The Chainlink

Stolen Bike Recovery on Craigslist

Last summer I posted a cry for help on this site when my bike was stolen. With the help of some amazing people, I was able to recover my bike. These amazing people worked on their own, and did it just to be good people. you can read the story thread here: http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/bikes-stolen-help-me-chain...

 

It has come to my attention that a picture of my bike from this story has been used in a craigslist add offering to help people recover stolen bicycles. The person who has posted the craigslist add DID NOT aid in the recovery of my bicycles. I dont know if the author of that post is intending to be misleading, but since they are charging for their "bike recovery service" I wanted to make sure that people were aware of the situation. you can view the craigslist add here: 

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/bik/2903312545.html

 

Safe Riding & Best wishes,

-E

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on March 16, 2012 at 3:24pm

I assume you have requested that the bike recovery "consultant" remove the photograph of your bike or at least pay you a royalty? I'd be curious what his recovery rate is. CSBR recovery rate is presently 3.31%. CPD estimates recovery rates at about 5%. I suppose $99/"investigation" cost is reasonable if it's your last best chance to recover your stolen bike, but jeez, spending $70 for a Kryptonite U-lock and using it as your second lock before your bike gets stolen would probably have reduced your chance of being a victim of bike theft by a factor of 7 or so.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on March 16, 2012 at 3:50pm

I'm confused about this guy's service.  Is he only charging if he recovers your bike?  If that is true I think it would be hard to call him a scam unless he is stealing them himself.  He says he only charges a coffee consultation fee.  Sounds like he's only charging for a recovered bike. 

Also, you don't need to spend $70 for a good lock. . The OnGuard Brute is only $45 and is every bit as good as the Kyrptonite lock IMHO.  More so, I think, as after the BS about how Krypto tried to cover up the bic pen exploit for years before it finally broke out in the mass media makes me trust them even less.  They are slimy, I wouldn't buy any lock from them.   The fact that they stopped the buyback of the defective locks the second the furor settled down only proves my point.

Permalink Reply by Elliot Bennett on March 16, 2012 at 4:04pm

@ James - I honestly dont know if this is a scam or not. I simply know that whoever created the post is not the person who helped me get my bike back. It might be a legit business, it might not be. I simply didn't want somone to recognize my bike, and to purchase the services of this person thinking that they were going to have the same success that I had.

@ Kevin - I did email the person. I dont believe there are royalties at stake since I have shared the same picture on this site before :-) but I did let the poster know that I thought that they were being misleading by using a picture of my bike.

Permalink Reply by S.Presley☠ on March 16, 2012 at 4:19pm

I saw that craigs list add last night and thought it was you...glad you cleared that up.

Permalink Reply by Vilda on March 16, 2012 at 4:27pm

It very well may be a bike thief pretending to be a decent human. Crooked.

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on March 16, 2012 at 7:44pm
The post has since been removed. I just tried to look at it.

Did anyone take a screenshot of the Craigslist ad before it went down?
Permalink Reply by ilter on March 16, 2012 at 8:11pm

I had similar thoughts.  A cup of coffee for recovering a stolen bike seemed to good to be true, and the language was a bit fishy.  I thought, what if thieves are trying to divert victim`s attention so they can resell with no or less risk of being interrupted..  Perhaps I am too sceptical.


Gabe said:

It very well may be a bike thief pretending to be a decent human. Crooked.

Permalink Reply by Vilda on March 17, 2012 at 1:55am

Sorry Julie, I didn't save it. But it read very much like someone trying to sell you back your stolen bike.

Permalink Reply by Moc Artsy on March 17, 2012 at 4:29am

The ad was featured at Bikesnobnyc, where it is preserved in all its dubious glory:

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2012/03/bsnyc-friday-fun-quiz.html

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on March 17, 2012 at 8:45am

It's hard to tell from the ad whether this person intends to charge $99, or they just put in a random amount because they had to to post the ad. If it's a genuine do-gooder and not a friend of the thieves, or someone looking to take advantage of theft victims in other ways, then I'm willing to be their entire recovery model involves looking for the bike at our favorite hell-hole in Back of the Yards.


Kevin C said:

I assume you have requested that the bike recovery "consultant" remove the photograph of your bike or at least pay you a royalty? I'd be curious what his recovery rate is. CSBR recovery rate is presently 3.31%. CPD estimates recovery rates at about 5%. I suppose $99/"investigation" cost is reasonable if it's your last best chance to recover your stolen bike, but jeez, spending $70 for a Kryptonite U-lock and using it as your second lock before your bike gets stolen would probably have reduced your chance of being a victim of bike theft by a factor of 7 or so.

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on March 17, 2012 at 8:59am

Could be. I read the ad to be, I'll talk to you about your stolen bike (more information increases the chances of recovery), for the price of a cup of coffee, but if you want me to help you find and repossess your stolen bike, I'll charge you $99.

h' said:

It's hard to tell from the ad whether this person intends to charge $99, or they just put in a random amount because they had to to post the ad. If it's a genuine do-gooder and not a friend of the thieves, or someone looking to take advantage of theft victims in other ways, then I'm willing to be their entire recovery model involves looking for the bike at our favorite hell-hole in Back of the Yards.


Kevin C said:

I assume you have requested that the bike recovery "consultant" remove the photograph of your bike or at least pay you a royalty? I'd be curious what his recovery rate is. CSBR recovery rate is presently 3.31%. CPD estimates recovery rates at about 5%. I suppose $99/"investigation" cost is reasonable if it's your last best chance to recover your stolen bike, but jeez, spending $70 for a Kryptonite U-lock and using it as your second lock before your bike gets stolen would probably have reduced your chance of being a victim of bike theft by a factor of 7 or so.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on March 17, 2012 at 9:29am

+1 to Howard and Keven.

The ad is poorly-written and therefore seems fishy.  They used images of bikes -not randomly but of picures probably just yanked from the CSBR.  I'm not sure what the reason for using images directly yanked from the registry rather than just any old image of a random bike.  That is just odd.  It's not like the registry images are all that publicly known except to the people who's bike was stolen, a few caring volunteers and those watching the registry, and to the thieves who stole the bike in the first place.

If it is an actual concerned local rider this ad might just be a shot over the bow aimed at the thieves themselves.  Perhaps the ad writer is trying to send a message at them that Batman is on the case.  Or perhaps this guy is just scamming folks.  It's just hard to tell all-around what is going on here.

If the guy only charged if the bike was recovered then I'd have to go with the guy falling on the good side.  If he is charging for services rendered whether or not he finds anything at all then I  tend to think he's a crook.

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