Originally Posted by
xrayzebra
I have read more carefully now, and you're absolutely right. You did not say "buying a bike on CL supports bike theft."
You said "you run the risk of supporting bicycle theft."
I see the difference there, and I apologize profusely for inadvertently suggesting that supporting bike theft and running the risk of supporting bike theft were in anyway equivalent.
And, I''m really, truly sorry about your bike getting stolen. All joking aside, truly... that is awful. Did you post that info here at the time so others could watch for it? I would have checked my local CL for you to try to help if I had seen it. If it was recent, please let us know.
Your advice on checking serial numbers is valuable, spot on, solid advice. Now that you've added that, this is a good and important post, thank you. If I was buying an expensive bike made in the last few years, I would insist on having the serial number so I could check it before meeting the seller.
I've had bikes stolen over the years as well, but it was before CL was even invented, before the interweb was invented even. CL had nothing to do with it. Only stupid criminals put evidence of their crime online. People get busted pretty often for stuff they post on Facebook, and CL is watched more closely than FB for criminal activity.
I tend to buy 50 year old bikes most of the time. The real robbery is having to pay $100 or $200 for a bike that was $35 new, but I admit to being complicit in that crime.
Okay, no hard feelings. Let's just forget about it.
And don't worry about the bike. It happened a couple of years ago, and it's not the only bike I've ever had stolen from me anyway. It was definitely one of my favorites though, but the wound from it is no longer fresh, and I've since replaced the bike with a much nicer one. At the time, I was living in an area where crime was higher and the homeless population had seen a significant increase in a short amount of time, which was almost certainly a large contributing factor. With an increase in homeless, it's probably a good bet that the local drug problem will also spike. I think it was only a matter of time before one of my bikes got pinched.
Because of the area I was in, I was extremely paranoid about having my bikes stolen from me, going as far as wheeling my bike into the store with me when I would go shopping (where it was allowed). I would also try to balance the appearance of my bikes between looking cool but less appealing to thieves, especially by removing or covering up as much branding as possible. I suppose it was ultimately a futile exercise, because it only seemed to make people more interested. People would regularly come up to me to make comments or to ask questions about my bikes.
I even bought a folding bike just so to avoid having to leave it locked up outside. I would go into a restaurant or the bank or something, fold the bike up, and carry it inside with me. I got some unusual looks, but more often than not people actually thought the bike was pretty cool and wanted one of their own.
I have since moved to a much calmer, more laid back area. Bike theft seems to be incredibly uncommon here. People just leave their bikes outside all the time and nothing happens to them. Even so, I have had to work hard to break myself of my paranoid habits. Having one of your precious pride and joys stolen really makes it difficult to drop those habits, but I should probably note that I am also one of those people who practically obsesses over my bikes to the point that it's almost like I have a unique relationship with each one of them. Yeah... I'm "special" like that...
Whatever, anyway. Enough of that. My bike is gone. What's done is done. It happened long enough ago that I'm over it, and the bike has been replaced.
It's all good. No worries.