4 Bikes Stolen from Basement, incl. Jamis Aurora & Gary Fisher Wingra Hybrid

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Permalink Reply by Lindsay on January 31, 2010 at 4:43pm

Anne - excellent suggestion! You won't believe this...

We found the Gary Fisher at the Swap-o-rama. BUT, unfortunately, we did not get it back. I was the one at the flea market and the GF was not my bike, so I couldn't make a definite ID of the bike without being totally obvious that we were looking for a stolen bike. And my roommate told me that it was a 16" frame. The bike we found was a 15.5" frame, so we thought that it was not hers. But I still called and left 3 messages and told her that a very similar bike with a 15.5" frame was there. She couldn't get out there until Sunday, and they had already sold it. Or else we were too obviously inspecting it and they took it off the lot on Sunday. Who knows. SO I will update this posting with the correct frame size...

Anne Alt said:

Swap-o-rama flea market might be worth a look, too. 41st & Ashland

Lindsay said:

West Town, near the intersection of Chicago & Ashland.

By the way, I do NOT think that this was done by someone with a lot of knowledge of bicycles. If that were the case, they would not have taken the barely ride-able mtn bike in the back...not worth it. But if you're an addict needing a fix...anything goes. So if anyone has insight as to where drug addict stolen bikes end up, I'm all ears. Someone mentioned Maxwell Market?

Michelle Green said:

Gah, I'm so sorry! What part of town are you in? I'll keep my eyes peeled :(

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 31, 2010 at 6:02pm

Wow, that's too bad it slipped through your fingers like that.
OK if I call you to ask details about who was selling it, what time, etc?
I'd like to compare it to previous info I've received about Swap-O-Rama.
If it makes you feel any better there's not much you could have done anyways, considering she (apparently) never filed a police report for that particular bike. You may have had a chance of leaving, calling police, and asking them to hold the bike overnight at least until your roomate could get the original receipt and such together, but it would have been entirely the call of the cop (if one actually showed up).




Lindsay said:

Anne - excellent suggestion! You won't believe this...

We found the Gary Fisher at the Swap-o-rama. BUT, unfortunately, we did not get it back. I was the one at the flea market and the GF was not my bike, so I couldn't make a definite ID of the bike without being totally obvious that we were looking for a stolen bike. And my roommate told me that it was a 16" frame. The bike we found was a 15.5" frame, so we thought that it was not hers. But I still called and left 3 messages and told her that a very similar bike with a 15.5" frame was there. She couldn't get out there until Sunday, and they had already sold it. Or else we were too obviously inspecting it and they took it off the lot on Sunday. Who knows. SO I will update this posting with the correct frame size...

Anne Alt said:

Swap-o-rama flea market might be worth a look, too. 41st & Ashland

Lindsay said:

West Town, near the intersection of Chicago & Ashland.

By the way, I do NOT think that this was done by someone with a lot of knowledge of bicycles. If that were the case, they would not have taken the barely ride-able mtn bike in the back...not worth it. But if you're an addict needing a fix...anything goes. So if anyone has insight as to where drug addict stolen bikes end up, I'm all ears. Someone mentioned Maxwell Market?

Michelle Green said:

Gah, I'm so sorry! What part of town are you in? I'll keep my eyes peeled :(

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Permalink Reply by Lindsay on January 31, 2010 at 7:29pm

We jointly filed a police report, and I had a copy of that with me. I was told by the police that if I saw the bikes, I should call 911 and wait for them to come and retrieve it. I think that what I should have done is pulled out my paper with the serial number and been obvious about checking it and ignored the fact that they might react to that. I was trying to be subtle because I was looking for 4 bikes, not just that one! And I thought that we had all of the accurate information (about frame size). If I had been told that her bike was a 15.5" frame, I would have called the cops in a second.

But if I had pulled out my flier and confirmed the serial number, I could have said to the seller (with a big, strong boyfriend at my side) that I had a copy of the police report and he could either wait for me to call the cops or just hand over the bike.

As with the majority of vendors at the Swap-o-rama, they were Mexican. There were different guys at the plain white van each day. When you walk in the main entrance, they were in the second row to the north, about 1 row to the east (toward Ashland). I don't have details on the other bikes that I saw (they weren't mine, so I didn't look closely!) but they also had a red bianchi, a kid's mtn bike, and a jamis integra (?). I didn't see the jamis later in the afternoon.

