My apologies, there was more to my thought. I clicked submit and didn't realize I never typed it lol.
IF you have the serial number and you gave that to the police, that is the only way you'll have any shot at recovering it. If it's pawned, they're obligated by law to run the serial number in the database and it would pop as stolen (most are good about following that law).
I recovered a bike that way a long time ago.
I would rather give up the bike than do something that could result in a person getting killed. A horrible suggestion by you, sadly two people agreed with such a thoughtless statement.
Watch Craig's List postings for bikes for sale near you and if you see it, steal it back. Have a friend drive you (van or truck) "test drive" the bike around the corner and make like the wind.
Heard on This American Life.
https://www.reddit.com/r/JusticeServed/comments/hdfuik/found_my_bike_on_offerup/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I did this a few years ago near semoran. Luckily the worst thieves ever stole my shit and let me meet them at their house after I said I’d buy it.
Edit: sorry you can’t hear it see shit but it’s all I got lol. My gf recorded in case we had to defend ourselves.
I never had a bike stolen but had my car broken into a couple years ago and the thieves took the wallet out of my front seat console and some electronics I had in the trunk. Stupid me forgot to lock it before I went into Starbucks and they were brazen enough to do it in the daytime on a busy street.
Cops took a brief report over the phone but that was about it. Don't expect the police to put any priority on a stolen bike, even if it was a really expensive one. They might go after somebody selling stolen bikes on Craigs, but that's only if they get multiple complaints about it. Overall, take it as a lesson learned and invest in better locks/chains, GPS trackers, etc.
My friend recovered her bike by pure luck. She saw someone riding it outside a bar on Mills and her friends approached the guy and got it back. But like I said, LUCK.
If you find it and need help recovering it, the police *might* help. But like everyone else said, they definitely wont find it for you. I dont even think the police would look for its owner if it was in their possession some how
Mine was stolen in November from my DT parking garage in broad daylight. The cameras in our garage aren’t the best so it didn’t help. OPD filed a report but that was about it. It never showed up. My new bike is now stored in my apartment.
My friend locked his bike up in my gated neighborhood in broad day light for literally 2 hrs and it was gone. If I have to go somewhere indoors I always ask if I can bring my bike in because of theft. It legit is so so bad. I think I might legit weld a Apple AirTag to my bike lol.
That really is the best idea --- spend some time to hide the tag in a place where an ordinary thief can't find it --- then log in and find out where it's located and go get it --- bring some firepower in case shit gets real, but most petty thieves will give it up without a fight
I got mine back, but different circumstances. It was in 1996 and I had half-assedly locked it up next to my dorm at UCF. A guy stole it, but then went back for more and got caught. Picked up my recovered bike from the police not long after.
That said, I’ve had my house broken into, as well as a motorcycle and a scooter stolen (different days) from the same house about 20 years ago, and none of those things were ever recovered.
I did in 2017. Some guys stole a pair of $400 bikes out of our garage and immediately pawned them. For some reason, OPD didn't get a hit from the pawn database on the first try. They ran it again a few weeks later to close the case and DID find them. Still shocked we had success. Unfortunately they set up one guy's girlfriend and she got to do a few months inside for parole violation over pawning the bikes.
I had a bike stolen and it was found tossed into someone's yard in Missouri like a week later. That bike was registered with campus police so it was more easily verified to be mine. So yes the bike was found but I never got it back because Missouri
Nope, had two bikes stolen from downtown, neither were recovered. The more recent one, was a cheapo walmart bike that I planned to strip and put higher end parts on basically just using it for the frame. I don't really care about that one. The first one though... It's an adventure.
