Had my bike stolen today. Update: now 2 bikes stolen!

[RyanA]

Man that would have pissed me off to no end. Looks like you're on their shopping list now though. Shotgun, check. Decoy bike, check...
Just kidding, it's a pleasant thought though.

 

[Jaygnar]

Sorry for your loss. I believe that thieves will get what's coming to them.:shakehead

 

[chimo]

I actually lock our bikes up inside the garage for when the kids forget to close the garage door. Sorry to hear about your losses.

 

[LA OZ]

Sorry to hear about your losses. I suggest you put a chained up bike in your garage and use it as a bait. This time you set a camera awaiting for the b.stard to come again.

 

[mudman cj]

Sorry for your loss. I believe that thieves will get what's coming to them.:shakehead

Yeah, too bad it seems to take so long that they are never able to see a causal relationship.

 

[BobVA]

Bummer - what's the matter with people?

It's not inconceivable that your "shoppers" will return to see if you replaced the bikes, so be careful.

Regards,
Bob

 

[pathalogical]

The police here have been quite busy with trying to return bikes to their rightful owners after several raids around town.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2008/07/21/6216841-sun.html

http://www.insidetoronto.ca/parkdale/article/52266

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tit18nRnJaY&feature=related

 

[mudman cj]

Update - I looked into an insurance claim, but it's not going to happen. Since the bikes were taken on different days (even if it was by the same punks) they are considered separate incidents, and thus the deductible would apply to each bike. Furthermore, despite the fact that the event was precipitated by a storm, they will not process my claim as such, and consider it a normal theft. This means that I could make a claim for $1200, which would pay out $1200-$500=$700 original value, this would then be adjusted for depreciation and pay next to nothing. If I were to use that money to buy another bike they would supposedly send me the remainder. But that would be foolish since my rates would increase 20% for then next 3 years (assuming no more claims) or 55% if I needed to make another claim within the next 3 years. Bottom line=

 

[Rothrandir]

Can you rig your garage door to quickly close when someone goes for the bike, trapping them inside?

 

[jtr1962]

Although it's probably a snowball's chance in hell, keep a sharp eye out for bikes similar to yours. If you remember anything which can positively identify the bikes as yours, then you could catch the thief red-handed. This actually happened to my brother after he had a bike stolen. One day he saw a bike similar to his. Upon closer inspection it was his. Unfortunately it was so banged up he didn't even bother taking it back.

 

[dudemar]

Re: Had my bike stolen today.

If it makes you feel any better, I understand how you feel. I had my bike stolen in front of my house when I was 12. I used to ride the @#$%$%# out of it. Every day after school I would go for a ride, I absolutely loved it. One day I mistakenly left my bike out in front of my house, and a few minutes later I noticed my bike was gone.

It happened on "Good Friday", that sucked pretty bad.

Sorry to hear your story, nothing worse than some low life stealing your property.

Stolen bikes are something that I deal with at work almost every day, the locals here are very good at stealing and have expensive tastes. One disappointing point is the serial numbers being recorded or lack of. I seize/find at least 2 bikes a week that would be worth over $500, yet it is rare that i am able to return these bikes to their owners, as either it is not reported or the details that the owner provides are not sufficient to match it to the recovered bike, so these bikes are put to public auction rather than being returned to the owner.

While I am not trying to lessen the blame on the pieces of work that do the stealing, please guys, make it a little easier for your local LE, record your serial numbers of your valuable equipment, at least then you have some chance of getting it back.

KeeperSD makes a very good point. If a serial number isn't available, take a digital photo of your bike, specifically identifying marks you would only know about. If there are none scratch your initials on the handlebar, underneath the handlebar covers. When all is said and done you have some proof that it's yours, without a doubt.

I agree with the security camera idea as well. I'm looking into that too, too many kids messing up my car.

 

[mudman cj]

Thanks everybody, I do appreciate your support. And you better believe that I take a close look at every bike that I see. I just hope that if I find it, it's in better condition than yours was jtr1962.

 

[Changchung]

I hope you find your bike... I know how you feel...

 

[Ganp]

I sure hope you get your bike back Mudman - there is always the chance you may.

Every decent component on all my families bikes have the owners initials stamped on them, and are photographed to show the stampings.

I built up a nice off-roader around a Mount Vision frame with custom finish and custom parts. After it was stolen I kept an eye on adds in the
local free-adds paper and about five months later, there it was. From the description it was unmistakably mine. I could so easily have missed
the add but I was lucky.

I had loads of documentation with serial numbers and photo's so there was no problem for the police to establish it was mine. It was another two
months in police custody while the case was processed.

I finally got it back in virtually the same condition as when it was stolen. But I just don't enjoy riding it like I used to.


Colin.