Immobilise your bike.....

PC Frank

Hi everyone,
Here is something that everyone on the forum can do.....and it's free (yippee)!!

Register your bike on www.immobilise.com which is a property registration website that is supported by most UK police forces.

When you visit the site you will be asked to enter your email address and confirm. You will then be asked how you heard of the website. If you are registering as a result of what I am posting, then please highlight 'Bristol Police'.

You will then be asked to add an inventory item and will be able to select a form for bikes. Complete the details including the frame number as an identifier. The more detail you add, the better. You can also add an image of your bike.

After you have registered your bike, keep an eye on your email account for an email confirming your login name and password (this may take as long as a few weeks). Don't forget to check your junk mail folder as the message may land in there.

Once you have your account details, you can log in to your account and add details of mobile phones, laptops and just about anything electrical which has a serial number.

If your bike (or other item) is lost or stolen, and comes into police possession, then it should be checked on a separate secure law enforcement database which is linked to immobilise. If it is on there, then your lost posseion can be returned to you.

Furthermore, if the check is done on the street whilst in the clutches of a criminal, they can be arrested and hopefully charged with theft (hurrah)!

The effectiveness of this system relies upon people registering their belongings on immobilise - so the more of you that take advantage of this, the better.

There is nothing more frustrating than stopping some one on a bike that you know is stolen (copper's instinct), and having to let them and the bike go, because you can't prove that it's not their bike.

"Aha PC Frank" I hear you cry "What if I register my bike, and the so-and-so who steals it grinds off the frame number"?

Many bike theives are so brazen that they don't bother to conceal the identity of the bike. Also, if you explore the immobilise website, you will find a product which helps to negate this.

Stay safe and vigilant,

PC Frank

redvee

Already got my bike on Immobilise along with a few other gadgets, need to find some cash for the Immobilise chip for the seattube.

dilemna

Does it acutally prevent your pride and joy being stolen? No.

Better still don't broadcast on any website with your full contact details what you have. The fewer people you tell the better. Record all frame numbers or unique spec of your bike and fit a tracker if you really want to recover it and install covert CCTV in your property. Then visit the thieves for a surprise party to get your bike back.

Wrt to stopping some one on a bike you believe to be stolen surely you would have reasonable grounds to detain them and relieve them of the bike until you can establish it's rightful owner? If it has been reported stolen then this should emerge. Stupid plod for letting a suspected thief on a stolen bike get away. Anything to avoid paperwork and for an easy life :roll:.

the_hundredth_idiot

PC Frank - ignore the gumblings of dilemna.

Frankly (!), if you are trying to help reunite owners with their stolen pride and joys, then you've got me on side.

Of course it doesn't actually stop the bike theft in the first place but, if more bikes were registered with something like immobilise then the thieves would be more wary about riding around on them or trying to sell them on. Reselling bikes at Brick Lane would disappear quickly. So what would be the point of nicking them? This is a step in the right directon.

It's a little paranoid thinking that registering details with immobilise means you'd be targetted by thieves. Very, very few bikes would be worth enough to target - most are stolen by scruffy chancers after their next fix.

Thanks, PC Frank!

djetelina

Not to knock immobilise, they certainly have the right idea. But why not use a proactive free public registry that is bike specific, like http://www.BikeRegistry.com ?

adrianportlock

Hi the reason Immobilise is in my opinion a more usefull service than the other bike registration schemes is that it is the only one connected directly to the Police's own systems and does not rely on them contacting a third party over the phone at 2pm in the morning. This is because data on Immobilise is viewable on the Police NMPR system and will shortly also be on the PNC (Police National Computer)- money has been made available by the Home Office to make this happen. This means that Police can do checks over their comms systems and from in car terminals and soon handheld PDA's as well.
As a result the number of checks a month runs into tens of thousands much more than any other service of this kind, hence the chances of you getting your bike or other registered kit back are greater as is the opportunity for the Police to catch the thief. And finally its free of charge, i am not aware of any other service of this kind that is free. How do I know this because I am the MD of the company that run Immobilise.

mikeyboy12345

Thanks Adrian! Without your post bumping this thread up I'd probably have missed it! I wasn't even aware of Immobilise, and I'm pretty sure that none of my family and friends were either. My bike and telly are now registered

bigflangesmallsprocket

i'm not aware whether the police have a national database of stolen bikes (probably not I'd guess, but as this appears to be a new item of some value...), but you may be interested in checking this out pc frank, if you're still hanging around the site.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270455328385&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I'm VERY suspicious especially due to the other items for sale and sellers comments overall. I've also reported this to Ebay but the item remains on sale. Judging by the number of questions he's received I'm guessing he's also being baited by other suspicious cyclists so this seller is worth looking at I reckon.