[Closed] Another bike stolen - where do they go to?

Based on what happens to cars in films:

Whole bikes chucked into containers and shipped far overseas.

Or

Components stripped and sold locally, frames dumped in landfill or exported...

Looking forward to the ebike version of gone in 60 seconds hitting the screens in a few years.

I have a suspicion that a lot of them appear in another city, probably as part of a ring, borne out by a mate's bike being stolen whilst we were in Bristol, and apparently re-appearing in Cardiff a week or so later (I say apparently, as his brother was describing the exact same bike that his scummy mate had just bought cheap. Needless to say, he clammed right up once he realised, and refused to talk any more).

Bikes from bike shops go abroad in containers.second hand ones are probably just sold by junkies to their scummy mates or to unsuspecting people via gumtree etc.no doubt theres organised rings for high value none new bikes

Wish i knew, i had two bikes nicked last July, have been searching the usual places every day, so daily checks on findthatbike.com, ebay, pinkbike, etc, as well as searching for the hard to find parts, not a sniff in 16 months.

I also check sites that might have unsuspecting buyers listing their new pride and joy, but nothing there either, i did get an email today from the police providing the data on the outcome of a juvenile court thing, but not a thing about the bikes since they were nicked.

It pretty much depends on how much your bike is worth.

Bottom of the pile are opportunistic thefts, and are the bikes likely to be found by the police, as the thieves have no way to dispose of the bike. So they'll likely be found for sale locally, or being ridden around your locality.

Next are your career thieves. They'll target cheaper bikes which are easy to sell. If you flip 3 or 4 bikes for a hundred pound each everyday, you can make a good living.

Then you have your organised criminals. These are the ones who'll know where you live, where you keep your bikes, and will simply bide their time for the right opportunity to get your bikes.
They'll target expensive bikes, and the bikes will likely never appear again in your locality, as they have distribution networks. Bikes will be either swapped around the country and sold using local ads, or moved abroad (there have been warehouses full off bikes found on the continent, some of which have been traced back to the UK), or stripped for parts. Anything deemed to be too high risk to sell, will just be dumped.

One major problem the police have with recovered bikes, is they can't trace the original owners.
If your bike was to be stolen, would you be able to give the police the frame and fork numbers, so that if it was to be recovered, you would get it back?

@alanl.
About that stolen lobstet, Do you live in the south east?

No, Leicester, it was a long time ago.
I did buy another around a year later, but it wasnt the same, so I sold it.

There was case few years back in Boredon Hampshire where the police caught a guy over something went to his lockup and found 60 bike frames all sorts been stripped for parts you name it road/mountain carbon Ti some very top end frames left no parts to be seen.

Ah, ok.
I saw a beaut in a police station compound. Reuniting it with its owner would have made my day.

A lad had his bike nicked about 800m away from our farm this afternoon.
16:30ish 3 lads pulled up in a Citreon C3 and held the lad up at knifepoint (he's only 14) and had his Santa Cruz 5010 off him.
Scares me as my 12yr old has just started going out with a friend on little loops after school, he's only on a modded Trek hardtail but I wouldn't want him to go through something like that with a friend or alone!

I don’t often ride my nice bike alone but it does make me think should I be taking something, appreciate that’s terrible but can’t be getting robbed for my bike.

A lad had his bike nicked about 800m away from our farm this afternoon.
16:30ish 3 lads pulled up in a Citreon C3 and held the lad up at knifepoint (he’s only 14) and had his Santa Cruz 5010 off him.
Scares me as my 12yr old has just started going out with a friend on little loops after school, he’s only on a modded Trek hardtail but I wouldn’t want him to go through something like that with a friend or alone!

Saw that on FB last night. Proper shit for the lad

Can't see him getting it back but hopefully the car will be spotted somewhere/traced. It had a quite distinctive LED bar on the front apparently

There was a second hand shop near me in Rennes, France that often had bikes set up with the front brake on the right ... dunno if they were nicked or just being sold by skint 'expats'.

the sunday flea market in Bucarest definately had a few of them...
seemed they migh tbe mostly Danish in origin but still

Word of mouth probably, or FB markeplace. There are loads of youths riding around on surprisingly expensive and niche bikes in Cardiff.

