STOLEN BIKE; found on eBay – what next?

So, sister in law and brother in law had their bikes nicked couple of days ago.

Sister in law’s bike has turned up on eBay. I fitted the mudguards, handle bar tape and cyclocross brakes. Categorically, without doubt I’ve found it on eBay.

She’s contacted the non-emergency fuzz who apparently don’t do much over the weekend.

Anyone suggest next steps? I’m tempted to activate the buy it now on the bike so the bloke thinks he’s sold it.

Any ideas?

Buy it now, arrange to collect when the fuzz can go with you (even if its just a community support officer). Really you want them to search the property for the other bike!

Agree’ed, buy it now and take the boys in blue (when they can be bothered)

As above hit the buy it now before someone else does dude then go round with the boys and blue and let them do their thing.

I had this a couple of years ago. 3 bikes taken from my garage. 2 days later on eBay. Contacted the police who spent 3 weeks getting the sellers information from Luxembourg. Gone of course by then.
They’d advised me not to try and buy as they thought they were part of some south London criminal cartel.
Circular argument as they must have known who they were but did nothing.

I had the same thing a while back. Bought my kit and informed the police who told me in no uncertain terms not to meet the thief to collect. The police then took forever to do anything, despite me providing the address of the criminals and offering to arrange to pick up the goods. They then seemingly announced their arrival to the thieves, giving them time to dispose of all evidence. Needless to say I’d do things differently if it happened again. One small point to consider – you will need evidence that the items are yours. Pictures showing those mudguards and brakes, distinctive scratches or, ideally, serial numbers. My bike was almost entirely custom built and I had pictures of it, still no help from the police..

Same sad story here: stolen bike emerged on ebay a few days later, cops informed but they did nothing about it.
Next time* instead of coppers I’ll choose bombers…

*hoping that would not be needed.

I’m sure if you bought it and then went along to collect with some large friends, but just before you ‘collect’ the item ring the police and inform them of your intentions they’d get involved pretty sharpish.

Yeah, that. Go along, park round the corner and call Police. If they’re not coming then you may as well see if you can retrieve the bike without paying (without endangering yourself).

Every thread I’ve read on this has the same result. If you wait for police to come up with a plan you’ll wait forever.

Good luck. Give the thief a kick in the balls from me.

Any news on the outcome of this?

Search for the guys eBay username. That normally turns up other forums and sometimes email addresses. If you keep going you can sometimes get to a phone number. Keep going from that and you can get to a Facebook profile and a name. If you find any adverts for vehicles for sale, the police can turn that into an address.

Don’t rely on eBay providing information to the police – they don’t do it at all quickly.

The other thing is to push the police to act.

Buy it now will mean the other person can access your address. Only do it if you have an eBay account you can bin, and can get the Police there ASAP.

well done for finding it so soon OP
just a few things to be wary of as i’ve been through the same thing

contact the police and tell them you want them to recover your stolen property
activate the buy it now so the seller wont sell elsewhere
arrange to collect the bike so you get the address details…make sure its a residential address and not the back of some pub
arrange a time and then pass this onto the police so they can get a warrant to seize the goods

now heres the tricky part:
make sure you have all the proof of ownership ready to prove the bike belongs to your in laws. make a note of anything unique such as stickers marks etc that only they would know about also have photo proof ready too
if you can prove all of this then you should get the bike back…so long as the insurance hasnt paid out.
if the insurance has paid out then you will need to liaise with the insurance company in getting the bike back. usually you pay them a disposal/scrap fee to get the bike back.
however beware if the seller isnt the thief…if they say they bought the bike off some bloke you should be ok but if they say and can prove they bought the bike form somewhere like cash generator etc…then depending on whether your insurance has paid out or not the police will try to enter the case into a civil interpleder. this will be where you?your insurer, the current owner and the shop who sold the bike will dispute legal ownership of the bike…its a real ballache, but it depends on whether the insurance has paid out and if thats the case whether your in laws want the bike back

I know of a guy who found their stolen bike on Gumtree and arranged with the seller to see it. He asked if he could test ride it before handing over any cash. The seller agreed and the guy rode off as fast as he could without looking back…..

The only problem was that a few weeks later the thieves returned with a vengeance, taking the bike again and more.

I know of a guy who found their stolen bike on Gumtree and arranged with the seller to see it. He asked if he could test ride it before handing over any cash. The seller agreed and the guy rode off as fast as he could without looking back…..

The only problem was that a few weeks later the thieves returned with a vengeance, taking the bike again and more.

thats the downside of stealing it back off the thief…they know where you live

This happened to us in Spain but the Spanish police were a lot more proactive – 3 (armed) officers came down to the meet with us, 2 of them held the guy down while the other checked the serial number and then they nicked him.

thats the downside of stealing it back off the thief…they know where you live

Unless they were nicked from a bike rack or something 💡

Yeah, going down the “bombers” route / car alternator through the window a’la Adam Ant (wasn’t getting his bike back, but it is a good story of comedy vengeance) does sound like the manly thing to do & having had bikes nicked in the past i’d have been tempted to throw someone under a bus if I seen them riding it down the street, however you could be dealing with the sort of shitehawks that would happily stab you up real bad for looking at them funny…

Exercise extreme caution & involve plod if you’re going confrontational, or, go full scale “10 big guys piling out of a transit & straight through someone’s front door” style. No half measures.

Buy the bike back, pay by PayPal. It’s stolen property so it’s against eBay’s terms and covered by PayPal’s buyers warranty. Report it to PayPal as stolen and claim your money back.

Report the eBay sale to the internet fraud division of the police – online. That will encourage eBay and PayPal to repay you without returning the item as they normally require.

Once you’ve done that they can’t make you return the bike, because it’s stolen and that would make you and them complicit in the theft.

Oh and you should tell your local police that you’ve recovered the bike. Even if they interview the seller, he will probably say that he bought it from someone in a pub that he’s never seen before or since, and without any evidence connecting him to the theft, he’ll probably walk away.

“She’s contacted the non-emergency fuzz who apparently don’t do much over the weekend”

Quite possibly the most ridiculous statement ever