People who make selling stolen bikes a profession

erdinc

I was searching gumtree and I noticed a guy who sells his bike. The problem is the guy sells too many bikes and they come in all types and sizes. There is no way he could own them as he claims. The prices are too low and there are no actual pictures.

Why doesn't police track these people? Should we report them somewhere?
I believe all these 4 bikes were stolen.

Scott SpeedsterS Fb60 09 Model (£200)
Ricardo 07534334875
"here i have my excellent scott speedster,..."
http://www.gumtree.com/london/63/41877163.html
Screenshot

Specialized Hardrock (£150)
contact me on 07534334875
"...hate to see it go but have not got the time to ride..."
http://www.gumtree.com/london/21/40471421.html
Screenshot

Specialized Crossroads Comp (£150)
Ricardo on 07534334875
google cache link
Screenshot

Specialized Myka Ht Elite 2009 (£240)
Ricardo on 07534334875
"Here is my lovely specialized bike..."
Google cache link
Screenshot

There was one more ad and it mentioned an Ambrosio Celcius bike for sale for £1200. I saw this in altavista.com results but the cached page didn't open.

bigflangesmallsprocket

Well, with four bikes for sale in four seperate auctions, I can understand why you're suspicious, though it's possible that he's wisely advertised them individually to maximise selling potential. As for being different sizes, it doesn't appear that he's showing pics of the actual bikes, but stock pictures of new machines....now THAT makes me a tad suspicious, as somebody might recognise personalised features of their own machine if he stuck the actual bikes up.

I reckon it's probably worth calling the police, who should have lists of missing bikes. You should point out that they're all expensive (by joe bloggs standards) bikes, and give them the COST NEW price as well as the asking price, so that whoever answers doesn't just think...nackered bike, £50 value, not worth following up, and file it away in the dustbin. If they realise that's thousands of quids worth of stuff then they may take action.

Of course, there's still a good chance he's totally legit. I wouldn't recommend calling him yourself though, could be more trouble than it's worth.

erdinc

Well, so far I didn't have my bike stolen. So it doesn't bother me too much. If my own bike is stolen I might start chasing those people. I just wanted to show that is very easy to make a phone number searches and find extra information in google cache.

If nobody is tracking these leads these guys will continue doing whatever they do. Somebody should check gumtree and similar boards regularly and report suspicious ads to police and the police should call these numbers and act like a buyer. It is a serious crime that hurts many people.

I have checked metropolitan police's website and the information given there mentions going to a local police station for reporting a crime. It doesn't look like you can report something that is suspicious. Some cyclist organisations should collect examples of these suspicious ads and put pressure to the police to check them.

WeirdNeville

Get in touch with the police local to where he is selling from. Seems very suspicious to me. A search can turn up if they are reported stolen or not.

Unfortunately cycle crime is not seen as a priority. If it were to be routinely reported, with frame numbers of course, then the jump in figures would force it to become a priority and something might be done about people who make their living from stolen goods.

jayhay548

I found my bike being sold by one of these guys. I even tracked him down to a home address, photos of him and even the cycling club he rides for using simple google searching. I told the police all of this, and it took them one month to arrest the man but then he denied any knowledge and said he buys them off a guy called steve! Needless to say my bike was never retrieved. One little tip - gumtree search the mobile number on the advert - if you hit lots of other bikes in a variety of sizes - be very suspicious.

VerwoodAsh

Also, if you want to call them - say you are calling about the bike for sale - and if they answer which one then that is a good sign that the person has a bit of a sideline going here.