Bikes bought online more likely to be stolen?

andyeb

Had a random thought this morning, off the back of yet another friend having a brand new bike stolen from the garage just days after delivery before Christmas.

Are bikes bought online more likely to get stolen, especially if they are delivered to your home address?

When you buy something online, there are a lot of people who potentially have access to your name, address and the name of the company you bought from; for example, an unknown number of people from the company you bought from, the company which handles their payments and an unknown number of people from the courier company who handle the package in transit.

In particular it's very obvious to couriers themselves when they are delivering a new bike; the sender address and the shape and weight of the box are highly distinctive. In addition, many couriers (especially around Christmas) are sub-contractors or casual staff taken on to handle peak demand, so staff may not be well vetted. There's also a low degree of traceability here, provided any single person does not do too many down-the-pub tip offs.

Now I'm certainly NOT implying all couriers are crooks; most will be perfectly decent people and some will even be fellow cyclists . But there will undoubted be some "bad apples" somewhere in the delivery chain when you buy a bike online.

Pure paranoia on my part? Perhaps - I had a bike stolen this time last year, although not one bought online.

mallorcajeff

Whenever i buy anything high value in a store or anything i always use a different address as ive thought the same. I have been a courier on and off for a few years and i know there was plenty of wronguns in one place i worked they were all on the theive nicking parcels etc so you never know but anyone that stoops that low is possibly not that intelligent either.

andyeb

mallorcajeff wrote:

Whenever i buy anything high value in a store or anything i always use a different address as ive thought the same. I have been a courier on and off for a few years and i know there was plenty of wronguns in one place i worked they were all on the theive nicking parcels etc so you never know but anyone that stoops that low is possibly not that intelligent either.

The threat when you buy something in-store is also certainly there, but I feel the risk is lower, especially if you are buying from a one-off family-run business and local bike shop. There are fewer people who are "in the know", the one's that do have more to loose and therefore traceability and the risks of getting caught are higher.

passout

It may be possible but that doesn't mean that it is so. Whilst it would only take one person, the same could be said of an LBS - plus of course they'd be nearer to you. Either way it seems quite unlikely to me. I would have thought people seeing you coming in & out of your address everytime you go for a ride would be far more significant. Much theifery is opportunisitc.

cougie

Make sure your strava and garmin tracks have the privacy set.

I cant see online shopping is dangerous. Chances are you'd be miles away from the shop anyway.

nicklouse

People who buy online are also more likely to use forums etc.so you are more likely to hear about thefts.

In the MTB side people have been followed home from trail centera and then had their bikes taken a few days later.

And then there are the strata nutters who don't have their routes private or start them at their front door.

Other online tracking devices are available

tangled_metal

I reckon different courier firms have different standards to. Yodel had a bad rep at one time and there was that courier firm who were caught chucking a TV over the fence rather than bother coming back when someone was in.

Royal Mail do have checks on all their personnel who deliver stuff. Their checks on temporary, seasonal staff are not as thorough but they do not get left with mail (or not supposed to) and definitely never go out to deliver. The parcelforce crowd, kind of run slightly separate I think, are not too good. I've heard a lot of worrying stories about them employing Royal Mail rejects. The sorts who were sacked for anything from repeated minor misdemeanors like being late too often all the way to actually getting caught knicking stuff, Add to that the stories about managers upon receiving complaints of missing packages just getting in their cars and driving to the laybys parcelforce drivers take their breaks on to collect those same missing packages. Apparently it is known that some drivers see packages with addresses right at the end of their runs (furthest point from sorting office) and not wanting to go there so they dump them, take an hour rest then drive back for an early dart!! On top of that they drop off smaller parcels into the Royal Mail piles so they don't have to deliver them. These are the tip of the story I've been told (admittedly by a few posties I know - Royal Mail posties and Parcelforce seem to not like each other), can't be sure they are 100% true but reckon some of it has happened and possibly a lot.

tangled_metal

Quick question, do you arrange to include your expensive bikes in your existing house or bike insurance before you get delivery or shortly after receiving your bike?

If you do it before delivery then you are covered if it gets nicked (inconvenience factors aside of course).

diy

If you are ordering from a uk company with the delivery method they make available then you are not actually in receipt of the goods until its been delivered. Therefore if its lost in transit the original contract was not complete and you can get your money back.

There was a case a while back of a well known IT hardware company having its customers computer rooms raided within a day of large shipments, as the criminal had a man on the inside and knew that most large computers have to settle for 24 hours before installation. Typically they were still in the goods in department of the data centre.

In the end the police organised a fake delivery and caught them.