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Where do stolen bikes go?

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Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#81

Post by magnuspaaske »

blamazon wrote: post #51
denton-scratch wrote: post #30

I had a £2,000 electric bike stolen in Oxford. No worries - it had a GPS tracker, and I could see it heading to Birmingham up the M40. Also, my neighbour had CCTV footage. You couldn't make out the faces or number-plate, but you could see it was a black Mercedes. It was taken at about 3AM. So they had "liberated" the bike (it was locked up), and immediately headed out of town. I'm sure it was scouted, then they came…

> My anecdote appears to confirm that bikes stolen in Oxford don't stay in Oxford. I've never been to Oxford but I'm guessing it has a lower density of bicycles per square meter than Amsterdam. Presumably it's easier for stolen bikes to 'blend in' in Amsterdam?

Yes. I read the article and thought, no shit. Given that most people ride cheap bikes it doesn't really make sense to transport them to somewhere else and it might just incur additional operational risk. Much easier to just resell them back into the same city.

Which also explains why the 2K electric bike is taken somewhere else – if you tried to sell it in the same town there's higher chances the owners find out about it (like from a Facebook posting) and involve the police. Understanding that the police don't work super well across district lines seems to have solved this problem for the thieves here (and created problems for everyone else instead).

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#82

Post by asdff »

Cieplak wrote: post #8

If one's bike is stolen in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's a small but significant chance you can find it for sale at the Laney College Flea Market (e.g. [1]). [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/BAbike/comments/8mmrne/stolen_bike_...

In LA county you aren't going to want your bike back. It's going to be spraypainted, missing components, thrown in the street, and perhaps made into a load bearing wall of someones ramshackle roadside home. Just insure your bike so you can write it off and get a new one without too much trouble or stress.

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#83

Post by ozim »

agumonkey wrote: post #41
bckygldstn wrote: post #21

There's a Dutch bike company (VanMoof) that offers a Theft Recovery service for their bikes: they have teams of people that track down the bike (using GPS primarily) and basically steal it back. They used to produce monthly videos of bike recovery operations, though it looks like they've stopped the videos so you'll have to scroll past a few years of promo videos: https://www.youtube.com/@vanmoof Often they recover t…

I might as well start a club doing that (or a company if I had the skills). Bike theft is such a sad load on bikers mind.. (even it can be cool to carry a 3kg chain to secure it.. not always)

Watch out - you know heavy chain is also worth money on junkyard so they are going to steal that as well.

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#84

Post by magnuspaaske »

sasawpg wrote: post #44
skrebbel wrote: post #29

Hahaha this is really some "why does water flow down" level shit. Bikes in NL get stolen by junkies, homeless, generally people without many options and definitely without the ability to do organized crime. They sell it asap, by circling around random people and saying "hey wanna buy a bike?" and then they buy whatever hit/food they needed to steal and sell the bike for. It's a pretty sad situation IMO, but it's no m…

Maybe in NL, but in US/Canada organized bike theft is a bit more than "pettiest of petty crimes". For example: https://bikeindex.org/news/closing-the-loop-a-deep-dive-on-a... A number of my friends have had $10-30k of bikes stolen. Based on the surrounding circumstances, at least some, if not most, were targeted by an organized set of individuals and not just random.

One of the things that make bike culture stick is that most bikes are just really cheap those places. On one hand this means they're protected relatively less and so would be rather easy to pick up, on the other it means no one bothers organising a theft ring as the returns are too low. Fancy bikes are something completely different and would attract another level of organised crime.

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#85

Post by asdff »

sasawpg wrote: post #44
skrebbel wrote: post #29

Hahaha this is really some "why does water flow down" level shit. Bikes in NL get stolen by junkies, homeless, generally people without many options and definitely without the ability to do organized crime. They sell it asap, by circling around random people and saying "hey wanna buy a bike?" and then they buy whatever hit/food they needed to steal and sell the bike for. It's a pretty sad situation IMO, but it's no m…

Maybe in NL, but in US/Canada organized bike theft is a bit more than "pettiest of petty crimes". For example: https://bikeindex.org/news/closing-the-loop-a-deep-dive-on-a... A number of my friends have had $10-30k of bikes stolen. Based on the surrounding circumstances, at least some, if not most, were targeted by an organized set of individuals and not just random.

