Mudhunny forwarded me this interesting article from the Washington Post about busting bike thieves in the DC area. It turns out bike thieves are becoming more discerning in seeking out high end bikes (mountain and road alike) and are using websites like Craigslist and eBay to unload the stolen wares.
The article goes on to tell the story about some victims who were able to track down their bikes themselves using eBay and digital photographs. One guy even had some kind of mountain bike “lo-jack” installed on his $2000 Iron Horse and almost tracked the bike down before the batteries on the GPS device ran out. I didn’t even know they had these, did you? More research is necessary…
There’s also a website to help you recover your stolen bike, though the founder admits that only about a dozen bikes have been recovered through the site over the past 8 years. It’s definitely worth a shot though, anything helps. Just make sure you also file an official police report (your insurance company will require this for a claim) and start cruising the web to see if your bike turns up for sale. When you buy a new bike, be sure to write down the serial number in a safe place and take photos of any “identifying marks” on your bike (you know, like that custom leopard print banana seat you had installed). Oh yeah, and don’t forget to lock your bike with a quality bike lock – we don’t want to make bike thieves’ jobs any easier 😉
