Stolen Bikes Thread - Mod Note please read post #1 before posting

finto

Trek 4300
Black & White
Disc Brakes
Road tyres on

Stolen from Eastpoint business Park 18th March 2016

A P

Hi. It's a long shot but my bike was stolen opposite Citywest Shopping Centre this evening between 6:30 and 7pm. The lock was left behind and appeared to have been cut with a bolt cutter.

The bike is a Eurotrek Amazon bike. I don't have a photo of the bike itself but it's the same model as in the link below http://www.adverts.ie/bikes/gents-eurotrek-amazon-mountain-bike/2987734.

If anyone has spotted it please send a PM. Many thanks

doney21

<snip>


Mod note:
If you suspect a bike you see advertised is stolen never post details here - contact AGS with your suspicions

Any questions PM a mod - do not respond here

brianomc

Stopped a guy a few days ago from stealing a bike belonging to a guy I work with. It was a ****ty lock attached to a railing, there was a truck blocking him from being seen, but luckily the truck pulled away just on time for me to see him put his hands on the bike. One tug on the handlebars and the lock went flying.

I was only about 10 foot away at the time so raced over and pushed him away from it. Despite shouting at him with a lot of vocabulary I didn't even know I had and taking pictures and videos of him he kept trying to come back for the bike. He even tried telling me it was his bike that was stolen a few days ago. So I gave in and called the Gardai and he walked off immediately. Still waiting on the gardai despite telling them that I had video footage of the thief and the attempted theft.

This is the second attempt in a month at stealing a bike where I work, just off Camden Street, Dublin 2. 2 different bike thieves. So if you are locking your bike in the area please use a good lock.

I showed the photos I took to the guy who owned the bike and he has seen him around a bit lately. I know I can't post pictures, unsure of being allowed post a description of my bike thief so unless a mod says I can then I wont.

CramCycle

brianomc wrote: »

I know I can't post pictures, unsure of being allowed post a description of my bike thief so unless a mod says I can then I wont.

MOD VOICE: For various reasons, you cannot. Cheers for checking.

RainyDay

brianomc wrote: »

Still waiting on the gardai despite telling them that I had video footage of the thief and the attempted theft.

This is outrageous, and worth following up. Did you call a station or 999/112?

brianomc

RainyDay wrote: »

This is outrageous, and worth following up. Did you call a station or 999/112?

112. I hope I don't need to call them again but I suppose I should save the local stations phone number.
My friend was so happy that I had his bike that it made my day. He had looked out the window and saw it was missing just as I was getting to him to tell him it was safe.

iwillhtfu

Some lads really couldn't give two ****s.

Dare I say it deserves to be stolen.

rubadub

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Some lads really couldn't give two ****s.

I hate that style of bike rack. I would not do that though, would just lock it elsewhere. If you have the back wheel in the rack it feels too vulnerable to vandals, who could just bend it over out of boldness.

iwillhtfu

rubadub wrote: »

I hate that style of bike rack. I would not do that though, would just lock it elsewhere. If you have the back wheel in the rack it feels too vulnerable to vandals, who could just bend it over out of boldness.

He could've locked it along the back of the rack in a similar fashion. The fact I think he's foolish for even locking that in town shows how bad an issue bicycle theft is.

check_six

rubadub wrote: »

I hate that style of bike rack. I would not do that though, would just lock it elsewhere. If you have the back wheel in the rack it feels too vulnerable to vandals, who could just bend it over out of boldness.

iwillhtfu wrote: »

He could've locked it along the back of the rack in a similar fashion. The fact I think he's foolish for even locking that in town shows how bad an issue bicycle theft is.

Those style of 'wheel bender' racks are a curse. Particularly the setup in the photo where the rack is too close to the wall behind it. The style of locking could be a protest about how rubbish the rack is. Maybe I'm being too generous here.

Chiparus

iwillhtfu wrote: »

He could've locked it along the back of the rack in a similar fashion. The fact I think he's foolish for even locking that in town shows how bad an issue bicycle theft is.

If he did and the spaces got filled up he would have huge difficulty getting his bike out.

I hate those racks, we have them at work , and I regularly see bikes locked in them by their front wheel only - cheap wire type locks and quick release wheels!- but I do live in the country.

spider75

My bike was stolen on the 12th of April in my building car parking.
It was locked to a bike rack with a kryptonite u-lock, via the rear wheel and the frame.
In fact, they sawed the rack.
No CCTV camera in the building (...), no witness. They stole my and another bike, in the same way.

