Police looking for owners of solen bikes.
- Thread starter Rohloff_Brompton_Rider
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Banjo
Fuelled with Jelly Babies
- Location
- South Wales
I spoke to a policeman in our area .He said its frustrating the number of bikes they recover that havent been reported as nicked and never get reclaimed by the owners. Not sure what happens to the bikes then?
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
Some stolen recovered bikes go to bike recycling schemes, of which there are a few dotted around the country.
The schemes - usually run as a charity or by the local authority - resell the bikes which are saleable and dismantle the others for spares.
The schemes - usually run as a charity or by the local authority - resell the bikes which are saleable and dismantle the others for spares.
brucers
Guru
- Location
- Scunthorpe
Unclaimed bikes rather suggests people don't expect to ever see them again when they get stolen.
Part of that is the Polices fault (really), when they get a stolen bike report they go into a regional database... So if your bikes stolen in Leicester, and you report it with all the details inc frame number... and then an officer finds it in London they won't put 2 and 2 together and the bike will be left unclaimed until it's sold on.
At least this is what an officer on here told me via PM
I'm putting together a website to solve this problem that should be available in a week or two.
At least this is what an officer on here told me via PM
I'm putting together a website to solve this problem that should be available in a week or two.
AKA Bob
Riding a folding bike far too much of the time...
- Location
- Reading upon Thames
The police do check national databases. In London they use BikeRegister which is used by most police forces in the UK. So regardless of where the bike is stolen it can be restored to rightful owner!
Its really down to owners of bikes to record their frame number and register those online if they want their bike returned if stolen?
BikeRegister offers a free registration service using your frame number which can be found here www.bikeregister.com/shop/bikeregister/bike-registration
Its really down to owners of bikes to record their frame number and register those online if they want their bike returned if stolen?
BikeRegister offers a free registration service using your frame number which can be found here www.bikeregister.com/shop/bikeregister/bike-registration
Those databases are fragmented at best.... i.e one force will use immobilise, the other Bike Shepherd and the next force along Bike Register. Nor are they in anyway directly related to police reports (as much as they try to paint it like that).
If you file a police report as a victim of bike theft, I think it would be reasonable to expect all the police forces to be able to check/search for that police report. Not for you then to have to go and report it on three more websites.
If you file a police report as a victim of bike theft, I think it would be reasonable to expect all the police forces to be able to check/search for that police report. Not for you then to have to go and report it on three more websites.
The problem is a lack of info. from the victim. How many people on here, honestly, can say that they have made a note of their frame number and have photographed their bike. I would suggest those of us with expensive bikes will have done, but the majority of bikes we recover are the cheaper end worth between £10 and £200. When we ask them to describe the bike and give specific details that will distinguish it from another bike of exactly the same make and model, they struggle. Some can't even tell you what the make & model is. It takes two minutes to find and log the frame number. This makes it nigh on impossible to then get recovered bikes back to their rightful owners. As someone has already said, some people don't even bother reporting them stolen. I'm sat looking at one in the nick right now that we can't find an owner for, because as yet it would appear that they haven't reported it.
The problem is that the bikes aren't published in a meaning full way, I just got a FOI back from my local police force and they have loads of bikes waiting for recovery but have done bugger all to publicize them... and what if a thief took it across a forces border? Then you've got a bike reported stolen with all the information in one place and your sitting on the bike in the next force over.
What you need is a website that lists the stolen bikes most people will know what there bike looks like, then they can submit a claim where you can then verify ownership through unique markings, frame number and other details.
I just happened to have coded that website http://recoveredthatbike.co.uk but police forces don't seem interested at all despite the fact that my tools share information and get close to 100,000 unique visitors a month. To this end I've been populating myself but don't have the resources to search the web every single day looking for the odd press release.
The police also do the same for bike marking events, why do you expect someone to jump up and have there bike marked when you usually only announce the event half hour before it starts... Again I've produced a site that covers just this (http://registerthatbike.co.uk) but again the police have no interest and I'm left to publish the information myself.
What you need is a website that lists the stolen bikes most people will know what there bike looks like, then they can submit a claim where you can then verify ownership through unique markings, frame number and other details.
I just happened to have coded that website http://recoveredthatbike.co.uk but police forces don't seem interested at all despite the fact that my tools share information and get close to 100,000 unique visitors a month. To this end I've been populating myself but don't have the resources to search the web every single day looking for the odd press release.
The police also do the same for bike marking events, why do you expect someone to jump up and have there bike marked when you usually only announce the event half hour before it starts... Again I've produced a site that covers just this (http://registerthatbike.co.uk) but again the police have no interest and I'm left to publish the information myself.
Futhermore the reliance on commercial databases is shortsighted at best, we've seen what happens when the information provider gets a decent market share they start charging people to check if the goods they are buying are stolen how stupid is that (see Immobilise and CheckMend)?
Toronto Police Force have there own database which can be searched using an online form probably costs them at most a tenner to run, but I'm betting it results in alot of recovered bikes
P.S Sorry if this appears to be biting your head off, I am interested in your views and responses even if they differ to my opinions.
Toronto Police Force have there own database which can be searched using an online form probably costs them at most a tenner to run, but I'm betting it results in alot of recovered bikes
P.S Sorry if this appears to be biting your head off, I am interested in your views and responses even if they differ to my opinions.
I agree with most of what you are saying, and this leads to the greater argument for a national Police Service rather than the regional system that has been operating since the Police service began. Unfortunately, as with all things, it comes down to budgets, time and the willingness of individual forces to dedicate personnel to such schemes.
I think you may have missed my point about victims not having enough information to hand when reporting a theft. If they don't have the information (such as frame number) then how is it possible for them to say 'yes that's my bike', unless it has other defining characteristics, such as marks, additions and unique, non standard parts fitted, all of which must have been provided at the time of making the report. If someone has, for example, their red Specialized Allez stolen and they report this as 'a Red Specialized Allez and someone else reports a similar, red Specialized Allez, stolen, then how do we know who is the rightful owner of any red specialized Allez's that we may recover in the future.
I think your attempts are great and it's a shame you can't get the Police as a whole to take it on board and assist.
What I do find difficult to accept is how hard it would be for the bike retailers to record frame numbers of all bikes they sell with the details of who they sold it to. I say this because I contacted Halfords with regard to the bike we had recovered to see if they kept records of who they had sold it to. I was told that they didn't do that. Why I don't know. It would take very little effort on their part to do this and it would assist greatly in returning bikes to their rightful owners.
I think you may have missed my point about victims not having enough information to hand when reporting a theft. If they don't have the information (such as frame number) then how is it possible for them to say 'yes that's my bike', unless it has other defining characteristics, such as marks, additions and unique, non standard parts fitted, all of which must have been provided at the time of making the report. If someone has, for example, their red Specialized Allez stolen and they report this as 'a Red Specialized Allez and someone else reports a similar, red Specialized Allez, stolen, then how do we know who is the rightful owner of any red specialized Allez's that we may recover in the future.
I think your attempts are great and it's a shame you can't get the Police as a whole to take it on board and assist.
What I do find difficult to accept is how hard it would be for the bike retailers to record frame numbers of all bikes they sell with the details of who they sold it to. I say this because I contacted Halfords with regard to the bike we had recovered to see if they kept records of who they had sold it to. I was told that they didn't do that. Why I don't know. It would take very little effort on their part to do this and it would assist greatly in returning bikes to their rightful owners.