Never gave this any thought before but on the storage site we keep the caravan on there are a number of shipping containers that cover the perimeter blocking prying eyes. 2-3 of the containers are not permanent (all the others are same colour and have livery) these are often open and are piled high with bikes, they've always looked like catalogue specials but ive never really had a look in.

I don’t often ride my nice bike alone but it does make me think should I be taking something, appreciate that’s terrible but can’t be getting robbed for my bike.

Just tell them you've got a Sahmurai sword in your handlebars

I am literally sat here waiting for the police to ring about information i have just got about my bikes which were stolen 2 years ago . Yesterday someone posted a photo of a ride on the cotic owners facebook group which i instantly recognised as my bike , i messaged the guy and he sent me screenshots of the advert and conversation with the seller from facebook. I searched the sellers profile and and she was also selling my road bike which was stolen at the same time along with 2 other bikes .

My insurance has paid out and all bikes replaced but i've sent all the information to the police and i am hopeful that the fact she was selling 2 bikes from the same robbery at leasts warrants a knock at the door and some questions .

It seems to be a lot more organised now and the police seem to be aware of it as a targeted crime so make sure you keep an eye out on facebook groups and gumtree (mine were for sale on a facebook group for a town 20 miles away ) and get that info to the police .

I've got a Giant defy up for sale on Gumtree and Fb , I mentioned I had bought it new from the Giant store in Bromley . 3 days later I've just dropped of my son at work and come back to my wife in the back garden with 2 strangers. It transpires they were from Drylaw in Embra CID an someone had said my bike had been stolen from london a few years previous.
Now obviously by the time I came back they had pulled the bike out and checked the serial number and were very apologetic. When my wife had answered the door their opening gambit was 'Were here about the stolen bike your selling'.
I had a chat with them and said I was glad they took this kind of thing seriously as I have a couple of decent bikes that I would be devastated to lose. The detective said the biggest cause of big theft is down to people carrying expensive bikes on roof racks and being followed home.
In Edinburgh there have been warehouses raided and also a friend of friend went round to a local ned to collect his high end bike and promptly filled his van with other peoples bikes obviously which were returned to the police.

Try Gumtree. I know someone who's bikes appeared there. Info was past to the police but nothing happened.

I searched the sellers profile and and she was also selling my road bike which was stolen at the same time along with 2 other bikes .

Seller's name wouldn't happen to be "Kaz"???

SAW a post on the transcontinental facebook page a while back that someone in Poland had noticed a bike local to him being advertised locally. He reckonised it as one that had been stolen from London a few months before.
Was a high end gravel bike And still had all the ortlieb bikepacking bags fitted.
Police are now warning that they are investigating a lot of house break ins just to get the high value bikes inside. Definitely some well organised gangs out there.

Its hardly surprising when you think If someone followed someone home from say an enduro or and SDA downhill and broke into their garage there is a chance that there would maybe be another couple of decent bikes. Therefore thats maybe the best part of 10k to throw into a van. They dont have to hotwire anything , they dont have trackers like most cars through insurance these days . Throw into the mix Ebikes and its very lucrative. A friend had 4 bikes nicked after his sons race at Glencoe and his mate also had 2 bikes taken about 15 miles away .
Stolen to order and followed home from a race.

It’s also a huge problem over here in Germany. I’d never had a bike stolen until I moved here ( including working as a bike courier in London for a few years) and so far we are up to 7 bikes! Two of mine one of Mrs RS and the rest belonging to my children but not cheap bikes. One bike I got back after seeing it being ridden past my house and giving chase and confronting the new owner.Got die Polizei involved and because I didn’t know the frame number it had to go to court. The rest have disappeared. Earlier this year there was a bit of a local scandal a a group of police officers had been selling compounded bikes on eBay. Again a lot of the bikes stolen are to fund drug habits but my bikes were definitely targeted and probably ended up in Poland/ Eastern Europe, just like the Multivan that was stolen.