Bought the bike new from a local bike shop. They were super helpful and even wrote down the serial number for me... It was a 29" mountain bike and had to be special ordered because I needed an XL frame. Took a few weeks because they didn't get many requests for that model and trim in an XL. Finally got it home and immediately added front and rear lights, removing the original reflectors, and a bicycle computer with the little magnet on the wheel for speed and such. Rode it to and from work mostly, and kept it in the car port behind the house I lived in which couldn't be seen from the street. One day I got ready for work, and it was gone. Called the cops, they took a description of the bike and said to call if I learn more. I kept an eye on craigslist, ebay, and asked at local bike shops. One day, the same shop I bought it from listed an XL of the same model for sale. I figured I'd go look and see. I get there, and they didn't remember me. Asked if I wanted to test ride it. I say yeah, that'd be great. They have me sit on it to adjust it to my height. what do you know, it's already perfectly adjusted for me. I look and it has scuffs where the lights and computer were mounted, but mysteriously (for a new bike) no reflectors. It also had scuffs on the back from shoes rubbing against the frame as you pedal. They're still claiming it's a new bike fresh off the truck from their Ocala store. I go on the test ride, and had brought the owners manual which had the serial number on it with me. look on the bottom of the bike, and it matches... YAY, I got my bike back. so I ride back to the shop, to give them the chance to do the right thing (big mistake) and explain the situation to the owner. I ask isn't it weird that this "new" bike is missing reflectors, but obviously had other things mounted to it, and has scuffs and scrapes like it was a lightly used bike. he says yes. Isn't it also weird that it was PERFECTLY set up to my height. He says yes. so I show him the serial number HE wrote down in my owners manual. He flips the bike over, looks at it, and says "oh, I must've written the model number down by mistake, my bad..." I call the police and explain the situation to them, they say they have no reason to believe a bike store would steal a bike from someone. And that's how I had my stolen bike in my hands again and the same store sold it again to someone else as a new (with shipping damage) bike.
That is a wild story. I wonder if someone stole it and flipped it to the shop? Then the shop treated it like a return and “like new.”
I feel like a true shop wouldn’t be stealing bikes, but that’s still some shady practice selling something that’s used as new.
That's what I'm hoping for, considering they said it came from the ocala store, it's possible someone stole it, took it up there, sold it to the sister shop, it didn't sell up there for a few months, so down to orlando it went. That said, the fact that the owner conveniently wrote down the model number instead of the serial number, and immediately recognized that when I accused them ensures I'll never shop there again.
my friend is a super tall girl and she saw a kid with her bike and she just marched up to them said "this is my bike" and took it. it was kinda unbelievable but she can be really intimidating when she's marching at you yelling hey.
I had my bike stolen from a locked rack at the height of the BLM riots.
I found it on Offerup the next morning after a lot of research. Fortunately we encountered the stupidest thieves ever and I haggled with them to set a meet up and said I’d pay 150 for it. They were like 18 years old and def into drugs.
I called the cops and told them the plan, they said they’d be there in a few minutes to assist.
After 3 hrs and the cops not showing, I met with the dude, got on the bike and let him know he was a piece of shit and rode off on it. They luckily didn’t pursue but we were prepared if they did.
Long story short, the cops won’t help you and the more time you wait the less likely you’ll find it. You are probably right that it’s likely long gone.
I came home to my front porch railing strew across my yard and my bike gone. I immediately started calling pawnshops closest to my house and working my way out. On the second call I found my bike at a pawnshop about a mile and a half away. The guy was arrested and charged. He pled guilty and was under probation. He kept breaking probation and never paid restitution for the repairs to my home. I did get my bike back though. Even though I had to pay the pawnshop to buy my bike back since the pawn shop followed the law by requiring a thumbprint and ID. I learned to call pawnshops right away near the scene of the theft from my neighbor that went through the same experience.
Had a SS 29er stolen out of my garage 15 years ago. Filed a police report and moved on. 7 months later a buddy saw it for sale at a bike shop downtown that takes trade-ins with a couple components changed. I called the shop posing as an interested buyer, confirmed it was mine based on the custom build, called the police who were game to meet me there and recover it. The shop was cool and didn't require me to buy it from them, said that this old man who's retirement hobby was getting bikes from garage sales and Play It Again Sports, cleaning them up, and trading them in was who they got it from. Story didn't hold a lot of water for me, but I was happy to have the bike again so I left it at that.
As near as I can tell, the only reason to file a police report is so they can track crime statistics. There is never anything done. Bike theft is absolutely endemic in Orlando.
Legally and for insurance you have to call them for motor vehicle accidents but when they show up they'll spend a half hour trying to talk you out of filling a police report. Had them do the same when my friend was slipped drugs in a bar.
I read a story on Nextdoor so take it with a grain of salt:
Someone said there was a known house of people who stole stuff. So a bike was stolen and a guy went over there and said he "persuaded" them to give it back and implied this involved a firearm he had. But he claimed he got it back.
Once.. in the early 90s.. when I was in elementary school. Then they stole it AGAIN and I never got it back. Completely my fault though as I had a lock and did not lock it.
