And if you're selling a stolen frame why the heck wouldn't you take the time to cut the cable lock off first?

Most likely explanation would be that the person that owned the bike died, along with the key or combination.

You really think that no bike thieves ever sell stolen bikes on Craigslist?

Not the ones who live in $250,000 houses, with several MB's in the driveway.

For bicycles, you can use https://bikeindex.org/. I registered my bikes there.

I wouldn't say he jumped to conclusions, but made a logical conclusion. It doesn't take much for people who are familiar with sketchy behavior to put 2 and 2 together.

Because I'm not a stupid addict who stole it out of someone's garage with the lock on and didn't know how to cut a cable lock? Way too much assumption that criminals are actually smart. I defend them for a living, and I'm also sure you've seen enough to know they're often anything but smart.

Context is everything there. Huge differences between an estate sale and some guy with a classified ad. Also, this is just a frame attached with a lock, which is a bit weirder.
And just out of curiosity, was it an estate sale of a known meth user?

I worked as a police dispatcher for 15 years. I've seen my fair share of stupid criminals. One of my favorite examples was the boyfriend-girlfriend team who went to some small car lot to test drive a used car, drove to Walmart to have the key copied, then drove it back to the car lot. That night they took their copied key to the car lot, stole the car, and then parked it in their driveway to load it up with their stuff to drive to California. In doing so, they accidentally locked their key in the trunk. They still made it to California but were arrested and extradited for the car theft.

Suggest you brush up on the reading comprehension. He never concluded anything but that's there's a high enough probability that it's stolen that he shouldn't buy it. That's entirely rational. I part ways with him when he suggests buying and getting it checked out by the police. That isn't rational, but not for the reason you give.

From what I know of meth users, this gets pretty close to a "more likely than not" standard for me.

Also, unless you're completely compulsive hoarder or some kind of resale merchant, a presumption against buying any particular used good is your default. Do you seriously go to garage sales and buy everything that doesn't look stolen? My suspicions about this item would just be a thumb on a scale that generally defaults to "not worth my time." It's actually the opposite of exhausting, it's time saving.

And I find it very weird that someone took everything off of this frame but the lock with the intention of selling the frame. There could be an innocent explanation, but I'm not betting on it if I don't know the seller or have other indicia of reliability.

Don't forget the bank robber who wrote the note on a deposit slip from his own checkbook!

I used to live in Manchester NH, and there was a pawn shop that was very well known to be a fencing operation. It took the cops years to build the case that they just weren't sloppy with the paperwork and were actually intentionally dealing in stolen goods. If you think it's difficult to get away with on Craigslist, I've got a few bridges to sell you.

Sure, people sell all sorts of things on Craigslist that are not on the up-and-up. That's the exception and most things sold on Craigslist are NOT stolen. The assumption that this bike is stolen is based only on the fact that the guy is a drug user - that's it. No actual reason. It's like assuming that a used car you're looking at was probably used to commit crimes, just because you find out the guy selling it has a criminal background.

It doesn't sound like it's a lot of money to risk, on the one-in-a-million chance that the police show up at your door and confiscate the bike as evidence. That could happen with anything.

Oh my gosh, he concluded that since a guy has a drug arrest record and a lock is on the frame, its most likely stolen.
I think such a conclusion is a big jump, since nothing more was specifically known about the seller, so I posted a well known pop culture joke referring to that conclusion I think he jumped to.

I get it, you don't feel like it was a big jump to make. Ok then, cool. You have made your points well known, yet I still think the meme was very applicable.

Here is a well known gif that is now quite applicable-
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...585fe11173.gif

Gee. Wonder what happened to the OP after browsing the classifieds as he always does.

I'm going to be charitable and assume you realize the irony of posting THAT meme after you post the exact same points for the third time.

I suppose an intact lock on a bike pic wouldn't set off any alarms for me. Spray paint definitely does though. I've seen this one on my local FB listings lately... If it was the original owner doing it to make it less of a target I think they would have done it a bit neater back in the day.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6307da8dfc.jpg

I have questions:

1. This is a Bianchi frame being sold, not a complete bike... "a nice older model that looks to be in good shape". I'm curious as to what model, what year, and what the listing indicated and/or how the OP was able to identify the make and model of the frame.

2. There is a cable lock attached to the frame, which everyone including the OP is pointing to as evidence that it's stolen. Was the complete bike stolen without cutting said lock? If the bike was a complete bike when stolen, are we to believe that the thief had the tools and knowledge to completely strip down the bike to the bare frameset but didn't bother to cut off a cable lock? Or are we to believe that the frameset was already stripped down, but also locked up? Surely someone who steals bikes knows how to cut a cable lock, right? It takes about 3 seconds with some bolt cutters.

3. What are the "local classifieds" where this bike frame was spotted? I would like to see photos, read the description, know the asking price, and most importantly understand how the thread starter was able to identify the seller and look at their "other items" that they're selling, and see what was so alarming about the profile pic that resulted in searching court records. I've never seen a classified listing that includes a sellers full name and a photo of them. It's worth noting that Craigslist does not disclose the identity of sellers in listings, and the thief in this story has presumably chosen to sidestep craigslist in favor of "local classifieds" that requires lots of identifying information and a profile pic.

4. The OP is considering buying the frame (to take to the police!), but is worried that a meth addict will then know where they live. I'm very confused about this part because why would someone spend their own money on something they know is stolen only to turn it over to the police, and also they could just call the police now and never have to talk to the seller. It's also notable that purchasing items through a classified listing does not require someone to disclose their name or address. I've bought and sold many items on the internet and never disclosed this information to anyone

^^^^We may all have fed the you know what on this one. I suggest OP post a screen shot of the ad before folks spend any more time here.:twitchy:

Same here. In other instances not including bicycles, I've gotten the usual speech about having no witnesses, no victim, and that's what insurance is for.

I like the way you think ......

If you decide to buy it, make the exchange in the police station parking lot. Our police encourage that. It is under video surveillance. He won’t know where you live. And if he won’t agree to it, something is wrong.

Stolen bike or not, I'm excited to see how many cyclists know so many 'statistics' about drug addiction. Would love to see a post from someone listing their CV in research on drug dependency.


Or, perhaps, just simply stop talking out their rear ends.

Why would someone need certified research experience just to list some stats that are readily available in Google searches?

It seems the same as most anything else that is studied and published- stats are available for simple reference.

What a shameful thing to say.