Has your bike been stolen, read on...

Great post from fellow rider Brian V from the Midoule Squad... he had his bike stolen and months later found it on e-bay... apparently there is a rash of thefts going on, so Brian decided to get out some valuable information regarding this... read on.

I thought you guys might be interested to know that I just recovered my bike that was stolen from my garage almost two months ago (along with some other items), after spotting it on eBay. ) I was about to the point of giving up looking for it when it appeared. I've heard from the various bike shops around town that they've all noticed an increase in bike thefts lately, and so it is probably worthwhile for all of us to be more aware. Through some diligence there is a chance you can recover your stolen items, and hopefully take down these guys. Since I am already on to a new bike, I am mainly just concerned in catching these guys and getting them off the street. (I think this is all a result of bad karma when about a year ago I saw a homeless guy riding around on a top-of-the-line Bianchi with flip flops and clipless pedals and chuckling to myself, "That bike is totally stolen and he has no idea what it is worth.")
Apparently some local pawn shops are involved in this rash of thefts, and this is the story my guy is also following, claiming he bought it from a pawn shop and had no idea it was stolen. Despite the fact that I totally don't believe him and he was very evasive when I tried to see the bike in person and despite the negative review accusing him of dealing in stolen goods, I'll follow the line of our judicial system, and allow him to remain innocent until proven guilty. So, as of right now, I won't give out his contact info and email address for us all to spam him. It appears that over the course of two years he has sold over 100 bikes or frames.
However, of concern to me is that even though he took down my bike from eBay, he still has two bikes actively listed that I can only presume are stolen. Included is a nice Felt carbon bike built up with DA components, being sold with no reserve. You can see them at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Felt-F1-C-Carbon-Dura-Ace-Ksyrium-Easton-Road-Bike_W0QQitemZ140154161981QQihZ004QQcategoryZ98084QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
and
http://cgi.ebay.com/Trek-Pro-9-9-OCLV-Carbon-Bike-XTR-Rock-Shox-Avid_W0QQitemZ140154170810QQihZ004QQcategoryZ98083QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It should be noted that they chopped up my bike and put a different wheel set, seat and seat post, and pedals in a bad attempt to make it look different. I assume the same has been done to these bikes. It makes sense to forward this email to anyone you know who rides locally and hopefully someone else can also recover their lost bike. Or maybe you want to bid, it looks like a really good deal.
I've told the police on my guess of the value of the Felt bike and told them that likely someone who can buy a bike like that isn't going to pawn it away for a couple hundred bucks.
I don't know if I'll recover my Ksyrium wheel set (which was purchased less than a year ago and is probably worth more than the bike at this point) or the other items stolen. As a result of this fun little experience I've got a few easy tips to help you recover your bike, and none of it requires wearing a 10-gallon cowboy hat with a camera hidden inside:
1. Write on some small slips of paper your name, contact information and some variation of "If you find this note, this bike has been stolen..." and put it inside your handlebars and/or in your head tube. In the chance that they chop up your bike, or knock off the serial number this will help you identify your bike.
2. Write on the inside of your wheel set with a sharpie or paint pen your name and contact info, either under the rim tape or wherever. I didn't think of it before hand, but my wheel set had a serial number as well that I should have written down.
3. If you haven't already, make record of your serial number(s) and even give it to your insurance company. You may also want to take photos of your bike, including any significant marks or chips or whatever, and with every upgrade or noteworthy change.
4. Check eBay and CraigsList for your stuff. eBay even lets you save searches and it will notify you if any like items appear. What could have been my fatal mistake was I didn't have my search broad enough. The guy put spaces in between the lettering on "200 SCI" so my automated search didn't catch it. Luckily I did a manual search of "Kestrel 200".
5. If you do find your bike, if you bid on it you can request the seller's contact information. WARNING: When you request their information, it also sends your contact information to them, so you may want to be sure you are comfortable doing that, or at the very least chose a phone number that can't be easily traced back to you, if you fear retribution. On grandcentral.com you can get a free phone number that can redirect to your real number. (I'm a little disappointed in eBay's stance on this, but only a police officer can report to them a stolen item, and then eBay will assist in getting the information to the police officer. Given the speed that things come and go, and how long that will likely take, there is a good chance your bike will be long gone before they take action.)
6. Once you have a phone number you can do a free reverse search on a variety of phonebook sites and get their address.
7. Keep pressing the police if you do find it. Although the SLCPD was very helpful, I imagine that in their view a single stolen bike isn't a big enough ticket item to get excited about. You are likely going to have to do much of the legwork yourself. However, if this guy has indeed sold 100+ stolen bikes at an average of $500 each (likely much more) that is at least $50,000 in stolen merchandise.
Anyway, spread the word and hopefully we can help curb some of this stuff and also help some people recover their bikes.
Brian

Great info and detail, thanks Brian,

B-Horn