Specialeyes
Guru
- Location
- Essex
Last October, on the way back from l'Eroica in Italy I stopped overnight in Grenoble in the French Alps to go and visit some old haunts. Between midnight arrival at the AirBnB and 8.00am breakfast, some opportunistic scrote managed to nick my bike out of the back of my car, dragging it through the shattered estate boot-side window.
Bang went my day sightseeing in Grenoble, and instead I had a day at the Police Station and DIY stores buying plastic sheeting to allow me to continue my journey. At the next stop, I joined all of the local Facebook cycling groups and posted details of the bike, along with photos and emailed or phoned every bike shop within a 100km radius of Grenoble.
When I got back to the UK, I even sent a reward poster to my AirBnB host which he plastered around the local area offering a no-questions-asked reward - reminding the thief that the bike was completely unique, had no charger for the EPS and had a steel plate welded either side of the top tube with the serial number and a personalised message on it, so could easily be recognised and I was trying to make it as 'hot' as possible. Really, only the wheels, which were off the bike and in their carry bags, were easily shiftable.
I contacted Officina Battaglin too, asking them to keep an eye out and set up alerts on eBay, LeBonCoin.fr, subito.it and Facebook.
Nothing.
I'd given up on seeing it again, and bar the alerts from the various websites every time a pair of Campag wheels or an OB bike were listed, had called off the search.
Then on Sunday, 9 months after it was nicked, I got an email from my man at OB saying he'd found it on another website. In Germany.
I contacted the website, the French Police, and the German Police in the city where the seller said his location was... and put them all in touch with each other. A few emails later, with copies of my police report, photos and the receipt and the bike is now in a police lockup in Germany, waiting for signoff for release by the Department of Justice, so hopefully in a few days I'll have a daytrip to Germany!
Made near Venice, nicked in Grenoble, sold in Marseille, re-sold in northern Germany and hopefully returned to me!
Bang went my day sightseeing in Grenoble, and instead I had a day at the Police Station and DIY stores buying plastic sheeting to allow me to continue my journey. At the next stop, I joined all of the local Facebook cycling groups and posted details of the bike, along with photos and emailed or phoned every bike shop within a 100km radius of Grenoble.
When I got back to the UK, I even sent a reward poster to my AirBnB host which he plastered around the local area offering a no-questions-asked reward - reminding the thief that the bike was completely unique, had no charger for the EPS and had a steel plate welded either side of the top tube with the serial number and a personalised message on it, so could easily be recognised and I was trying to make it as 'hot' as possible. Really, only the wheels, which were off the bike and in their carry bags, were easily shiftable.
I contacted Officina Battaglin too, asking them to keep an eye out and set up alerts on eBay, LeBonCoin.fr, subito.it and Facebook.
Nothing.
I'd given up on seeing it again, and bar the alerts from the various websites every time a pair of Campag wheels or an OB bike were listed, had called off the search.
Then on Sunday, 9 months after it was nicked, I got an email from my man at OB saying he'd found it on another website. In Germany.
I contacted the website, the French Police, and the German Police in the city where the seller said his location was... and put them all in touch with each other. A few emails later, with copies of my police report, photos and the receipt and the bike is now in a police lockup in Germany, waiting for signoff for release by the Department of Justice, so hopefully in a few days I'll have a daytrip to Germany!
Made near Venice, nicked in Grenoble, sold in Marseille, re-sold in northern Germany and hopefully returned to me!
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