When someone offers to return your stolen bike
 

Background: Kid lives 700 miles away. Someone broke into a storage shed and stole a couple of bikes a few days ago. This was his backup/commute bike, $1K new in 2015. Was thinking about selling it and upgrading, but does not have a lot of surplus income, so the bike is worth a fair amount to him. He posted the vitals on BikeIndex and spread the word yesterday. Late in the night, he gets a text from someone saying they purchased his bike from offerup or something like that, offering to return it. No mention of money or identity. Apparently he purchased it from a van full of bikes, so I doubt this person was simultaneously naive enough to do that innocently but then also would get the news from BikeIndex.

What is the best way to proceed? Currently he has notified the police and arranged to meet in a well-lit grocery store parking lot along with several capable friends and a cop on "standby" (whatever that means).

As you can probably tell, I am quite skeptical, but the guy (reluctantly) sent a photo and has the bike.

If it was stolen, I'd let the police handle it entirely and just find out what my homeowners insurance or any other possible insurance I have might pay on the bike and not worry about getting the stolen bike back.

A beater bike isn't worth the potential issues that taking ones own thugs to a meeting with the unknown person claiming to be a good Samaritan might devolve into.

i would definitely call the police

He has.

My concern is it only happened a few days ago and someone has already bought the bike and afterward checks to see if it was stolen.

Just meet at the police station parking lot if he really wants to do it himself.

John

A real life Robin Hood, surely

or a real-life extortionist ... sorry I'm jaded

:popcorn

I think the likelihood that this is legit is basically zero.

My guess is this guy either is, or works with, the original burglar/bike thief. At best, it is someone who purchased stolen goods and then got nervous.

I told him to get more input from the police.

My personal preference would be to suggest the person who now has the bike deliver it to the police station where my kid filed the police report. If he gets the bike back intact, he can then follow up with a small reward (or not). But buying back your own property in a parking lot simply rewards a thief.

I suspect the thief wants to unload it because BikeIndex has now made it harder to (re)sell or pawn.

The one thing I don't understand is why the thief (or accomplice) wouldn't simply ditch the bike. Why risk contacting the owner (unless this is a lead-up to a mugging or something)? The bike simply isn't worth much, compared to the multitude of high-end bikes a thief would likely encounter.

I read it as sarcasm. (I'm probably far more jaded.)

We can suppose all sorts of stuff.

PWB (person with the bike) apparently has possession of it and is interested in some sort of transaction to get it back to the original owner.

Yes, it's possible PWB is associated with the theft and is seeking to get some cash out of owner. Or maybe PWB did naively buy it from the thief, showed it to a buddy (or parent) and they suggested something was fishy. Or perhaps PWB bought it figuring it was stolen and then looked for the owner to get a reward higher than what he bought it for.

All sorts of options - all of which are essentially immaterial to the decision at hand.

Safest course of action is to coordinate with the police and tell PWB to turn it at at xyz police station. Owner needn't be present.

That should give an indication of whether PWB is legitimately trying to do the right thing.

I would just assume the person with the bike had something to do with it getting gone. It might not be true, but that's my thinking. Not much to do about it but get it back as cheap as possible

I takes nerve to contact and then try to "sell" the bike back to the person you stole it from. So I'm leaning towards the "person with bike" being legit and trying to get the bike back to the original owner. And if I were them, I'd want to sell it back to the owner for at least as much as I paid the thief for it. The law (about not being in possession of stolen goods and losing what you paid for those stolen items) is the reason nobody ever calls the cops when they think they bought stolen goods. The buyer of the stolen goods is the only one who gets screwed, when they are trying to do the right thing.

Well, in fairness (or being smart), he hasn't mentioned money one way or the other, and apparently has agreed to drop it off at the police station. If he does all that, I am inclined to suggest a modest reward/compensation.

I think the setup for a "mugging" angle is very unlikely. If you are going to mug someone, then stealing their bicycle and pretending to return it seems like an unnecessary step in the process.
Attempting to sell it back to the original owner sounds more likely.
Be very interesting to see if it does get dropped off at the police station. My guess is that the "good Samaritan" might vanish into thin air shortly if it looks like there is no money in it for him.

ppl often believe that about me while I am being sincere

now that is promising news

now I'm wondering, will he turn in the thief

in the mid-late '80s & later, I would not rarely be approached by men in vans w/ stereo equipment to sell (I never bought)

also sometimes, not rarely, while traveling interstate in my auto, over the years, I have heard ppl on the side, broadcasting the location where one could buy CB radio equipment cheap. as-in: "such & such rest area" (I never bought or even investigated)

but I have met ppl in parking lots to legitimately buy used bikes from the owner/rider

I was thinking more in terms of the return going bad and something involving a spontaneous confrontation, which is best avoided.

The one piece that doesn’t add up really well is the money the person with the bike paid for the stolen bike.

Even if it was $75 to $100, that is still enough to make me pretty ticked off.

It just seems like there is a back story to this.

John

forget the police, the guy wants to return the bike, don't punish a good guy,
get the bike back and forget. be glad you got it back, because it is a rare occurance.(sp)
attitude of gratitude. glass half full. don't make enemies.
walk down the street without looking over your shoulder.

Im confused, what is the worry? Buy the bike back. It's kind of like "extortion" but it's better than not having a bike.. is the worry that he will jump the kid for money or something?

Make sure the kid has no credit cards and no more that $10 in his wallet if he does go to meet the PWB.

The guy agreed to drop it off at the police department. If he does, he gets a reward.