VanMoof Bike Hunters

Police are now warning that they are investigating a lot of house break ins just to get the high value bikes inside. Definitely some well organised gangs out there.

It's easy to reverse engineer how to go about it as a professional ring. You'd need someone who knows about bikes to identify valuable ones and trace where they are stored. That wouldn't be too difficult, especially if they are locked up in public. Then pay a team of junkies or low-level crims to steal them to order, a battery powered angle grinder would take care of most locks pretty quickly. Then off to a lock-up to strip for parts. With a basic workshop, a bike could be dismantled and the parts boxed up in half an hour or so. Once that's done, the frame is the only part that is very easy to identify. Shipping high-end stuff overseas would make it very difficult to recover, even if the owner could identify it, so you just need someone in Eastern Europe etc. to sell it online. Low-end stuff would just need to shipped to a different city, maybe swap a few bits around to make it look like a different bike. People buying a cheap commuter bike aren't going to investigate whether it's stolen or not.

I saw someone cycling past my front door on my bike which had been stolen a couple of months previously.
I just took it back off them.

Summer of 2019 I had 8 bikes stolen (6 were mine plus 2 of my families bikes) plus all my tools, spares and kit. Some decent / some high end plus retro parts.

Never seen any of it come up on eBay / Gumtree despite alerts and checking.

The police, at the time, strongly hinted that
I should be careful which LBS I use (a high end road bike had been in for full service 2 weeks before).
I tried to find out if they meant someone was watching the shop or a staff member tipping people off but they wouldn’t give any more away, they just repeated the phrase.

Got incredibly let down by the insurance company too. Not a good time.

Our lad had his bike nicked in London 3 weeks ago - it's been for sale on Gumtree for 10 days or so now and the Police won't do anything because he doesn't have a frame number even though there are some rare identifiable parts on it that distinguish it easily.

They actually closed the case stating not enough evidence to investigate even though he sent a picture in of him with said bike with distinguishing features clearly visible.

If the bike is on sale on gumtree why isn't your lad arranging a meeting to 'buy' it?

Would you go to Bethnal Green to buy a bike off a bike thief? Police actually warned him off doing so too saying he would be putting himself in harms way

smokey_jo I would consider arranging for a sturdy "friend" to collect the bike on his behalf.

This thread seems like a timely reminder to write down the serial numbers of your frames and forks

I think I would want at least a couple of sturdy mates in Bethnal Green, but yes Frame Numbers people - plod aren't interested without them!

Bike in question if anyone's interested - it's going cheap too https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-vehicles/saracen-hack-2-2013-cx-bike/1390235400

I had two bikes stolen a few years ago and they were for sale on gumtree less than a week later 140 miles from home. After giving the police a lot of evidence the seller was arrested but unfortunately never charged, although some one did go to prison eventually. He was part of a massive bike theft network but also dealing heroin and crack.

Good reminder, just ordered DataTag for a couple of my bikes!

I tried to find out if they meant someone was watching the shop or a staff member tipping people off but they wouldn’t give any more away, they just repeated the phrase.

I thought that about high end cars, bloke I know bought an RS3 Audi and had it less than a week. I was wondering if someone at audi tipped them off.

Def worth meeting for the bike in London, If they look like a handful leave alone if not just take the bike.

What’s a data tag? I thought why don’t we have have trackers on our bikes, if bbc nature can track a sparrow across Africa I’m sure we can make a bike tracker.

What’s a data tag?

My frames are carbon, so the frame numbers are just on stickers rather than stamped in - hence can be easily removed.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/datatag-stealth-pro

My frames are carbon, so the frame numbers are just on stickers rather than stamped in – hence can be easily removed

Same here but the stickers are permanent. The printing on them however is not and mine are worn off completely after years of riding and cleaning.

They're just above the BB shell on the downtube so they get all the mud and road crap fired right at them.

