Anyone ever catch a bike thief in the act of stealing your ride or a friend's? What did you do?

I caught a creep the other night trying to steal my neighbors bike from an open garage after work. I keep all of my rides in the basement. Lit the piece of sh*t up with my flashlight. The punk took off after I got a ball-pein hammer out of my tool box and scared the hell out of him. Should you beat the hell out of the creep or let the police handle it? I had a bike stolen several years ago and the police were too busy to give a sh*t. I went to police auctions for almost six years and never found my ride. This time around if I caught some one stealing my bike, I would make sure they are eating through a straw and pissing in a bag! It seems bikers never get any justice. Chicago is the 3rd worst city in the U.S. for bike theft after New York and L.A. I have read. My bike was locked with two u-locks and both were drilled out. I was only gone for 3 minutes from taking a leak=(.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Stanton Goldstein on February 20, 2009 at 7:56am
I got a good one of a custom bike stolen and recovered. My gf in hs (were going back here--about 1973) got a custom Ron Boi (RRB) frame, I think serial number 32 when Ron was still brazing bikes out of his parents garage. I built it up with Campy Nuevo Record (I was working at the Pony Shop at the time) and we rode all over including a nice self-supported jaunt to Arizona one spring (from Chicago). Well then the bike got stolen from her apt in Highland Park. Low and behold about a year later a guy comes into Turin in Evanston with "flat" tires. Seems he did not know how to inflate a presta valve. So the astute staff at Turin thinks, "this is an awfully nice bike for a guy who does not even know how to fill the tire" and tells him he will have to leave it three to fix the flat. Turin calls around to some other shops and my friend Alberto (original owner of Alberto's Cycles) says "I know whose bike that is!" and voila, my (now ex) gf gets the bike back! Last time I saw it, she already had three kids and put a bike seat on the back! But it lives on . . .
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on February 23, 2009 at 11:27am
She should have immediately call her cell provider and had the phone canceled. No weird charges or rampant phone bills. And then she could have got a new phone too (possibly with the same number).

travesty said:
I'll add that I had a friend whose phone was stolen. Calls were being made to mexico and other long distance. First thing my friend does is text the phone her name and address. Phone is never recovered. Don't assume your stuff was found by a good samaritan, and realize that offering them money for return of said item may only make you more vulnerable, and never actually get the phone back.
Permalink Reply by Joe on February 23, 2009 at 8:18pm
My roommate's bike was actually stolen from our porch about 6 months ago. he left his bike unlocked for 5 minutes while he was inside the apartment getting his books together for class. When he went outside it was gone. We both use bikes as a main form of transportation so it was a real bummer. 10 days later I was walking back from class on Sheridan Ave. (between Colombia and Pratt) and I spotted a man walking my roommates bike down the stairs into his apartment building. I immediately stopped him as he was walking into his building and even forced my way in as he was denying the fact that he was riding a stolen bike. after 10 minutes of arguing and yelling I eventually gave him 10 dollars and he gave me the bike.

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