a crossing.. so he slams on the brakes.. jumps out and gives chase.. the scrote panics.. tries to jump on and pedal off but gets tangled and fluffs it and hits the deck..

Our intrepid hero.. (big wide chap.. looks like a bald heavily tattooed caveman.. scary almost) grabs bike under one arm.. thief under the other and chucks both in the back of the van and drives to the old bill station.. he lets the very very scared junkie out of the van.. and hands him to two gobsmacked coppers that are hanging about outside the copshop.. no doubt swapping football cards or whatever it is that they actually do all day..

He briefly explains and then jumps back into the still running van and heads off before they can react..

Surprisingly he heard no more about it until a while later when it transpires that the shaken up villain had proceeded to cough to a load of local petty crimes and duly received a prison sentence..

I wouldn't recommend this course of action as I have no doubt that usually this kind of behaviour could land you in serious bother with the authorities..
a heartwarming tale though..

Over the years I've got to know myself and it turns out I'm an evil little f*cker living in a placid middle class body with a vindictive retributive streak and a lack of self worth in terms of collateral damage. So I know what I would end up doing irrespective of what the rational me would vow to do now.

A friend of mine was held up by 2 guys an underpass, 5:40 pm on a weekday. He looks like your typical out of condition middle aged bloke, perhaps a bit fat. Sadly for his would be muggers he's actually 6 foot tall and he looks fat because of all the muscle he carries (ex professional American Football player). Mugger pulls knife on him, red mist comes down and one mugger is unconscious on the floor, the other one runs off. My mate has a slashed jacket but no injuries (except knuckles).

My mate then ended up on a 36 hour bender because he thought he might have killed the guy. Next thing I see of him he's trying to resign from work – we wouldn't accept his resignation, it had nothing to do with work and was all hearsay.

BUT what if he had killed the mugger? I'd hope that it would have been seen as self defence but he would have had all sorts of trouble proving it.

Not saying don't do it, just be careful out there.

I don't think that there was a need for words at all, a good, clean straight right would have sufficed. You just gave him the opportunity to prepare himself. Surprise is your advantage in that situation, use it.

What about the old bombers?

Take up boxing, or similar.

Great fun, great way to keep fit, and great if you ever need to beat the crap out of someone. I haven't used the third reason yet, but feel fairly confident I could (depends on how big they are..)

Just ask yourself " What would Jesus[/] TJ do"??

my sons bike was nicked this week and i am keeping an eye out for it, problem is though that its probably been sold on, so if i see it i may be tackling the purchaser (in good faith) not the thief

i talked to sum1 who got approached by sum scally's in south wales…he said he picked up a pair of spare 66's from the boot of his car and hit one of them with them…fractured his skull…not sure aout nething…this guy might be on here???