Originally Posted by
Bald Paul
That is true, IF:
You have recorded your serial number
You have registered your serial number with something like 529 Garage
Your bike is actually recovered
The local law enforcement knows enough (or will actually care enough) to check the registration to determine who the real owner is.
That's a lot of ifs.
Actually, if you've recorded your serial number and filed a stolen bicycle report with the police, AND given that police officer the serial number, they can enter the bike into NCIC which is the National Crime Information Center computers. If any other agency across the country recovers your bike and runs the serial number, it will come back stolen and they'll be able to contact the agency who filed the stolen report to let them know it's been recovered. Then they contact you and let you know that your stolen bike has been found.
That is, if the bike is found, which hopefully it will still be in one piece and not stripped of all usable components and the frame dumped in a ditch somewhere.
But it's still a good idea to register your bike in an online registry as well. I use bikeindex.org.