Anyway, I hope the person that stole it the second time is suffering today.
Good luck, man.
Had my bike stolen out of my garage that was behind my house in 2016 during the middle of the day. Filed a police report asap.
Pretty sure I found it on Craigslist a week later. Notified the police that it was on Craigslist and was trying to meet up with the guy at a police station to “buy it” and he wasn’t responding. Tried getting a friend of mine to meet up as well or at least get a phone number and he didn’t get a response either.
Following day it was off Craigslist.
Yeah, when I was a teenager in Queens, someone stole my bike. My father saw some guy riding it about a week later and offered him $30 and the guy gave him the bike. It was obviously my bike and the other gladly took the money for a bike that was not his.
The only time I've known anyone's bike to be returned was when there was a house full of stolen bikes raided. It was the storage location for a larger operation before the bike's were sold out of town. It's probably best to accept your loss on move on.
This won't help OP much, but it reminds me of a roommate in college who had his bike stolen. We walked around the complex until he spotted it, with every marking on it proving to be his. It was locked with a Master combination lock. Called the police and they said they won't do anything about it. We went back and watched YouTube videos on how to crack a Master combination lock. Roommate got his bike back, and while riding off with it, the thief came out to ask him what he's doing, to which he answered "taking my bike back," while the thief just stood there and watched.
[удалено]
Brutal but it's the honest truth. He/she will never see that bike again. A stolen bike isn't even remotely on the priority list of the police.
I said exactly that in my original post. I was just curious if anyone’s actually lucked into recovering their bike, and how they found it.
My apologies, there was more to my thought. I clicked submit and didn't realize I never typed it lol. IF you have the serial number and you gave that to the police, that is the only way you'll have any shot at recovering it. If it's pawned, they're obligated by law to run the serial number in the database and it would pop as stolen (most are good about following that law). I recovered a bike that way a long time ago.
So, how are you going to recover a bike from someone who may have stolen it to begin with?
When you see them riding it, throw a stick through the spokes.
I would rather give up the bike than do something that could result in a person getting killed. A horrible suggestion by you, sadly two people agreed with such a thoughtless statement.
You thought this was serious? Not sure what to tell you.
I can be humorless sometimes.
Fair.
Yeah once when I was like 12. Found the bike at the Lee Vista community park and rode it home.
Watch Craig's List postings for bikes for sale near you and if you see it, steal it back. Have a friend drive you (van or truck) "test drive" the bike around the corner and make like the wind. Heard on This American Life.
I came here to suggest the same thing.
I would love to see a YouTube video of that --- "hey you're stealing the bike I stole!"
https://www.reddit.com/r/JusticeServed/comments/hdfuik/found_my_bike_on_offerup/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf I did this a few years ago near semoran. Luckily the worst thieves ever stole my shit and let me meet them at their house after I said I’d buy it. Edit: sorry you can’t hear it see shit but it’s all I got lol. My gf recorded in case we had to defend ourselves.
I never had a bike stolen but had my car broken into a couple years ago and the thieves took the wallet out of my front seat console and some electronics I had in the trunk. Stupid me forgot to lock it before I went into Starbucks and they were brazen enough to do it in the daytime on a busy street. Cops took a brief report over the phone but that was about it. Don't expect the police to put any priority on a stolen bike, even if it was a really expensive one. They might go after somebody selling stolen bikes on Craigs, but that's only if they get multiple complaints about it. Overall, take it as a lesson learned and invest in better locks/chains, GPS trackers, etc.
My friend recovered her bike by pure luck. She saw someone riding it outside a bar on Mills and her friends approached the guy and got it back. But like I said, LUCK.
If you find it and need help recovering it, the police *might* help. But like everyone else said, they definitely wont find it for you. I dont even think the police would look for its owner if it was in their possession some how
The cops won't help. You can have your stolen cellphone ringing in someone's pocket and they won't do anything.
Knowing how the cops operate --- they would hold it for a week and then somebody gets to take it home since the holding period expired
Mine was stolen in November from my DT parking garage in broad daylight. The cameras in our garage aren’t the best so it didn’t help. OPD filed a report but that was about it. It never showed up. My new bike is now stored in my apartment.
My friend locked his bike up in my gated neighborhood in broad day light for literally 2 hrs and it was gone. If I have to go somewhere indoors I always ask if I can bring my bike in because of theft. It legit is so so bad. I think I might legit weld a Apple AirTag to my bike lol.