Brand: Specialized
Model: Crosstrail Sport Disc 2014
Color: White/Gray
Frame number (I'm trying to recover it)

It had a child seat attached to it, but they left it in the parking lot. However, the support for the child seat may be still attached to the frame (it's easy to remove thought).

Picture https: //dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/658656/2014-07-26%2017.21.55.jpg

rubadub

spider75 wrote: »

In fact, they sawed the rack.

This is something many have to watch for. I have seen very good locks on flimsy railings, some bike locking poles can be really thin. I have heard of some ready cut railings which may be disguised by thieves. Some lock to heavy chain barriers but the chain may be held on with a simple nut & bolt.

I have a long motorbike chain so try and find a pole which is harder to cut than the chain, and keep it high to stop bolt cutters being rested on the ground, this can mean wrapping the long chain around the frame several times to keep it high.


pic posted for you

what_traffic

Bike theft covered in the local freesheet.
http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/topics/articles/2016/04/20/4118305-garda-in-bicycle-theft-warning/
"
five bikes were stolen in the city in four days
"

godtabh

Just an FYI. Was cycling near Nutgrove this morning around 5:30 and there was a squad car pulled over beside 5/6 bikes with garda tape around it. If you had bikes stolen in the Nutgrove area chances are they may have been recovered. Looked like mountain bikes but I wasnt sticking about to see

Magna Carta 123

My bike was stolen from the residents car park located underneath where my apartment is. It was stolen in February and the landlord / property management company couldn't do much to help me. (Stillorgan area)

When I first noticed it was gone, I scoured through Adverts / Done deal and couldn't see anything at all close to the description. Looking back now I have found 3 suspicious postings on adverts.ie (from 2 months ago) where either the adverts have no picture, or just an image from Google. It's a long shot I know, but has anyone previous experience with something similar?

The bike is a Giant - Brass. Green coloured.

cian84

My bike and my girlfriend's bike were stolen out of our back garden in Lower Rathmines area, Tuesday morning. Stole the neighbours bike too, stealing 3 in total. Had to be 2/3 people working together the scumbags.

My bike is a hybrid - Lombardo Amantea 100. I had to replace the hubs with Quando-branded ones and the wheels with Deestone-branded ones cos my quick release wheels were stolen outside LIDL last year! So easy to ID.

My girlfriend's bike is a Raleigh city bike with a basket on the front. Beige-brown colour.

I know it's a long shot, but if anyone happens to see them let us know.

* Sorry, can't post images of the bikes cos I'm a "new user".

CramCycle

cian84 wrote: »

* Sorry, can't post images of the bikes cos I'm a "new user".

Pictures from cian 84:
Cians bike:

His GFs bike:

domireland

Pursuant to a theft in Dublin advise received was to look up adverts.ie for a matching advertisement.

(Adverts.ie is a internet platform for private-to-private adverts similar to Craigslist and the adverts section of the local print newspapers.)

Some key points:

- Finding and spotting suspicious offers is easy, stolen bikes are advertised without their brand, model name, frame seize.

-Suspicious seller accounts will oftenly have multiple more bikes listed under "withdrawn" ( which is still accessible through their profile page only) as actually sold items

- The vendor names on withdrawn bikes at far to low prices, listed without brand/model name or detailed do repeat - a lot.

- Many vendors offer individual wheel and saddles, and some bikes are stripped of the fenders, baggage racks and stickers. Do not be deterred.

Since the theft was a couple of days back in the past for and the suspicious bike adverts go into "Withdrawn"status within hours ( so Google cannot find them nor can a standard or advanced serach within adverts.ie) i would like to provide the link to search in all sections under withdrawn for all vendors, someone with more skill and time may be able to provide a refinement that searches only in the bike-section:

Addon the triple-w and then: adverts.ie/search/status_withdrawn/type_all



Going by the most recurring (less than 10) vendors with wbike ads withdrawn within hours of posting upon the first message of an interrested buyer there is a 45-2-% chance ( absed on 6000 reported and approximately 15000 unreported bike thefts in ireland) that your bike is under "withdrawn" in one of these few accounts, if stolen within Dublin city your chances may be higher than the 45% nationwide.

