Well (and this is where I can see all the police members nodding sagely) now I see why the police couldn't really be bothered
What I provided the police with was, in addition to the details of the stolen bike, a verified
eBay seller history - as a "private seller" listing and selling a volume of brand new cycling accessories, aside from the bicycles from us, 98% of the listings and documented sales were individual lots and all in
Halfords inventory. And a not insignificant amount either. Everything was single units, i.e. not a genuine dealer except for small things where stealing a box full of bits would be fairly easy
In addition to this bike, there was a live listing of one of two bikes which were stolen previously (but to my annoyance not reported to police by the store manager, who will now be reporting things like this as he should!!)
Information was cross-referenced to people owning accounts, to the extent that one of the police officers viewing the facebook profile linking a person to a listing address via relationship status, commented that the cat in a facebook picture was "definitely the cat I saw thins morning" when they recovered the main bike.
Anyway, it all pointed to a very regular turnover of stolen sporting and motoring goods and a possible contact inside Halfords as a number of the listed/sold items were high value items secured in cabinets not accessible to the general public. Which is possibly where another name not recognised by me ended up in court..
All that and..
80 hours community service. Painting and decorating work for a builder! Ooooh, that'll show him
£85 victim surcharge and £85 court costs
Still, the bike was recovered and the attempts to steal bicycles seem to have ceased, for now at least
