121–130 of 307 posts
The first line on the Amsterdam stolen bike report form at the local police station reads: "Waar heeft u het rijwiel zelf gestolen?" Which translates as: "Where did you steal the bike yourself?" So at least in Amsterdam this fact was common knowledge ;)
I don’t understand this. Are they assuming everyone reporting a theft stole the bike they’re reporting in the first place? Even if that was the case, who in their right mind would admit it on a police report?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
There was a security researcher in NYC that wrote about recovering his stolen scooter with an Airtag that discussed part of this question. At least some of the shops know they've got stolen merch and actively look for Airtags or other trackers. Found it: https://www.cnet.com/culture/guy-successfully-hunts-down-his...
I have an airtag on mine but I’m not super convinced it will make a difference: - whenever I pick up the bike to ride it after a long period of not using it (say overnight or after a day of work), the airtag starts ringing. I don’t know why it does that but it would for sure tip the thief off - don’t iPhones and maybe androids now show some kind of notification and offer to disable the tag if a tag you don’t own star…
I caught a guy stealing a neighbor's bike and told him "Why don't we do this instead, I give you mine, and you never return because if you do I'll fry your eyeballs with an industrial laser", he took it, and I got an excuse to buy a new bike. (Not actually an industrial laser)
I can't imagine the situation you described. Was he just standing there having a conversation with you?
This is not really surprising to locals. The joke was always that if your bike is stolen when you get back, you'd just steal another one and keep the circulation going. During the 90s the stories were about heroin junkies selling bikes for 25 NLG (11.34 EUR). Clearly not the type of people with the organizational skills to set up an international crime syndicate. These were stories, and it's good/interesting to check…
When the article stated “We thought bikes might be stolen and sent abroad." I nearly spat out my coffee. It really is amusing to watch MIT laboratory types spend a bunch of time and effort to rediscover what was plainly known beforehand.
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…
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…
This is scandalous. I wonder if you could somehow sue the police for not doing their job, or report the guy who refused to investigate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_of_Castle_Rock_v._Gonzale...
Not sure about other jurisdictions.
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…
> 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…
There was a security researcher in NYC that wrote about recovering his stolen scooter with an Airtag that discussed part of this question. At least some of the shops know they've got stolen merch and actively look for Airtags or other trackers. Found it: https://www.cnet.com/culture/guy-successfully-hunts-down-his...
I have an airtag on mine but I’m not super convinced it will make a difference: - whenever I pick up the bike to ride it after a long period of not using it (say overnight or after a day of work), the airtag starts ringing. I don’t know why it does that but it would for sure tip the thief off - don’t iPhones and maybe androids now show some kind of notification and offer to disable the tag if a tag you don’t own star…