Back in 2011, I had my new bike at the time stolen.

Immediately after filing a police report, I registered the information at Chicago Stolen Bike Registry (CSBR). This was back in August 2011. Here is the report from Bike Index (which took over the list):  https://bikeindex.org/bikes/22670

This past Saturday afternoon, I got an email from the administrator at Bike Index stating that there was an ad in Craigslist (http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/bik/5214292036.html) matching the description of my stolen bike and wasn't too far from where I've lost it.

I emailed the poster and arranged a meet for Sunday at 5PM.

To make a long story short, I got the bike with minimal issues, which I will list below:

First, the police report does not state the bike information whatsoever. Second, the police officer on the phone could not recommend anything since he was not present and that I didn't have my receipt. and lastly, I didn't have my receipt with me, but since I bought it off a legitimate bike shop, they kept the record and was able to prove the bike was mine over the phone and emailed us the prove. 

And, here's me with my recovered bike: