Justin at Capitol Hill Seattle has a wonderful story today about Cleo, who was reunited with her stolen bike after the purchaser did some searching online to find out it was stolen. The two lessons here seem to be:
- Report bike thefts to the police (you can even file police reports online) and to online registries, like stolenbicycleregistry.com and BikeWise.
- If you are suspicious of someone selling a bike on Craigslist, search to see if the bike was stolen.
From Cleo’s note to CHS (also check out the super-happy reunion photo):
Her description of the thief was:
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A 6 ft. tall man who looked like George Michael (“baby” face, good looking, captain of the football team/homecoming king type.) He had an average build, definitely not homeless looking but was very friendly, smiley and almost charismatic. He had a vehicle but did not park close enough to see what kind/type it was or its license plate #. He used a GPS, was clueless about directions and was unfamiliar with Seattle. He said he lived on Sand Point Way in North Seattle and was from the Portland area. (He called it Sandy Point way…) He gave a first name, but she has since forgotten it. His story was that the bike was his girlfriend’s but that she was pregnant and going to buy a car with the money. All a big story, I’m sure. The only other distinguishing thing about him was apparently a gauged earring in his left ear that looked like a dark curled spike. She passed on a cell phone #, which he no longer seems to answer.
This is all FYI for anybody buying a “used” bike online. (If it seems suspiciously low-priced, it could very well be stolen.)
