[NSR]Getting your stolen stuff back

[agrogod]

Found this on Yahoo thought I'd share it seeing how many of you have had your scoots stolen. Original story link.
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/co ... 56345.html


Colorado Woman Spots Stolen Bike on Craigslist, Steals it Back
By Christina Ng | ABC News Blogs – 12 hours ago
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A Colorado woman took matters into her own hands when her bike was stolen from outside of a Boulder sports bar. She tracked down her stolen bike on Craigslist, pretended to be an interested buyer and stole back her own bike.
Kathryn Lucas, 25, parked her bike outside of a bar where she went to watch a University of Colorado football game on the night of Oct. 4, according to ABC News’ Denver affiliate KMGH.
When she left the bar to head home, she discovered that her black Trek 1.2 road bike was missing. After filing a police report, she and her roommate began searching Craigslist to see if the thief was trying to sell the bike.
Sure enough, Lucas found a posting with a photo of her bike. She immediately recognized her bike’s red handle-bar tape and her water bottle holder.
Lucas responded to the Craigslist ad, pretending to be an interested buyer. Minutes later, a person using the name “Lance Robinson” responded with his phone number and instructed her to text him so he could send her his address.
On Sunday, Lucas went to the man’s apartment complex and asked if she could test ride the bike.
“I started riding it and knew it was my bike, so I just kept riding it,” Lucas told KMGH. “I rode it to my car and then threw it it in my car and then drove away.”
Lucas said she had not been planning on getting the bike back that way, but took advantage of an opportunity and made a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“They were a lot bigger than I thought they were,” Lucas said. “I thought it’d be like a little person that stole bikes and I’d be like, ‘Hey, I called the police and that’s my bike and you’re trying to sell it to me,’ but I just took it for a ride and went with it.”
After she had recovered her bike, Lucas called the police and gave them the thief’s address. “Lance Robinson” turned out to be 18-year-old Denzel O’Neal Crawford, who did not have a prior police record.
Crawford was arrested, confessed to stealing the bike and was released on bond. Police also told Lucas that, though her recovery mission was successful, it was not a tactic they recommend, according to KMGH.
“They told me for future reference that I probably would not want to do that by myself,” Lucas said.

[SuperFlyBuddy]

Good story. I'm surprised the police actually followed up and arrested the guy. Typically in a situation like that the police don't advocate attempting to recover your property on your own but when you do "do the right thing" and contact authorities after seeing the ad they blow you off and never follow up and the thief wins.

Hopefully "Lance" doesn't have a chip on his shoulder about the whole thing and go after the gal since he has her email address, phone number and full name (from the article).

I always suggest using a separate email account for Craigslist stuff and use a Google voice account when calling or texting. That way it's at least easy to block people who may for whatever reason harass you after the deal.

[Lovelandstella]

Ths is funny!
Colorado Crime: even the good guys do it!
or victims, or whatver.
funny!

[jijifer]

My not-at-all successful stolen bike recovery


I was living in Boulder the summer of 1996 and only had my 1987 Trek 800 as transportation. I lived in a house with lots of dudes and they had lots of bikes in all states of disrepair in the back yard. our backyard was surrounded by a high wooden fence that you can't see through and every night the boys made fun of me for clearing crap out of the way so I could lock my bike to something- always saying they had bikes back there for 5 years with NO problems. There was no gate to the fence.. or the gate was completely blocked by a half-pipe skateboard ramp so it was rendered unusable.

Then one morning, I woke to find every bike that had inflated wheels was GONE. like 6 bikes, including my only means to get to my 2 jobs all across Boulder. i was PISSED!!! at me for listening to those boys! I took I told one boy I was taking his 1982 Subaru Brat - the one without a muffler- to work. i was cursing the world as i drove down 30th Ave and I see this buttcrack weaving back and forth down the middle of this street. This hulk of a man looking like a bear riding a tricycle. I go to pass this drunk dude to realize he's riding MY bike!! My heart started to race. I thought about running him over. Then I thought i could go to jail if i did so I slowed down and followed behind him. Not stealthily, mind you, as the Brat had no muffler. It took him a block or two to notice then he panicked - he rode as fast as his could to and carried the bike into an apartment just 1 street away! I circled the block to go back and wake up my biggest roommate. He was not interested AT ALL to confront a drunk on my bike. I told him he was just there to LOOK tough. When we got back to the building the dude and my were gone!

I never saw my bike again. Boulder Police of 1996 didn't do JACK to recover my bike. Bike thefts are INSANE in Boulder. Most are stolen by stupid kids who try to sell them on craigslist IN Boulder. they get stripped of all identifying marks, some repainted and end up in Denver. Boulder even had this ill-fated "community bike" program. Bright green bikes that were just for anyone to use but everyone was suppose to leave them unlocked and a in public space. Well, most ended up being took for someone's exclusive use.

I'm glad she got her bike back. that's truly remarkable in Boulder, CO!

[k1dude]

Awesome story!

My girlfriend in college had her bike stolen. We were walking through campus and saw this huge hulking guy (obviously not a student) on her tiny bike cruising through campus and she yelled that's my bike! So I jumped out in front of him and made him stop. I was pissed and ready to rumble. But the guy immediately said I'll give it back for $20, my girlfriend knew me too well and before I could tell him go to hell, she screamed yes! She had a $20 out so fast I hadn't blinked yet. I started to grab the 20 and she shoved me aside and planted it in his hand and he booked. It all happened so fast my head was spinning. But she knew I was going to fight and didn't want to see me get killed by this huge ahole (I could've taken him ).

I'm still pissed to this day that she had to pay $20 to get her own bike back from a thief.

[huskerchic]

We had our buddy stolen from our carport 2 years ago and the cops did nothing to help. One day we noticed a buddy that pulled into a nearby gas station and low and behold it was our buddy. We didn't even think to steal it back until after he left. About 2 weeks later the same guy was riding it in our neighborhood and my partner followed him and called me. She waited for the cops and when the guy left I followed him for about 5 miles and we were able to recover it! The cops were ready to bring us into the department because of our tenacity in finding our scoot.

We took it to our local shop to be fixed and I guess the bike didn't want us to keep it in our possession as it was stolen from the scooter lot the day before we went to pick it up. Lol. We got a blackjack to replace it and all is well.

[jaylee718]

I had my bike stolen out of my garage a few years ago. That same night I went out looking for it in the neighborhood and found it 2 blocks away locked up to a street sign. I went back home, found my lock and locked up my stolen bike to the same street sign. Walked by the next morning and the thief's lock was gone and I stole my bike back!