I can't recommend enough putting your bikes on your renters or homeowners insurance. There is no lock that is cut proof, and even if there was, your components can just get stripped or the rack itself even could be cut. If you have insurance, however, its not even a couple bucks a month extra on my policy to get the bike on there for zero deductible coverage, and offers me a lot of piece of mind.

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#86

Post by denton-scratch »

LorenPechtel wrote: post #77
maximinus_thrax wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They weren't interested - they told me to contact West Midlands police. So I rang them. No, they were not going to investigate: "Don't you realize how many Porsches are stolen in this city every day?" Also, they said they can't just walk in and have a look around (I guess they need a warrant, which is fair enough; but then why not get a warrant?) I've seen/heard this numerous times. Cops really don't give a shit ab…

And the homeowner is the occupant?? Probably not. Criminals like to move around. I do have a big problem with the police ignoring cases handed them on a sliver platter even if they are minor, though. Doing this makes it effectively legal to commit said crime.

> Doing this makes it effectively legal to commit said crime.

Yeah. The same thing happens with bankster's frauds. The difference is that a fraud case is very costly to investigate and prosecute; in this case, as you put it, I gave it to them on a silver platter.

And I'd bet that they'd have recovered dozens of expensive bikes if they'd raided it, and solved at least dozens of open cases.

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#87

Post by asdff »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #19
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Seattle, high end bikes are targeted to be disassembled for components. The components can then easily be fenced for drug money.

I remember my co-worker at the bike shop talking about this and how people in the area will sand their frames down and remove labels and anything else that would give their bike a look and feel of being expensive. Even adding duct and black electrical tape to ward off thieves from going after their bikes.

People will do anything to try and counter bike theft instead of just getting insurance. It did take me one bike theft myself to learn that lesson though.

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#88

Post by asdff »

londons_explore wrote: post #69
_Wintermute wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt that would deter them, they'll either spray-paint the frame it it's a cheap bike, or just strip it for parts if it's high-end.

I've tried it... It seems to have reduced by ~75% the number of thefts I've had. (I used to have a bike stolen every 3-4 weeks, and now I only lose one every 3-4 months)

Jeez man why aren't you insuring them?

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#89

Post by dahart »

maximinus_thrax wrote: post #52
denton-scratch wrote: post #30

I had a £2,000 electric bike stolen in Oxford. No worries - it had a GPS tracker, and I could see it heading to Birmingham up the M40. Also, my neighbour had CCTV footage. You couldn't make out the faces or number-plate, but you could see it was a black Mercedes. It was taken at about 3AM. So they had "liberated" the bike (it was locked up), and immediately headed out of town. I'm sure it was scouted, then they came…

> They weren't interested - they told me to contact West Midlands police. So I rang them. No, they were not going to investigate: "Don't you realize how many Porsches are stolen in this city every day?" Also, they said they can't just walk in and have a look around (I guess they need a warrant, which is fair enough; but then why not get a warrant?) I've seen/heard this numerous times. Cops really don't give a shit ab…

> Cops really don’t give a shit about theft unless it’s from a business.

My only experience with police and bike theft is the opposite; they police were helpful and recovered my bike. When I first called them they even suggested that I make initial contact with the thief and they’d be there to support the sting, which surprised me a lot! I found the bike a couple of weeks after it was stolen when the thief posted it for sale online, and when I called the police they let me know that the phone number was associated with a “known operator”. I didn’t end up making direct contact with the thief, an undercover officer took care of it. Several officers joined, and they were all super happy to have helped. It was overall a positive and satisfying experience.

This may be very locale-dependent, I’m in the western U.S., not Europe.

Re: Where do stolen bikes go?

#90

Post by gambiting »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #79
denton-scratch wrote: post #30

I had a £2,000 electric bike stolen in Oxford. No worries - it had a GPS tracker, and I could see it heading to Birmingham up the M40. Also, my neighbour had CCTV footage. You couldn't make out the faces or number-plate, but you could see it was a black Mercedes. It was taken at about 3AM. So they had "liberated" the bike (it was locked up), and immediately headed out of town. I'm sure it was scouted, then they came…

I had this with a stolen iphone in Houston, Texas. I called the local police and they said they couldn't help, I told the operator that's okay, I have a gun and I'll go retrieve it myself. An officer was standing in front of me 10 minutes later. We got the phone back.

And that didn't get you in any trouble?
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