New insight makes it sound like my other neighbor took out her trash and failed to close / lock the back door. I suspect that the local town drunks / drug addicts that are always walking down our alley took notice, and grabbed the bikes. Then they probably sold them to the first person who would give them $20, which is how they (one, at least) eventually ended up at the swap-o-rama.

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 31, 2010 at 10:14pm

Thanks for the detailed info. Previous reports suggested that the most serious bike fencing went on in the parking lot early in the morning, outside the swap. I'm gonna guess those folks sell bikes to the regular vendors so cheaply that the regulars can still make something. And then the 'real' thieves skedaddle by the time the thing is in full swing. Had I known you planned to go I would have given you some tips on where and when to look. It's 43rd and Ashland, not 41st BTW, to anyone else reading this.
I have a vague idea of where in the swap you saw the bike, but my feeling is that any of the vendors who have bikes are equally likely to buy a stolen bike or three off the folks in the parking lot early in the morning, and there are probably 15 to 20 who sell bikes.

We need a few do-gooders to make a project out of getting down there early Saturday mornings and cross-referencing what they see against stolen bike reports. The Swap-O-Rama is already on(my) alderman's radar as a huge source of lost revenue and I'll bet we could get some help from them to get the police to show for such a project.

Lindsay said:

We jointly filed a police report, and I had a copy of that with me. I was told by the police that if I saw the bikes, I should call 911 and wait for them to come and retrieve it. I think that what I should have done is pulled out my paper with the serial number and been obvious about checking it and ignored the fact that they might react to that. I was trying to be subtle because I was looking for 4 bikes, not just that one! And I thought that we had all of the accurate information (about frame size). If I had been told that her bike was a 15.5" frame, I would have called the cops in a second.

But if I had pulled out my flier and confirmed the serial number, I could have said to the seller (with a big, strong boyfriend at my side) that I had a copy of the police report and he could either wait for me to call the cops or just hand over the bike.

As with the majority of vendors at the Swap-o-rama, they were Mexican. There were different guys at the plain white van each day. When you walk in the main entrance, they were in the second row to the north, about 1 row to the east (toward Ashland). I don't have details on the other bikes that I saw (they weren't mine, so I didn't look closely!) but they also had a red bianchi, a kid's mtn bike, and a jamis integra (?). I didn't see the jamis later in the afternoon.

New insight makes it sound like my other neighbor took out her trash and failed to close / lock the back door. I suspect that the local town drunks / drug addicts that are always walking down our alley took notice, and grabbed the bikes. Then they probably sold them to the first person who would give them $20, which is how they (one, at least) eventually ended up at the swap-o-rama.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on February 2, 2010 at 1:43pm

I live very close to Swap-O-Rama and I'm not making much progress on my search for a tall frame 80's (or so) touring bike.

Should I rule out Swap-O-Rama as a possible source for bikes? I don't want to buy stolen goods. How likely is it that any given bike for sale there is stolen?

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Permalink Reply by Lindsay on February 3, 2010 at 5:59am

I would venture to say that if it's at the swap-o-rama and it's worth buying, it is probably stolen.

Tony Adams said:

I live very close to Swap-O-Rama and I'm not making much progress on my search for a tall frame 80's (or so) touring bike.

Should I rule out Swap-O-Rama as a possible source for bikes? I don't want to buy stolen goods. How likely is it that any given bike for sale there is stolen?

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Permalink Reply by Barry Niel Stuart on February 3, 2010 at 2:28pm

Another place you might check is 7-Mile Fair near Racine to see if somebody might try fencing bikes there. I've that 7-Mile Fair is a fencing hotbed.

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on February 3, 2010 at 11:05pm

I would agree with this. The vast majority of bikes there are not worth buying-- the decent ones are conspicuous.

Lindsay said:

I would venture to say that if it's at the swap-o-rama and it's worth buying, it is probably stolen.

Tony Adams said:

I live very close to Swap-O-Rama and I'm not making much progress on my search for a tall frame 80's (or so) touring bike.

Should I rule out Swap-O-Rama as a possible source for bikes? I don't want to buy stolen goods. How likely is it that any given bike for sale there is stolen?

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on February 3, 2010 at 11:05pm

So which 7 mile stretch of Racine are we talking about exactly?

Barry Niel Stuart said:

Another place you might check is 7-Mile Fair near Racine to see if somebody might try fencing bikes there. I've that 7-Mile Fair is a fencing hotbed.

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