A follow up to the original post.
I'm sat here absolutely seething at the moment. The bike has turned up reasonably locally on FB marketplace. Initial reaction was to go round and just take it, but the seller has another bike for sale too, so I'm presuming that has been stolen too. He runs a waste removal service - ideal for pinching a bike and chucking it in the back of a van.

We rang the Police. Who have closed the case. But they say with new evidence they may reopen it. 2 bikes for sale by one person, one of which is stolen? Is that enough? The call operator says he doesnt know. When will we know, as we dont want it sold, as there will be no evidence. They dont know. Well, if we arrange to go round, maybe you could have someone come with us. No chance of that.
We've just got to sit back and see what they do.
Seething is too mild a word.

If you live Cambridge way I’ll happily come with you?

Someone had a Levo stolen but they alerted Specialized who logged it on their database.
Recovered in Romania.

Go with a few big mates and some shovels. You know who it is take any bikes you see and deliver the others to the police. Have someone film too.

Thanks for the offer, Leicester, so a bit far.
What do you think of this plan:
Message him, be a bit thick, ask what size fits on it etc.
Then another message, will he take £20 less?
Then say yes, I'll have it.
Go round. Take it, and say we're taking it now, or the Police are being called.
See what happens.
We dont have any faith in the Police even ringing us back.

I need someone locally who is not a close friend (on FB) to get these details, as it was put all over FB locally by us when it was stolen, so, even though he is acting a bit thick (same tyres/pedals etc, even left the Evans sticker on it) he may look at my FB profile and see I'm after this bike.
If you think this is a decent idea, then I'll ring round to find someone to message him.
What do you think?

Hi Alan, I nearly bought a stolen bike here in Cambs a couple of details didn’t add up so I searched if it was stolen. I notified the chap whose bike it was, he contacted the police and had a similar response to you. He said he’s going round with a friend at this time, the police showed up. I think they were worried he was going to beat the thief up lol! I got a couple of pints out of it.

Anyway agree with guy you are interested ask if it’s not rusty. You need to go ASAP if you want it and call the police to say you are heading there at X time. If they don’t come just ride off have someone in your car to drive off, meet them a kilometre up the road and away you go.

The idea of taking some heavies is nice, but I personally don’t know any BIG blokes, in fact anyone I know with character are usually skinny.

Anyone from Leicester on the forum? As above just set a plan and stick to it.

It’s your bike.

A mate once replaced his stolen bike with the same model which ended up with a cracked chainstay out of warranty, he luckily found some chainstays on Ebay and bought them, they turned out to be from his own bike that was stolen a few years earlier.

Hi alanl, I'm in Lincoln so Leicester is just down the A46; don't use FB but would happily be there to provide 'support'.
DM me.

A friend in this situation learned that the police (in Notts anyway) won't do anything by default, but if you state you are going round there, they will then attend.

In his case, they told him to stay round the corner, then pretended to be interested in buying. On the bike test, he rode it to my mate, who identified it as his, handed it over to him then headed back to the house for the arrest.

I hate it that you just can't have nice things.

Hope that the OP gets his bike back. 🤞

A neighbour had his garage broken into and bikes nicked, he thought that maybe he was followed home or was followed on Strava.

was followed on Strava

Just checked my privacy zone on Strava, and was set to my old address! Sorted now thanks

Follow up, we have the bike back.
We got the S-i-L from Brighton to message him, and get the address.
We got there, and he said it had sold, which was a bit of a downer, but
said we'll look at the other bikes he had for sale.
Lo and behold, there were 4 bikes in the back garden and shed, and the
OH's bike was not sold, but sat in his living room.
He said someone was coming in half an hour to pick it up, I asked if
they'd paid, they hadnt, and said we'd take it now, so the greedy git, got
it out, a quick look over, then checking the serial number (there was
little doubt anyway, it was customised by us, and it was just the same as
when sold).
Thats when I lost my cool, and said we're taking this and we're giving you
**** all. I thought, for 2 seconds, it was going to kick off, (I was ready
for it, empty pockets, army boots, tight clothes) but he backed off, and
said he'd bought it at an auction, which was a month ago, - the bike was
stolen 3 weeks ago.
We walked off with the bike, he followed us, I said call the Police now, and we'll wait
for them, they can sort it out, he backed off again. So we went.
The S-i-L got a message from him saying he was calling the Police about us,
she replied back , yes, do it. Nothing since.

