9 Steps for Getting Your Stolen Bike Back

So, your bike has been stolen. Once you recover from that initial disbelief—and the punched-in-the-intestine feeling that follows—you could experience helpless. Your favored element within the global has been taken. Your method of having around is gone. Your faith in humanity has been shattered. What’s left, but to curl up on the sidewalk and wait for the crushing despair to subside?

9 Steps for Getting Your Stolen Bike Back 1

But now’s not the time for panic or self-defeat. It’s the time to spring into action. Think high quality and operate below the belief that you may recover that motorcycle. (Like a sure person in Taken, you have got a specific set of talents—talents that make you a nightmare for motorcycle thieves.) There are lots of resources accessible that may assist. Take a moment to shake your fist at the sky, after which observe those 9 recommendations to get your bike correctly returned on your possession.

Get the Serial Number

Did you document your motorbike’s serial quantity? This is your first-rate chance of monitoring and reporting the theft. If your bike hasn’t yet been stolen, forestall studying this newsletter now, find your serial wide variety, and write it down. It’s normally located on the bottom bracket (though once in a while it’s determined on the top tube, rear dropout, or some other place on the bike). Once you’ve got the variety, sign in your motorbike with Bike Index, the most successful motorbike registry inside the global in terms of recoveries.

While you’re at it, take pictures of your bike and some other documentation you would possibly have, like your receipt. This isn’t overkill: No one ever thinks robbery will happen to them till they’re staring at a broken U-lock dangling from an empty bike rack.

File a Police Report

Notify neighborhood cops that your motorcycle has been stolen. Have an officer come and take down the report, if you could, or visit the station along with your records, which include the motorcycle’s serial number, make, version, and snap shots for the report. If you have any video footage of the incident—or understand of any surveillance cameras within the location—include that information with the record.
Register the Theft

Register that your motorcycle become stolen at Bike Index, the National Bike Registry (these days merged with 529 Garage), and any nearby registries that exist to your town. Bike Index is your fine bet: Not best does it solid a much wider internet, but it uses an open-information API that can be pulled into any internet site and without problems accessed via all of us, so more and more city registries and police departments are pooling their information there. Include as a whole lot statistics as you could. (Again, write down your serial variety now so that you’ll have it later.)

Spread the Word

Share news of your stolen motorcycle a ways and huge for the duration of your social networks. Post a photo of your bike on Facebook and Twitter and get your buddies to repost. The more eyes you’ve got at the streets looking for your motorbike, the much more likely you are to locate it.
Use Google Alerts

Set up more than one Google signals with statistics matching your motorbike. That manner if it turns up for online sale—or if a neighborhood chop shop gets raided—you’ll be notified.

Do Some Detective Work

Scour Craigslist for your stolen motorbike. Visit flea markets. Any area where you’ve seen used motorcycles for sale is a capability location for your motorbike to come to be. If you do control to find it, contact police—don’t set up a sting operation yourself. If you find it indexed on Craigslist, make a throwaway electronic mail cope with, pose as an fascinated customer, and try to get the seller’s touch info so that you can bypass it on to the police.

Check Online Marketplace Apps

Two popular income apps, OfferUp and LetGo, are modern hotbeds for stolen bikes because they don’t pre-display listings or provide any customer support for complaints. Bryan Hance at Bike Index says motorcycle thieves previously on Craigslist have almost exclusively moved to these apps. If you discover your motorcycle indexed on OfferUp, LetGo, or a similar on line market, notify police. Again, do no longer try to confront a vendor your self. There were instances of human beings being assaulted or killed trying to get their stuff returned.
Join a Bike Recovery Group

If you stay in a metropolis with a huge motorbike network, there’s an amazing threat locals have installation a Facebook institution for convalescing stolen bikes. Hance points to 1 particular organization in Edmonton, Canada, with an engaged user base, a solid courting with nearby police, and a verified music document: Last year, the organization helped go back greater than 400 bicycles to their rightful owners. Cities like San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle have similar groups with large, lively communities.

Get the Right Bike Lock

Now you must focus on preventing future thefts with the aid of making an investment in pinnacle-notch protection. No, higher locks can’t buy you a hundred-percent actuality that your motorcycle gained’t get stolen—any lock can ultimately be broken, given the proper equipment. But what the high-quality bike locks can give you is time. Present sufficient challenges to a criminal with a bolt cutter, and they’ll likely are trying to find out less difficult targets, like a cord-locked mixte commuter or a 29er left unlocked in someone’s backyard.

U-locks like the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Mini are the gold requirements for easy-to-tote protection, requiring strength equipment to bust open. To up the ante, wrap a twine around your wheels and lock them with the motorcycle body. A chain lock like the Hiplok Original lets you secure the wheels and frame with one lock, although it’ll be a great deal heavier and more awkward to haul around. Just please, avoid any wire or wire locks that basic equipment can ruin open in seconds.

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