Amazing how noone from Adverts (or else) caught up with this, one of this accounts has less than 20 sales but nearly 100 withdrawn ads in the past 16 months.


(i cant post their names here in public but if member "K9 Galway" wants them by pm i will happily supply these and the advert.ie user id).



If your find your bike there dont act on yourself but contact Gardai.

domireland

Since editiing does not work for an unknown reason here the correction of 2 typos:

- The likelyness of finding your stolen bike under 'withdrawn" on Adverts.ie is at 45% to 20%.
(I had mistyped: 45%-2%). If you are in Dublin the chances of finding it there without fenders/ baggage rack and stripped by some stickers - possibly with another saddle and/ or wheel on it - is at 50%.
Sales prices for this bikes are all at 70-120 euros, significantly less than what seller s with receipt ask for their bikes.

- There is one seller with less than 20 sold advertisements and around 980 withdrawn bike ads in the last 16 months.

I had posted "nearly 100 withdrawn ads" where i wanted to post that it is nearly 1000 bikes that where offered and withdrawn upon first offer by that one seller account only.

domireland

To Magna Carta 123:

Boil it down to the seller with the many withdrawn bike ads, if its both proceed as follow on both leads:

If noth are priced suspicieously low proceed on both if one is priced realistically sort it out.

Contact the buyer and attempt to create a setting where he would likely show up by bike, the police cannot help before there is no concise proof that this was your bike posted and sold so you need ot be certain first.
Second best is to offer the buyers accounht if now acting as seller on other items ( the one you believe is now owner of your bike) to pick up at home and see if you can identify bike.

A second best option here is to show up with a friend, follow through on the agreed purchase and then pull out a your frame number and bike details and tell the person that you came ot check those on their bike for a match.

it is rediculous and may end in a negative feedback, however reasonably the person could not decline the demand if not feeling guilty or claiming to have sold on the bike (then you have your man, a unsuspecting buyer in the beginning but not any more up from that point).

I have a stomach feeling that the account with the googlepics you do refer to is the "one", if he has many withdrawn other bike ads and the other one does not you found your lead and next is to identify name and loocation of the buyer.


Reason for not suggesting to contact them with frame number or generic and ask for supply of details or a meeting is that they could simply say "no"and put the bike elsewhere for the next couple of weeks or simply give you a bogus other frame number and refuse to proof this by picture or supply their adress for due dilligence ( i am honest and i would not reply to such maiols since this is, no matter how understandable, deeply creepy).

2RockMountain

SLightly scary, particularly the folding bolt cutters.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/bike-thief-reveals-tricks-trade-stunningly-candid-interview-225130

Bloggsie

2RockMountain wrote: »

SLightly scary, particularly the folding bolt cutters.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/bike-thief-reveals-tricks-trade-stunningly-candid-interview-225130

saw something like this out my office window in the city centre last year, a Belgian guy locked (with a ****ty cable lock) and within 5-10 mins a scumbag was at it, looked around and then whipped out a cutters snip snip, by the time I got out and over to him he was throwing his leg over it & gone down the street.

I felt really bad for the poor divil!

Baron Kurtz

My Boardman Sport (Red) was stolen early this morning from my 1st floor balcony, Irishtown area.

They also attempted the theft of my neighbour's bike on the same floor, but were rumbled by a girl living on the ground floor.

She screamed at them so they made a quick getaway (unfortunately only with my bike) leaving my neighbour's mtb.

The guards were called and information was given.

Will post pictures of said bike later on. It's pretty distinctive and I have exact details of the bike.

I won't hold my breath in terms of getting it back, but I hold out hope to retrieve it as it was probably an opportunistic theft by two simpletons. It may not go very far.

domireland

Check advert.ie under withdrawn ads for generic descriptions of your bike.

A significant portion of the stolen bikes in Ireland is resold on adverts, partially by minors as account holders, and there is 2 bike retailers advertising not individual bikes but just their sale out of sheds and a bungalow in North Dublin and one with a fake adress in Docklands.

Once identified call gardai to set up a trap, do not contact themj for the bike on yourself first since they will tell it was just sold but they have a similar one ready if you want to come - this is if your adverts.ie account is new and without feedback.

