Found my stolen bike - re-sold via Cash Crusaders, Observatory

[Guest Omega Man]

care to share details on how It became "an expensive lesson" please?

Insurance had already paid me out at this point but basically I bought it back from the person who had it. 3k. He wasn't the thief. That was established. He gave us the cell number of the person he had bought it from. I gave that to the investigating officer. Nothing came of it. In my defense I went to Nigeria for 2 weeks a few days after I recovered the bike so I couldn't follow up with the police. By the time I got back it was long forgotten.

 

The police have to deal with hectic stuff so i guess a bike theft registers pretty low on their list of priorities. The guy that saw the bike being ridden knows someone who knows me. Nils Hansen from Woodstock Cycles works was the "go between" Not many white morewood makulu's with a white marzo 888 up front. That's how it was recovered. My insurance broker told me not to get involved and so did my wife who is also a broker. But of course I refused to listen. I got the bike back and told my broker to tell the insurance company that I'd recovered it thinking they'd at least refund me the 3k. No dice.

 

Honestly I thought i was doing the right thing.

 

Expensive lesson learned.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Omega Man

[ccc2]

I wouldn't give a crap whether it has been 3 years or 10 years, if I see someone riding around on my stolen bike, I would still want to donner him, wouldnt you?

 

My bikes are MY bike!

 

Cut the oak some slack!

Not his fault that the bike got stolen!

 

But yea ... the pawn shop cant take much of the blame because they dont give a crap.

All they are required to do, is ask the seller (be it the skelm himself or one of his buddies) for ID and that is it!

 

The pawn shop is not going to phone every police station in WP to find out if a silver Giant with an unknown serial number has been reported stolen in the last million years. They are also not going to go through every single "stolen bike" thread here on the hub either!

maybe cc did take down the sellers id nr

[Baaisikilist]

Remove seatpost, mark initials very gently/carefully at the bottom (that's usually inside the seat tube) with a Dremel, replace seatpost. Same on bars where the stem clamps it, same on steerer tube.

[Joeboy69]

I don't have a receipt for my bike which I bought from the classifieds on the hub, but I do have plenty pics. Where will I find the serial number though (it is a Booth) ?

[Guest Omega Man]

I don't have a receipt for my bike which I bought from the classifieds on the hub, but I do have plenty pics. Where will I find the serial number though (it is a Booth) ?

They are usually under the bb