Gumtree – Recovered!
I’ve had my bike stolen twice and it has been recovered twice. The first time it was stolen, the thieves advertised it on eBay. It was part of a scam run by a local bike shop in Merton SW London. The return of the bike was delayed because eBay played silly buggers and would not help the police (They say they will law enforcement officers on their website. In my experience this is BS as they hindered the case and dragged it out for 4 weeks).
I worked with the local police and eventually the bike was recovered and the bike shop’s eBay account was closed down. The second time the bike was stolen, it turned up on Gumtree. I called the police took a screen print of the add. The police called the number in the add. The guy was known to the police already so they picked it up within 48hrs.
The key to getting the bike returned is calling the police in the area that it is advertised. It helps if you have pictures that clearly identify the bike, ideally with you in them. Try to get a name of a detective and email him or her. Take a screen print of the add and the URL and email them. You need to be pro-active, effectively give them a clear lead and spoon feed them and you should get the bike back. It worked for me twice!
The other thing I did was to place a counter add. Copy the item description and post an add explaining that your bike has been stolen, it has been advertised by such and such in this number and ask them to ring him! ebay pulled my counter add but Gumtree didn’t