What happens with high end stolen bikes

[dave303e]

8 minutes ago, Oufy MTB (Roadie) said:

I mean, when my bike was stolen I was just looking for my frame set to recognise the bike and zilch came up, I even set alerts for the model and make, nothing came up. Its like they sell the components and bury the frames somewher

Take a top end bike, new groupset on the new axs is 54k on special. Sell that for 35k, fork and shock for another 15k, wheels another 15k and you have a tidy 65k income that is incredibly tough to trace. The frame has a serial number and distinct look so why risk it. The parts are hard to trace and high value...

[Maniax]

My 'dale was stolen last year.  I checked all the pawnshops (and there are quite a few here in my MP town), and FB Marketplace, but nadda.  Insurance pd, but I still miss my Cannondale.  

[Shebeen]

You would think this would be hard to hide, but they seem to find a way

 

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2023-07-23-high-sea-thieves-sail-away-with-cape-town-couples-dream-yacht/

[MORNE1102]

5 hours ago, Oufy MTB (Roadie) said:

Back to the question, what happens to these bikes? 
A few years ago a team mate’s bike was stolen, next day it was advertised and my team mates set up a meet and got the bike back. 
I really would like to know what happens, this retrieval was the exception. 
not interested in insurance chat now

I hope a good PK was handed out

[dave303e]

41 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

You would think this would be hard to hide, but they seem to find a way

 

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2023-07-23-high-sea-thieves-sail-away-with-cape-town-couples-dream-yacht/

and the NSRI jet rib that was stolen in May, parts were stripped and then it was torched which shows that they willing to sacrifice a whole vehicle for certain parts.

[MarcW]

I had my Scott Spark removed from me while out riding in April 2022: https://bikehub.co.za/stolen-bikes/2129/scott-spark-world-cup-axs-2021

It was quite a weird journey for 2 reasons: 

1. My insurer at the time, Santam, did their best to reject the claim for a multitude of illegitimate reasons. It was a massive fight to get the payout. We eventually took the case to their own internal ombudsman who found fault in all their decision making. And a long 7 months after the theft they eventually paid out. Needless to say I will never deal with Santam again. 
2. Heres the interesting part.. 3 Days after this claim was paid out - or 7 months and 3 days since the theft - I got a call from Johan at Bike Addict (legends) to say they think they have my bike in the store, someone is there trying to sell it (The person was not tall and my bike is XL among other red flags) so they searched the Bikehub stolen bike section and found my post (smart lads - hats off to you guys). The cops were called and it turned out this guy had a proof of purchase from none other than Cash Crusaders Goodwood (for less then 10% of the bikes actual value🤯). For perspective the bike had been gone for 7 months only to surface at Cash Crusaders then end up at Bike Addict, and then eventually a store room at Malmesbury SAPS. I let the inept bunch at Santam know the bike has been found (They were rather surprised and the assessor actually said they had never had that happen before), then they tell me "oh can you go uplift it so we can collect it from you". I replied "no I won't be doing that, unless you decide to sell it back to me (which they declined multiple times), you can go collect it". And so it sat at Malmesbury SAPS for another 3 or 4 months until the station commander decided it was too risky having such an expensive bike just lying around and needed to go to Kirstenhof SAPS (where the case was opened). Eventually Santam had a salvage company (Unicorn Salvage) collect the bike, the special individual at Unicorn salvage offered it back to me for the retail price of a new bike (because CWC told him thats what it was worth), so I kindly declined. They even came back looking for the AXS charger almost a year after the theft😂. If anyone out there did buy it, I hope its treating you well - its been through a lot 😆

All in all it was an eventful time that I hope to not experience again soon.. 

Edited July 26, 2023 by MarcW

[Skubarra]

18 hours ago, Offroad said:

We had a Hightower CC stolen over the weekend. Chances of recovering it is Zero, Nada, Null, Niks, F@$@l. 
what happens to these bikes? And the Insurance has “Loss adjusters” whose job it is to get out of a claim - no hope there either. The thieves know what to take because they know what they’re worth. I also suspect they don’t disappear into suspect areas to be used as transport.

 

Has anyone had any luck in getting their stolen bikes back?

I had a thread on bikehub few years bike, my bike got stolen from my car parked at my place of employment and the SAPS actually got it back of me.

Purely by luck someone at my office saw the bike being sold at the garage across the street for about R500 to a petrol attendant who just won employee of the month cash award.

I had to convince the police to go visit that employee to get my bike back - long story but this only happened after a contact wo happened to know the captain of the police station intervened.

But yes - in theory its possible to get your bike back.

Funny there was literally video footage of the whole episode, the thief entering the offices, entering the garage, riding out on my bike and then the transaction on the petrol station forecourt.

[erikt123]

Funny enough I also, a few years back had the same problem with a stolen bike , with Sanlam being the insurer. They interviewed me twice and took 7 months to settle, eventually. I will never use them again as my insurer.

[erikt123]

correction, Santam.

[ChrisF]

54 minutes ago, erikt123 said:

Funny enough I also, a few years back had the same problem with a stolen bike , with Sanlam being the insurer. They interviewed me twice and took 7 months to settle, eventually. I will never use them again as my insurer.