If you have someone with a established account they are more likely to accept an offer, but only if you are the first one offering up on the bike since the ad is withdrawn within hours and upon the first person willing to pay the very low asking price.

domireland

Baron Kurtz wrote: »

I won't hold my breath in terms of getting it back, but I hold out hope to retrieve it as it was probably an opportunistic theft by two simpletons. It may not go very far.

Monitor the bikes section ( no particular search string but the entire section) of adverts.ie up from tomorrow or so, they mostly turn up there 1-2 days after theft.

Baron Kurtz

domireland wrote: »

Monitor the bikes section ( no particular search string but the entire section) of adverts.ie up from tomorrow or so, they mostly turn up there 1-2 days after theft.

Thanks for this. I have had a look already, albeit a particular search, so I will widen my scope and hope for the best.

oflahero

My turn on the thread of misery...

(Foolishly) left white Cube MTB outside the house yesterday evening, with Giant kids' trailer attached. Not locked, just forgotten. Unsurprisingly, not there soon after. Feckers would have had to manoeuvre it out around the car and adjust to the handling, unless they unhitched it first (a bit of a faff in someone's driveway.)

Plus SPD-only pedals on the MTB would've only added to the theft awkwardness.

Knobs. It was the creche delivery system, not a flash harry prize theft.

Not much hope of recovery, but the trailer might be distinctive enough. Don't forget to bring your bikes in the side gate immediately once you get home!

domireland

Some tokens of wisdon derived from my pursuit in reobtaining a stolen "bike" stolen in Dublin and advertised on Adverts.ie:

- Gardai claim a retrieval rate of nearly 10%, however the number of suspicious sales adverts from just a handfull sellers on Adverts exceeds this number and those accounts are active for severtal months and sometimes more than a year.

It appears the most promising way to retrieve your bike is to buy it at junkie pricing form the thief, most bikes listed have 70-120 Euros asking prices with the sellers accepting the very first offer of 35-50 Euros so they can sell and withdraw the ad quickly.

Withdrawn ads are not found by google bot and since the thieves never use the bike make and model in decription you have to refresh the offers on the entiry bike section on Adverts, not just a subsection, every few hours to catch your bike in time.

- If your thief was a minor you will face an unexpected challenge:
Data protection regulation prevents garda from giving out the details you need to contact parents and/ or lodge a claim on damages in against the minor.( A 15 euros flat fee "small claims proceedings"form, done in writing only as for most cases, will suffit).

On the first couple of dozend juvenile offenses a juvenile will NOT be brought to court where redress for damage done would be part of the ruling but instead admitted to "police porbation" scheme with no court appearance ( according to a gardai there is juveniles with more than 500 prior conviction admitted to police probation).

Accordingly, best write to the Superintendant ( automatic copy to the Ombudsman results from this, too) and insist on court process for your thief, cc this to a local TD of your area and use that same line of argument in a letter to the director of public prosecution who formally decides about the granting of access to the police probation scheme.

As per now an adult thief can steal what he likes, then have a juvenile open a Adverts.ie account ( easy and no ident checks required), advertise stuff and withdraw it within hours on the first offer with no risk.
Should someone actually catch up the addy in time and report and document it, the investigation stops as soon as th Gards find a juvenile who freely admits to the theft and the handling of stolen goods.
Returning is not required, if the thief does not have it in the pockets readily there will be no search of the home of the juveniles home anyways let alone a look into their phone or other investigation that could possibly lead to places or persons tied to the theft and the whereabouts of the stolen property.

Its the perfect crime, all you need is a juvenile who will do that for some small change.
Gardai will protect the juvenile from civic proceedings and on common thefts a court appearance is not expected if not being cought ( hardly happens, see "withdrawn ads") at least a couple of dozen times.


It is needed to root this out, and if necessary by souring it up for each of the juvenile that willfully victimize you while being victimized by themselves for selling out their judical impunity status.

Get a title, it costs so little but burdens the scum so much.

A such title can be held in against the thief for 12 years, is entered in credit reports and you can track their PPSn number for status changes if you got a friend in HR to be able to lodge your title with the future employers of the offender as soon as they get into work...and makes a great incentive to pay up.



- In conclusion you are best of to buy back your own property or at least identify the name and phone number used of the thief first, if you have friends willed to help in conducting a won "sting operation" on buyback date that would of course works as well - take the offender to a MC D, treat him to a maxi meal and explain him politely why stealing is noo good - or instead communicate this in other means you feel more appliciable in that scenario.