Bike stolen under suspicious circumstances

jimbo480

So i posted here a few days ago about my stolen trek raod bike but there is one thing about the break in that is really bugging me. About 10 days ago I ordered a new mtb online from halfords, a voodoo with a pretty nice spec,which was quoted for delivery on or before the 27th. I had told noone about the new bike and delivery except my family so there is no way that anyone could have known i ordered it, fortunately the delivery was delayed untill the 29th!

So on the night of the 27th my garage gets broken into for the first time ever (we've been here for 15 years). It was clearly a very tidy and professional job, they even closed the drawers after nicking stuff from out of them. They must have had a van as they not only got my road bike but a load of tools. There were 4 other bikes in the garage but they only took mine so must have known what was valuable.

Either this was just a massive coincidence or someone had a tip off that a brand new bike was going to be in there. Needless to say the new bike is being kept very safe indeed....

Has anyone else heared about anything similar to this? I cant really believe bike theives are organised enough to get tip offs from dodgy mates who work at bike shops!

andy83

I feel your pain, especially how i love my 1.2 but did have a bike stolen that i built up myself. I think i got too chatty with the person in the shop about my bike and stuff (although you thought a bike shop is somewhere to ramble on)

I ordered a bike on the friday and on the saturday night my bike got stolen. really not a coincidence especially as the person got sacked an noone wants to talk about it, fair to say he was kind of dodgy come to think of it

Buckled_Rims

There's always a trail of evidence for purchases. Are you sure no one hacked into your computer (or key logged your computer), email account or rifled your wheelie bin. Even a scribble on a postit saying "Madone ...£2500...blah....27th del...." scrumpled up and thrown out gives the game away!

Let's face it, of the 8 houses in my street I must be the only one to shred letters and invoices - 99% of the time. Every receipt and bill is put into a box and left until it's not needed or in the case of shop receipts goes into a safe.

So, whats the chance that a secure ordering system is going to have a bloke who is in a position just happens to have a mate who lives in your area to nick the bike? Hundreds of posters on here buy Boardmans from Halfords online.

Look to the simple mistakes first.

benno68

What a nightmare!

Unfortunately, this is not uncommon and happened to a friend of mine. The to$$ers expect most people to have insurance, leave it a couple of weeks for the new bike to come through and have another go.

I reckon they were probably just chancing their arm.

Maybe a shed alarm is the way to go backed up with a German Shepherd and a baseball bat!

Buckled_Rims

Benno68 wrote:

What a nightmare!

Unfortunately, this is not uncommon and happened to a friend of mine. The to$$ers expect most people to have insurance, leave it a couple of weeks for the new bike to come through and have another go.

I reckon they were probably just chancing their arm.

Maybe a shed alarm is the way to go backed up with a German Shepherd and a baseball bat!

In what way?

I'd imagine most big retailers would soon pick up on this type of theft. They have their own identification and tracing routines.

I still say the most obvious is either leaving evidence in a wheelie bin or someone seeing a UPS van and a big box being taken to a house labeled " expensive Bike".

Wheelspinner

Benno68 wrote:

What a nightmare!

Unfortunately, this is not uncommon and happened to a friend of mine. The to$$ers expect most people to have insurance, leave it a couple of weeks for the new bike to come through and have another go.

Similar experience for me, had some power tools nicked a while back. Police reckoned to be extra careful for the following few months for EXACTLY this reason - insurance payout, new tools replacing the stolen one, crims know where some nice shiny new stuff is...

Buckled_Rims wrote:

I'd imagine most big retailers would soon pick up on this type of theft. They have their own identification and tracing routines.

I still say the most obvious is either leaving evidence in a wheelie bin or someone seeing a UPS van and a big box being taken to a house labeled " expensive Bike".

The big box outside is a dead giveaway, granted, but I doubt "most big retailers" have any clue who is looking at info in their system.

Case in point: I am a software consultant, freelance, and work for lots of major corporates. In 15 seconds, I can run a blind dump of data about who bought what, and while the "system" will record a transaction code for table read, it does not log what data was read, and whether I then wrote that data out to a local file for other purposes. So, thinking your average retail shop, big or small, is keeping an eye on this is just plain ludicrous. In your average B&E the chances of the connection being made back to the original retail shop are slim indeed, unless you can rule out the alternatives. In my case, the theft was almost certainly due to someone in the shop passing on information about who had bought waht to someone. Police told me there were three other thefts in the area of similar equipment, and the common denominator was we'd all bought stuff rom one particular shop. They just couldn't prove it was someone there.

benno68

Buckled_Rims wrote:

Benno68 wrote:

What a nightmare!

Unfortunately, this is not uncommon and happened to a friend of mine. The to$$ers expect most people to have insurance, leave it a couple of weeks for the new bike to come through and have another go.

I reckon they were probably just chancing their arm.

Maybe a shed alarm is the way to go backed up with a German Shepherd and a baseball bat!

In what way?

I'd imagine most big retailers would soon pick up on this type of theft. They have their own identification and tracing routines.

I still say the most obvious is either leaving evidence in a wheelie bin or someone seeing a UPS van and a big box being taken to a house labeled " expensive Bike".

You've got a point. However it is fairly common knowledge that thieves sometimes return to steel the replacement, as another OP has said the police are well aware of this scenario.

I can't see that retailers will be interested in criminal activity unless the police approach them to help with enquiries. The more bikes that get pinched the more they are likely to sell.

A decent security light and shed alarm may put them off.