 

out of interest .... insured directly with them, or via a brokerage house ?

 

Seen it in our office where Santam is basically useless when dealing with them directly (different claims at the same time).  But with a decent broker the whole experience is completely different !!  Absolutely no ways I will insure with them directly !  Perfectly happy after many decades with Santam, via a broker.

[Jewbacca]

2 hours ago, MarcW said:

I had my Scott Spark removed from me while out riding in April 2022: https://bikehub.co.za/stolen-bikes/2129/scott-spark-world-cup-axs-2021

It was quite a weird journey for 2 reasons: 

1. My insurer at the time, Santam, did their best to reject the claim for a multitude of illegitimate reasons. It was a massive fight to get the payout. We eventually took the case to their own internal ombudsman who found fault in all their decision making. And a long 7 months after the theft they eventually paid out. Needless to say I will never deal with Santam again. 
2. Heres the interesting part.. 3 Days after this claim was paid out - or 7 months and 3 days since the theft - I got a call from Johan at Bike Addict (legends) to say they think they have my bike in the store, someone is there trying to sell it (The person was not tall and my bike is XL among other red flags) so they searched the Bikehub stolen bike section and found my post (smart lads - hats off to you guys). The cops were called and it turned out this guy had a proof of purchase from none other than Cash Crusaders Goodwood (for less then 10% of the bikes actual value🤯). For perspective the bike had been gone for 7 months only to surface at Cash Crusaders then end up at Bike Addict, and then eventually a store room at Malmesbury SAPS. I let the inept bunch at Santam know the bike has been found (They were rather surprised and the assessor actually said they had never had that happen before), then they tell me "oh can you go uplift it so we can collect it from you". I replied "no I won't be doing that, unless you decide to sell it back to me (which they declined multiple times), you can go collect it". And so it sat at Malmesbury SAPS for another 3 or 4 months until the station commander decided it was too risky having such an expensive bike just lying around and needed to go to Kirstenhof SAPS (where the case was opened). Eventually Santam had a salvage company (Unicorn Salvage) collect the bike, the special individual at Unicorn salvage offered it back to me for the retail price of a new bike (because CWC told him thats what it was worth), so I kindly declined. They even came back looking for the AXS charger almost a year after the theft😂. If anyone out there did buy it, I hope its treating you well - its been through a lot 😆

All in all it was an eventful time that I hope to not experience again soon.. 

More importantly, when will you get over your PTSD and let us ride down Spaanschemat road again?

[Chrisjanopsyfiets]

Insurance issues etc aside…..The salient point for me out of all of this is that there are unscrupulous people among us buying the stuff knowing that something is fishy. Drawing this to its logical conclusion: If you buy something secondhand that is too good to be true you should really search your conscience and consider the fact that you are in all likelihood complicit in a crime…. Theft or possibly much worse. Sad but true. 

[AkwA]

6 minutes ago, Chrisjanopsyfiets said:

Insurance issues etc aside…..The salient point for me out of all of this is that there are unscrupulous people among us buying the stuff knowing that something is fishy. Drawing this to its logical conclusion: If you buy something secondhand that is too good to be true you should really search your conscience and consider the fact that you are in all likelihood complicit in a crime…. Theft or possibly much worse. Sad but true. 

Agreed, but you can never really tell, not on components, never know why someone is selling cheap, could be stolen, could be that they dont know what they selling, could be that they just dont care or could be that they need cash quickly. So how do you know?

[Zebra]

9 hours ago, The Ouzo said:

just check my policy

This clause says I'm covered

THE REQUIREMENT REGARDING THE CONCEALING OF ITEMS INSIDE THE VEHICLE DOES NOT APPLY TO BICYCLES, which are not covered inside of vehicles, ONLY on top…
 

My Italics, but you get the idea… 😮😄

[cadenceblur]

43 minutes ago, Chrisjanopsyfiets said:

Insurance issues etc aside…..The salient point for me out of all of this is that there are unscrupulous people among us buying the stuff knowing that something is fishy. Drawing this to its logical conclusion: If you buy something secondhand that is too good to be true you should really search your conscience and consider the fact that you are in all likelihood complicit in a crime…. Theft or possibly much worse. Sad but true. 

Yip, the person who bought my bike for R5k on the street innocence- what a joke and nogal a cyclist as well 🙄. Pedals alone were twice the value 

[Theunissa]

11 hours ago, Chrisjanopsyfiets said:

Insurance issues etc aside…..The salient point for me out of all of this is that there are unscrupulous people among us buying the stuff knowing that something is fishy. Drawing this to its logical conclusion: If you buy something secondhand that is too good to be true you should really search your conscience and consider the fact that you are in all likelihood complicit in a crime…. Theft or possibly much worse. Sad but true. 

I concur. As an electrician I can tell you that our tools cost more than mos t peoples cars or bikes these days. And it grinds me me a fellow tradie Buys stuff off Facebook or someone for less than half it's real value. Because there is a 99% chance that was stolen from a fellow tradie. And trust me they steel our stuff. And insurance on tools ain't cheap