Originally Posted by
wgscott
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.
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.