Who doesn't like bike theft story with a happy ending. Here's one from Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
A college professor discovered that her much-loved Trek bicycle had been stolen from the front porch one night after she left it resting against her husband's locked-up bike.
Much distraught, she started hunting around on Craigslist the next morning for a replacement bike. Instead, she stumbled across a bike — not pictured — that matched the description of her bicycle. She contacted the seller using her husband's e-mail address, got a response. Then she went to the Wellesley Police.
The police believed her story, telephoned the seller, met him and arrested him. When the suspect saw police, he immediately said, “I know what this is about. It's about the bike.”
Alibi
The Wellesley Townsman newspaper reports the 41-year-old suspect's explanation to police, but it doesn't make any sense so it's not worth repeating.
It's cool that she recovered her stolen bike. That doesn't happen often enough. In fact, when you think about it, it's kind of surprising the police followed up on it; the story didn't mention whether she had a serial number.
Some ideas that can help recover a stolen bike:
— Before your bike is stolen, copy down your bike's serial number (usually located under the bottom bracket), make, and model. Take a picture of it.
— Report the bike theft to police; it will probably require visiting the police station.
— File with a resource like Stolenbicycleregistry.com for free (it currently has 5,287 stolen bikes online), or National Bike Registry for a small fee.
— Start making the rounds of pawn shops and check Craigslist. Ian at Stolenbicycleregistry.com says, if you're looking for a stolen bike, there's a Craigslist search tool that's helpful. It's called NotifyWire and can contact you whenever it finds your search request in multiple cities.
— If you locate the bike, contact the local police and remind them you've filed a police report about the theft.
See also: “Hoping bike thieves take the bait” and “Serial number busts up bike theft ring.”
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