Did you buy a bicycle off Seattle's Craiglist recently from a guy who advertised “Road Bikes Galore!”?
You shouldn't be surprised that there's a very good chance the bike was stolen.
The latest stolen bicycle caper comes from a 10-by-10-foot storage unit in Seattle's Lake City neighborhood filled “floor to ceiling” with bikes and bike parts. Two suspects in the case apparently lived in the storage unit.
It doesn't rival the Toronto crime spree that scored nearly 3,000 bikes, but it's amazing by local standards.
Storage unit
The Post-Intelligencer reports that workers at the storage facility in Lake City alerted police last week when they saw a handful of people stripping bicycles in the unit. When police arrived, they stopped a man with some bikes in a storage facility elevators. He told police they were his bikes and he had checked the serial numbers.
They recognized at least one of the bikes matching the description of a bike stolen recently from Gas Works Park.
After obtaining a search warrant, police confiscated 14 bicycles, 20 bike frames, and 42 bike wheels.
All the suspects were identified and released, including one who recently pleaded guilty to second degree possession of stolen property involving a bicycle valued at $1,400, the P-I reported.
Check before you buy
Unsure about the legitimacy of a pre-owned bicycle you considering buying? There are some places you can check.
In the Seattle area there's BikeWise.com, a service of the Cascade Bicycle Club. The map tool lists the locations of bike thefts, crashes and hazards. The theft section shows the location of the bike theft, as well as full descriptions of the bicycle.
The Stolen Bicycle Registry also is a good place to check for stolen bicycles, by serial number.
The National Bike Registry also keeps bike serial numbers on file.
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