Dan'ger said:
Too cool. Glad to hear it. Does he want to sell it? It's my size...
I don't know, but you and I are having dinner with him next week at Bo's - so you can ask him then!
I feel a bit compelled to spew more info on bike theft & recovery, as the subject is near and dear - given my prior line of work (No, I wasn't a bike thief, if that's what you were thinking!).
In my previous job I recovered and returned many,many stolen bikes to their owners. Brian Le Hereux was the first - an early 90's Specialized. Then Carol something, then some Professor dude - the more I returned, the less I remembered - my point is I know a bit about getting bikes back to their owners.
Hundreds of thousands of bikes are stolen each year in the US. Very few every get returned to their owners - but a huge percentage
do get found and recovered by law enforcement.
When law enforcement recover bikes involved in crime, they are required to run the serial number through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. If there is a match, then it is possible for them to locate the owner and return the bike.
How would there be a match? The owner must first file a police report! Then/When the bike is found and the serial number run - police can locate the owner.
This is not a perfect system for the following reasons:
Only bikes that have been reported stolen end up in NCIC.
NCIC tracks the information given to them. If the owner moves - NCIC doesn't know that - therefore if the bike is found subsequent to being stolen - police can't do anything - as they would have incorrect info. Garbage in, garbage out.
What happens then? The bike goes to auction and/or stays in the police property room forever.
What if the bike is found "ditched" and no crime is involved? It doesn't get entered into NCIC by the recovering officer - it goes straight to the property room waiting... sometimes 90 days, sometimes longer - then off to the auction.
The vast majority of stolen bikes are never reported stolen by the owners for many reasons. Apathy, lack of sufficient info etc. Therefore when the bike is recovered by PD, nothing can reasonably be done to find the owner.
Bike Registration
California has a bike registration program whereby the bicycle owner can log bicycle and owner information into a
local database - usually city or county run - and put a California Bicycle Registration sticker on the bike.
Scenario: Good Samaritan in Reno, NV finds a bike "ditched" somewhere with a CA Bicycle Registration sticker on it. What can the person do? The sticker does not state which city or county the bike is registered with. Nothing can be done other than to call every city and county in the state!
There is no state wide bicycle registration database - but the sticker only reads California Bicycle Registration. Confusing, huh?
With close to 50% of all stolen bikes ending up (sooner or later) in police property rooms - how is the recovering precinct supposed to locate the owner with this patchwork of resources?
My recomdation is to do all of the above and more - before you need to!
Register your bike via every method available to you.
When your bike is stolen, report it!
Etc, etc...
Just my .02.
