Your Bicycle has been stolen, now what do I do?

 All too often you will see posts on social media from people who have had their bicycles stolen asking people to watch out for it. There are some steps you should take before and in the event of, after.

First take a picture of the bike and one with you in the background and the bike in the foreground. Store them in more than one place; your laptop, the cloud, and your phone. Next locate the frame number on your bike. If you turn the bicycle over and look in the spot where the pedals run through the frame (bottom bracket) you will see a serial number. Take a picture of it and add it to the pictures of the bicycle. This is proof that you own the bike. 

Now fast forward to the future, your bike has been stolen,  you go to the police, and they ask you what your bicycle looks like. Unfortunately your answer is “I don’t know, but it is the best bicycle in the world”. Fortunately you have pictures of the bike so you can provide them with them as part of the report. 

Now for the serial number. The serial number is a unique identifier, so if the police recover your bike they will know who it actually belongs to. 

The next steps you take are very important. First e-mail a copy of the report to every bike shop in town and the suburbs with a picture of the bike. While the thief may not bring the bike into a shop, whoever they sold it to may. As long as the shop has a copy of the police report, including the serial number, they will hold the bike as stolen property.

Another step is to register your bicycle with Bike Index, www.bikeindex.org, this is an on-line bicycle registry that anyone, including bike shops, can access to see if a bicycle has been stolen. One other option is to check Facebook and see if there is a “stolen bikes” page. These pages have crowdsourced bicycle recovery with thousands of members watching for it on the streets, Craigslist, and other online sales sites. In Philadelphia that page is https://www.facebook.com/groups/120319078000282. 

Never post your serial number online, except for Bike Index and the police report you send to the bike shops. Bike thieves know about the social media pages and will watch them to see if their bike has been identified as stolen.

While I hope your bicycle is never stolen, I hope that this will leave you better prepared in the event that it does.

Bike Thief Alert #2 - Arrested

 Meet DJ Domie or Papi D as he likes to call himself. Business man, DJ, and alleged bicycle thief. We have to use the word alleged because he has not been convicted in court....yet.

I am an alleged bike thief

I am an alleged bike thief

I am an alleged DJ

About two months ago this Bianci bicycle was stolen in the vicinity of South 22^nd St and St. Albans in North East Philadelphia.

 and in late August this ad appeared on Craigslist;

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/bik/4031719655.html

I Have A Bianchi bike that i want to sell lookin for best offer and no not no 7,8, 900 dollars for it look it up before you offer lookin for a far price is not a cheap bike.


A member of the Philadelphia Stolen Bikes Facebook page spotted it and alerted the owner who posted the stolen bike. A meet was set up to look at the bike which included under cover and uniformed officers from the Philadelphia Police Department. Once the owner identified the bike an arrest was made. After that it was all down hill for alleged bike thief DJ Domie/Papi D. and alleged comedian. When he claimed "his cousin who is the number one rider in philly gave it to him".

So now what? Before everyone runs out to the hardware store to buy pitchforks and torches to form an angry mob. DJ Domie/Papi D. brought a concealed and loaded hand gun with him, he most likely will be charged with a felony, and spend some time in prison. Its also safe to assume his friends have a similar affinity towards concealed weapons, so visiting his neighborhood would not be a good idea.

What you can do is share this post with everyone you know. You never know who is going to see it and what they may be able to do.

Bike Thief Alert #1

If this guy has stolen a bike from you or tries to sell this bike call the police. Otherwise keep your eyes open and lets get him arrested.

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/bik/4049087259.html

There is a man by the name of Anthony that is acting, as he is interested in buying a bike from you. He comes to your house, asks for a test ride, and then steals the bikes never to return. His phone number is 267-603-0409 and 267-254-8823. He is a white male 5"11 or 6"0 black hair about 180 pounds. He pretends to be alone as soon as he rides around the corner he has a buddy that helps him get away. He just did it to me. If you see this man or hear from this man, or this has happened to you. Please call the Philadelphia Police Department. I have filed a report on him with all his information. The Police know where he lives. Send me an email to let me know if this happen or you hear from him thanks
this is the bike he stole.