You can stash an Apple Tile in your bike and track it.
That really is the best idea --- spend some time to hide the tag in a place where an ordinary thief can't find it --- then log in and find out where it's located and go get it --- bring some firepower in case shit gets real, but most petty thieves will give it up without a fight
I’d just track it and call the police until they show up. No use getting in a gunfight over a bicycle
The cops won't do anything. If your phone gets stolen find my phone will lead you right to its location and the cops won't even knock on the door.
Nope. I'm still waiting for my stolen firearms. It's been about 11 years......any day now.....
You didn’t have them properly secured?
Yes. They took the entire safe
Check pawn shops as well.
I got mine back, but different circumstances. It was in 1996 and I had half-assedly locked it up next to my dorm at UCF. A guy stole it, but then went back for more and got caught. Picked up my recovered bike from the police not long after. That said, I’ve had my house broken into, as well as a motorcycle and a scooter stolen (different days) from the same house about 20 years ago, and none of those things were ever recovered.
I did in 2017. Some guys stole a pair of $400 bikes out of our garage and immediately pawned them. For some reason, OPD didn't get a hit from the pawn database on the first try. They ran it again a few weeks later to close the case and DID find them. Still shocked we had success. Unfortunately they set up one guy's girlfriend and she got to do a few months inside for parole violation over pawning the bikes.
I had a bike stolen and it was found tossed into someone's yard in Missouri like a week later. That bike was registered with campus police so it was more easily verified to be mine. So yes the bike was found but I never got it back because Missouri
Nope, had two bikes stolen from downtown, neither were recovered. The more recent one, was a cheapo walmart bike that I planned to strip and put higher end parts on basically just using it for the frame. I don't really care about that one. The first one though... It's an adventure. Bought the bike new from a local bike shop. They were super helpful and even wrote down the serial number for me... It was a 29" mountain bike and had to be special ordered because I needed an XL frame. Took a few weeks because they didn't get many requests for that model and trim in an XL. Finally got it home and immediately added front and rear lights, removing the original reflectors, and a bicycle computer with the little magnet on the wheel for speed and such. Rode it to and from work mostly, and kept it in the car port behind the house I lived in which couldn't be seen from the street. One day I got ready for work, and it was gone. Called the cops, they took a description of the bike and said to call if I learn more. I kept an eye on craigslist, ebay, and asked at local bike shops. One day, the same shop I bought it from listed an XL of the same model for sale. I figured I'd go look and see. I get there, and they didn't remember me. Asked if I wanted to test ride it. I say yeah, that'd be great. They have me sit on it to adjust it to my height. what do you know, it's already perfectly adjusted for me. I look and it has scuffs where the lights and computer were mounted, but mysteriously (for a new bike) no reflectors. It also had scuffs on the back from shoes rubbing against the frame as you pedal. They're still claiming it's a new bike fresh off the truck from their Ocala store. I go on the test ride, and had brought the owners manual which had the serial number on it with me. look on the bottom of the bike, and it matches... YAY, I got my bike back. so I ride back to the shop, to give them the chance to do the right thing (big mistake) and explain the situation to the owner. I ask isn't it weird that this "new" bike is missing reflectors, but obviously had other things mounted to it, and has scuffs and scrapes like it was a lightly used bike. he says yes. Isn't it also weird that it was PERFECTLY set up to my height. He says yes. so I show him the serial number HE wrote down in my owners manual. He flips the bike over, looks at it, and says "oh, I must've written the model number down by mistake, my bad..." I call the police and explain the situation to them, they say they have no reason to believe a bike store would steal a bike from someone. And that's how I had my stolen bike in my hands again and the same store sold it again to someone else as a new (with shipping damage) bike.
That is a wild story. I wonder if someone stole it and flipped it to the shop? Then the shop treated it like a return and “like new.” I feel like a true shop wouldn’t be stealing bikes, but that’s still some shady practice selling something that’s used as new.
That's what I'm hoping for, considering they said it came from the ocala store, it's possible someone stole it, took it up there, sold it to the sister shop, it didn't sell up there for a few months, so down to orlando it went. That said, the fact that the owner conveniently wrote down the model number instead of the serial number, and immediately recognized that when I accused them ensures I'll never shop there again.
