Stolen - Kalkhoff Pro Connect Disc

[Mike63]

...and perhaps another good reason for dealing with 50 cycles.
I don't think this is the first time they've helped get a stolen bike back.
...not sure we'd get this service elsewhere...I just wish they were a tad nearer to me.

 

[Tim]

...and perhaps another good reason for dealing with 50 cycles.
I don't think this is the first time they've helped get a stolen bike back.
...not sure we'd get this service elsewhere...I just wish they were a tad nearer to me.

I'm relieved it turned out this way, it would have been a bit awkward had he turned up at the shop with the bike and had to be persuaded to leave without it.

Mike63 - we deliver anywhere in the UK free of charge and can support your local competent bicycle mechanic with parts, manuals, advice, etc. It usually works very well.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Wow! I've got it back

Just as Flecc said earlier in this thread, someone contacted 50 Cycles looking for a battery lock and a charger. They smelt a rat. What's more, he'd sent them a photo, which Tim Snaith, a Director of 50 Cycles fowarded to me - and by jove, it did look like my bike - a number of small details tallied . They hoped the chap would take it into their Hampton Wick shop but he didn't do that. Tim forwarded the chaps details to me and I in turn forwarded them to the Police.

The latter worked with astonishing efficiency and alacrity. I contacted them at 2pm yesterday; a DS at Charing-X contacted me 6-ish, asking me to forward the image Tim had sent me and my own images of the bike. That I did. They seemed to convince them it was worth investigating and at 10 I got a call saying they had the bike!

Today I went to pick it up. The battery lock is damaged, there a few accessories missing and a few scratches but beyond that, it seems relatively unharmed. It's certainly rideable.

I'm a lucky bunny. And all down to that 50 Cycles magic and remarkable efficiency by the Met, especially I think one DS at Charing-X, whose job seems to involve cycle theft and he seems to take it seriously

Out of interest are the police going to prosecute the guys who nicked the bike?
Dave
Kudoscycles

 

[Teejay]

Out of interest are the police going to prosecute the guys who nicked the bike?
Dave
Kudoscycles

I was told the guy they recovered it from isn't going to be prosecuted, presumably they figure the amount of money he'd paid for it and now with nothing to show for it, was punishment enough. He was reportedly very upset.

Whether they're going for the guys he got it from I wasn't told. His story was he'd got it through Gumtree (though I didn't spot it there myself). The DS was very scathing in his comments about Gumtree, saying they don't make any real effort at verification of advertisers, whose real identities consequently remain anonymous.

He did add an interesting comment however. He told me they get calls every day from people who have reported their bikes as stolen saying, "I think I've seen it on Gumtree, can you do something?", to which the answer is "unfortunately, no". It's a procedural problem he said - it has to go through a labarynthine system to get permissions. By the time that's granted the bike's long gone and so have the sellers. He is pushing to have these procedures overhauled and perhaps for a dedicated team put in place to address this sort of thing.

Let's wholeheartedly hope he succeeds - and its great there's an Officer there who takes the whole thing seriously and has ideas. One can't help but wonder though, given the Cuts, if he'll get very far.

 

[flecc]

I think he'll survive the cuts ok, bike theft is one of the only two crimes that is growing, and it's growing rapidly. As such it is a declared Home Office/police issue to be tackled vigorously, especially in London where the problem is acute. In fact the police bike marking exercises are currently being given a boost, a major drive on this in my area at present, plus advice given on locking arrangements.