The Police dont seem too interested. We told them last night where it was,
and other presumably, stolen items were in the same place. We've rang
twice today, saying we will be there at 11.30 to collect it. Again, they
say they cannot attend. After we collected it, we rang them to inform them
what had happened, and there were £1500 of bikes still round there (he
wasnt a cyclist!). Got us thinking what amount of loss do you need to get
a response from them?

Nice work.

Nice work.
The second he backed down I'd have had the other bikes as well and listed them as recovered on fb or somit.

Never even call the cops. never have, never will.

Result!
Well done.

Brilliant news, although sounds like you got there in the nick of time before it was collected.

Police complaint?
I'm all for supporting the police, they have difficult job, but christ I don't know what else you need to do in a case like this. Many people wouldn't have had the guts to follow this up, and it's clear the Police wouldn't have resolved this.

Great result and well done for taking it back.

Great result getting it back.

I would email your MP, the police response won't get any better without funding.

At what point would it be appropriate to do a citizens arrest in a case like this? It may be risky as they may be packing, but if you had a big enough fella to sit on them you could zip tie their hands and feet and kart them off to the police station - everything else is home-delivered these days, if the police can't come out then it would be like a home delivery service for them.

You have their name and address, local Faceache name and shame and article in their local paper exposing what they're up to...barring that, sausages.

Good work OP!

Have a friend in Cologne, Germany, who watched someone steal his bike whilst he was inside the shop. He gave chase, not shouting or screaming anything. Eventually caught up with the guy, ripped him off the bike and proceeded to kick the living shit out of the thief. Had to dispose off his trainers as they were covered in blood.

By the sounds of it the thief was/isn't capable of stealing anything again.

Great news Alan! I’d be swinging back round with some rocks for his windows but sounds like the police are more deserving of those, but as he stole it from outside your house probably best not.

Real shame on the police front, thought they generally showed up if you said you were heading there. As bad as the thieves.

Before I got there, I was getting a bit worried in case it turned violent. When there, no problem at all, if he had come at me, I reckon he would soon be down. From previous encounters, these people are all big and strong when online and stealing, when they are on their own though, they are just pathetic thieving gits who wouldnt dare try to attack a bloke that looked like he could defend himself.
In this case, I dont think we would have even got into the garden if we had gone mob handed.
It was the right decision for just us 2 to go, he saw a middle aged couple after a bike, not an extremely irate Owner coming back to collect their goods.
I dont think the Police would have come with any urgency if we had rang 999 when there. What do you do, sit on his front door for 30 minutes until the Police arrive?
Then they will say they cant prove he stole it, so they won't do anything.
I'm thinking a letter of complaint would be in order to the Police. As it happens, they had a speed van out today 2 miles away on a NSL road, so there are resources to do that, but none to arrest thieves.

Your braver than me I’d have just rode off on it, but sounds like you judged situation well enough.

Always the case, money for speed camera vans as they bring in money. I doubt they’d have turned up if you’d sat there all week.

Excellent work allanl. Really impressed.
Utterly pathetic response by the police though.

Another follow up.
The idiot thief has had a visit from the local PCSO, who
only really went round to let him know that they knew what he was up to, and
they would be back if any more bikes went missing in the area.

And it has now escalated. The initial contact, the S-i-L has had a number
of messages from the thief, saying he wants our address, as he wants to
'sort this out'.
The final one says he's going to find where she lives, and come to kill
her.
Sussex Police have taken an interest in this and will be following it up.

From being a minor offence of stealing a bike, which couldnt really be
proven, it has escalated into death threats. She has kept the messages,
and passed on the evidence to the Police.
It would be hard to be any thicker wouldnt it?