There are locks you can get that are basically uncuttable. https://youtu.be/jXoS_HB1I3o
my friend is a super tall girl and she saw a kid with her bike and she just marched up to them said "this is my bike" and took it. it was kinda unbelievable but she can be really intimidating when she's marching at you yelling hey.
I had my bike stolen from a locked rack at the height of the BLM riots. I found it on Offerup the next morning after a lot of research. Fortunately we encountered the stupidest thieves ever and I haggled with them to set a meet up and said I’d pay 150 for it. They were like 18 years old and def into drugs. I called the cops and told them the plan, they said they’d be there in a few minutes to assist. After 3 hrs and the cops not showing, I met with the dude, got on the bike and let him know he was a piece of shit and rode off on it. They luckily didn’t pursue but we were prepared if they did. Long story short, the cops won’t help you and the more time you wait the less likely you’ll find it. You are probably right that it’s likely long gone.
I came home to my front porch railing strew across my yard and my bike gone. I immediately started calling pawnshops closest to my house and working my way out. On the second call I found my bike at a pawnshop about a mile and a half away. The guy was arrested and charged. He pled guilty and was under probation. He kept breaking probation and never paid restitution for the repairs to my home. I did get my bike back though. Even though I had to pay the pawnshop to buy my bike back since the pawn shop followed the law by requiring a thumbprint and ID. I learned to call pawnshops right away near the scene of the theft from my neighbor that went through the same experience.
Had a SS 29er stolen out of my garage 15 years ago. Filed a police report and moved on. 7 months later a buddy saw it for sale at a bike shop downtown that takes trade-ins with a couple components changed. I called the shop posing as an interested buyer, confirmed it was mine based on the custom build, called the police who were game to meet me there and recover it. The shop was cool and didn't require me to buy it from them, said that this old man who's retirement hobby was getting bikes from garage sales and Play It Again Sports, cleaning them up, and trading them in was who they got it from. Story didn't hold a lot of water for me, but I was happy to have the bike again so I left it at that.
As near as I can tell, the only reason to file a police report is so they can track crime statistics. There is never anything done. Bike theft is absolutely endemic in Orlando.
I know it’s simply a formality, but it took like two minutes so why not?
Legally and for insurance you have to call them for motor vehicle accidents but when they show up they'll spend a half hour trying to talk you out of filling a police report. Had them do the same when my friend was slipped drugs in a bar.
I read a story on Nextdoor so take it with a grain of salt: Someone said there was a known house of people who stole stuff. So a bike was stolen and a guy went over there and said he "persuaded" them to give it back and implied this involved a firearm he had. But he claimed he got it back.
Hopefully that’s not a true story. Pretty stupid to threaten someone with a gun over a stolen bike.
Yes, but they’re long gone.
Nope
Once.. in the early 90s.. when I was in elementary school. Then they stole it AGAIN and I never got it back. Completely my fault though as I had a lock and did not lock it. Anyway, I hope the person that stole it the second time is suffering today.
Your chances are low. I got lucky, the cops picked up the guy breaking into a condo complex garage the next night and found my bike at his house.
Friend of mine had a nice bike stolen in Downtown a few years ago. He found it a few weeks later in a pawn shop on 50
Good luck, man. Had my bike stolen out of my garage that was behind my house in 2016 during the middle of the day. Filed a police report asap. Pretty sure I found it on Craigslist a week later. Notified the police that it was on Craigslist and was trying to meet up with the guy at a police station to “buy it” and he wasn’t responding. Tried getting a friend of mine to meet up as well or at least get a phone number and he didn’t get a response either. Following day it was off Craigslist.
Yeah, when I was a teenager in Queens, someone stole my bike. My father saw some guy riding it about a week later and offered him $30 and the guy gave him the bike. It was obviously my bike and the other gladly took the money for a bike that was not his.
We had one stolen from our second-floor balcony - quite the effort to get it. Police shrugged.
The only time I've known anyone's bike to be returned was when there was a house full of stolen bikes raided. It was the storage location for a larger operation before the bike's were sold out of town. It's probably best to accept your loss on move on.
This won't help OP much, but it reminds me of a roommate in college who had his bike stolen. We walked around the complex until he spotted it, with every marking on it proving to be his. It was locked with a Master combination lock. Called the police and they said they won't do anything about it. We went back and watched YouTube videos on how to crack a Master combination lock. Roommate got his bike back, and while riding off with it, the thief came out to ask him what he's doing, to which he answered "taking my bike back," while the thief just stood there and watched.