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Long story cut short, reported a bike we found dumped down the road to the police in the hope we could reunite it with it's owner if it was stolen and got the following response:
Hi Andy,
Thank you for your email. However, police are no longer responsible for found bikes.Please contact your local council who can arrange pick up.
Kind regards
Avon and Somerset Constabulary
I have contacted the council (awaiting response) and we have also posted it on the village/town social media as well as scoured the usual stolen bike websites. We also left a note where we found it saying to ask at the post office and let them know we have it.
But I was a little confused by the above. Does that mean they have logged it as found but the council will collect and store it/reunite it with any stolen bike reports or does it mean the council will collect it and scrap it or otherwise make no attempt to reunite it with it's owner. I would have thought the police would want some more details such as frame number etc if they were going to make any attempt to link it to a report.
Police website has no mention of this strange bike policy and there is nothing about lost and found property on the council website.
If anyone has lost a bike and finds this via google* while searching for their bike it is a Carrera Vanquish road bike and was found in North Somerset. It has some quite distinctive upgrades and wear.
*other search engines exist
Not surprised, they are all out attending minor road traffic accidents. 2 cars had a minor coming together (no injuries) on the road near us yesterday and within 10 minutes there were 6 police cars on scene, all absolutely full pursuit mode with blues and twos. I think the local station only has 2 cars so they must have drawn them in from all surrounding areas. No wonder there is never a copper around when you need one 🙂
Leicestershire Police
https://leics.police.uk/contact-us/lost-and-found-property-guidance
Bicycles
If you have found a bicycle which is in new condition please telephone us on 101 with a good description of the cycle including any serial numbers. All other found bicycles should be reported to your local council.
Sounds like they deemed the bike you found as scrap rather than anything of value. You would have probably had a different response had it been a carbon fibre Santa Cruz for example
But then they sell off bikes via their ebay site:Â https://leics.police.uk/advice-and-information/information-zone/reclaim-your-property
The advice I was following was here (from Avon and Somerset Police website):
If you find an item of lost property, you are required to contact us.
To report found property, fill in the General contact and enquiry form or call us on 101.
You may be told you are able to retain the found property. The property must then be kept for a period of six weeks from the date of reporting the find to police. After this time you can assume ownership of the property.
Examples of items you will not be permitted to keep include computers, mobiles, electronic devices, firearms, items that contain a way of identifying the owner or are of high value.
yeah I was wondering if they thought it was scrap. I was honest and said it was well worn but I also pointed out that it was only a couple of years old and seemed to have been owned by a keen cyclist given the high amount of wear showing it was used a lot and not just left to rot in a shed, unusual brand SPD pedals, aftermarket stem, multiple bottle holders etc.
Will keep waiting for the council's response. The Police response just seemed a bit odd.
Apparently in Sheffield the Police are joining a taskforce including ex Forces SIAs and the Council to adopt a zero tolerance policy to vandals duffing up Ofo's bikes.
It does seem unhappily as if law and justice is becoming a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder.
The Police are no longer do loads of things they used to as they haven't got the money or people.
Only 5% of burglaries and robberies get solved which must be a sign of the effort put into solving them....
Why are you assuming it's stolen? Just because it's on the side of the road doesn't mean it's stolen. No wonder Avon police take that stance, they're not a rubbish collection service.
Detection of burglaries has always been relatively low. Criminals are quite forensically aware. Regards bikes, of course police will investigate theft of bikes, a bike found in the street? Maybe not, who is to say it is stolen? If you found a bike in amongst a load of fly tipped waste would you expect police to investigate? Found property is found property unless it is found in suspicious circumstances or is obviously stolen.
The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles ... when a man lets things go so far that he is more than half a bicycle, you will not see him so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones.
Similar in Herefordshire. I had two BSOs dumped in my hedge. Called 101 to report but reply was that unless they are reported stolen then they classified as dumped. Left them in the drive for a week and then to the Council recycling place.
The couple of charities that refurbished bikes have long closed down, so to the smelters they went.
I was tempted to put a claim in for victims compensation, time, fuel, and nearly putting my back out trying to lift them on to the roof rack. 😉
The bikes are not the only things dumped in my hedge. Regularly find empty vodka bottles, clothing, soiled underwear. Even had the remains of a Christmas tree last month.
Well it turns out it was stolen. Traced the owner ourselves, his father is coming to collect this morning and reunite it with a very relived teenager who obviously uses their bike a lot.
Will be asking him when he comes if they have reported it to the Police or council.
To the poster above - I did not ask the Police to come collect it. I asked them to log it so that it could be reunited with the owner if they filed a stolen bike report. I told them I was happy to store it. We live in a nice village where things don't usually go missing or get fly tipped and my gut feeling was that it was not just dumped from looking at the bike. But thanks for your valuable input....
www.bikeregister.com DNA tagging and crime stats.
www.thebikeproject.co.uk
or google your local equivalent.
Turns out the lad was too scared to tell his dad until yesterday and was supposed to be taking it to Spain tonight!
He brought me a thank you card with a photo of his bike in Spain with a Strava KOM caption on it. Tried to give me a reward which I told him to spend on the bike instead.
Glad we kept hold of it now as who knows what would have happened of the council had taken it.
#everydayhero
Well done that man!
You may be told you are able to retain the found property. The property must then be kept for a period of six weeks from the date of reporting the find to police. After this time you can assume ownership of the property.
So for the more enterprising thief they can nick the bike, hide it for a couple of weeks for its theft to be reported and forgotten about by plod. Then ring plod saying you found it and then 6 weeks later you are the legal owner. Absolute genius plan by plod this.
So for the more enterprising thief they can nick the bike, hide it for a couple of weeks for its theft to be reported and forgotten about by plod. Then ring plod saying you found it and then 6 weeks later you are the legal owner.
No. Obviously you are never going to be the legal owner if you stole it, you are the thief.
However to explain the policy, "Plod" will check to see if it is stolen and log it on the property system. This is exactly the same process that has always happened, except now the finder stores the item for six weeks rather than the police station. The finder has always been able to claim an unclaimed item after a period of time.
Turns out the lad was too scared to tell his dad until yesterday and was supposed to be taking it to Spain tonight!
He brought me a thank you card with a photo of his bike in Spain with a Strava KOM caption on it.
Feel-good factor 10!