Go buy something at Iron Cycles, or just give the people there a hug.

Just off the phone with the victim:

http://chicago.stolenbike.org/node/190060

Anytime a stolen bike makes it back to its true owner it warms the cockles of my heart, but this case is especially special as Jake is the son of my best friend's friend and her kids' regular playmate before they moved away-- first met him when he was maybe 5 or 6; he's also part of Chicago cycling's 'first family' (i.e. resident and product of Randy Nuefeld's hippy coop-commune home-schooling mafia.)

Hip hip hooray for Iron Cycles.

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Permalink Reply by heather s on September 13, 2010 at 5:12am

James, you can confidently size up a person who is selling a nice bike for $120, in an alley, as a bike thief. If I were you, I wouldn't spend a ton of time worrying about whether some old parts someone is selling at a garage sale were stolen or not.

James Baum said:

Can you just size someone up and tell by looking at him (or her) and the stuff he's got for sale and spot a thief?

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 13, 2010 at 5:19am

So you are saying legitimate sellers don't work out of an alley and sell whole bikes (or sometimes most of the bike missing the front wheel) for 20% of retail?

LOL

Sometimes Craigslist sales seem pretty fishy too. I used to think my dad didn't have a clue what he was talking about when I was a kid but when I grew up I realized he wasn't so dumb. He always said when something was too good to be true it probably wasn't...

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Permalink Reply by Chucko on September 13, 2010 at 5:37am

Awesome! My local shop too, just down the street from my home.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Saner on September 24, 2010 at 9:05am

Thanks again to Howard (Stolen Bike Registry) and Brandon (Iron Cycles). May your tires never go flat.

Im Jake’s (victim’s) dad. Jake is out of town right now in college so Ill try to speak for him. This system works. This system works because it is designed and supported by people who know bicycles.

On the day of the theft, the police were very helpful and spent hours with us on the investigation, getting a good set of fingerprints and detailing a report with us. I believe they are still working on finding the thief and I have more faith in them than I used to. Thanks to them as well.

Police reports rely heavily on the serial number of the bike. This bike was a gift to Jake so he didn't have a receipt and admittedly we failed to properly document the serial number (which all the rest of you SHOULD NOT DO). But the fact that the serial number was immediately removed by the thief begs the question of how good the police system is. After the bike was recovered by Iron Cycles and the Stolen Bike Registry, I was able to prove to the police that the bike was Jake’s by producing the pinhead locking hub key and removing the wheel that had the flat tire that brought the bike into Iron Cycles in the first place. If the police had recovered the bike by their own resources it may have been harder for them to connect the bike with Jake since their locator criteria are the serial numbers which thieves remove.

The police report was important in the recovery of the bike, but in and of itself may not have been successful. This is why an alternative bicycle centered system is so crucial to supplement the police work. Howard at the stolen bike registry took a detailed description of the bike, accepted photographs and disseminated the information through the bicycle community. Brandon at Iron Cycles had the presence of mind to size up the person who brought the bike in and then cared enough to take time away from a busy morning at the bike shop to look on the registry, call the police and suffer through that ordeal in his place of business.

So, what we’ve learned out of all this is:
Document the unique identifying features of your bicycle in addition to your serial number. Take photos of it.
Depend on your local alternative systems to assist with the police work..The Chicago Stolen Bike Registry is an effecitve system. I’ve heard of a number of other successful bike recoveries through similar grass roots systems.
Support your local bike shops, like Iron Cycles. The more neighborhood centered we get the more power we have.

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Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on May 30, 2011 at 3:26am

Great story. Weird thing about the locking skewers is that a leather punch will take em off.

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Permalink Reply by Eric on June 25, 2011 at 7:19am

What is a leather punch?

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Permalink Reply by S on June 25, 2011 at 9:05am

It's a tool to make clean holes in leather. You can get them in a few different form factors from something that looks like pliers to a chisel type thing that you hit with a hammer to drive it through leather.

Eric said: