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Permalink Reply by john johnson on February 16, 2010 at 9:14am

I'll help. I just moved here, do not have a job yet, do not know anyone, hate bicycle thiefs, have an iphone. let me know what I can do to help.

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Permalink Reply by mike w. on February 16, 2010 at 2:19pm

Howard, if i lived anywhere near the city, i'd be there. As it is, i'm only able to see if the idea might catch on. i ride in the city most days, and my bike has indoor privileges when i'm at work, so it's been years since i had one stolen (still sux...) But i really really HATE it when i see stolen bike notices.
As i say, it'd take a determined and brave crew to be able to do this sort of thing with any regularity. Guess i'm just trying to plant a seed...

H3N3 said:

I agree this needs to happen.

I've done it. Put out several calls for recruits but only ultimately found one person willing to invest a few hours of their time. You really need three people, at least-- 2+ to canvas, and one standing by at an internet-enabled computer to look up suspect bikes and get in touch with their owners.
Did not find any smoking guns at Swap-O-Rama but only went once.

Mike, your most bang for the buck in using an open forum with an open call to make something happen is to come up with a plan and offer specifics about what people are needed for, and then see who's willing and able to help out.

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Permalink Reply by A.K.A Paul on February 16, 2010 at 3:28pm

I'd be willing to help out. Two ideas I have....

One is using a "hot sheet" for any volunteers to use to check serial numbers and descriptions of bikes. Something like the police used "way back when" to check for stolen cars and their license plate numbers. If any volunteers used the hot sheet I think you could get more out of each volunteer if every volunteer were checking the sheet for descriptions and then looking more closely at the serial number once a description matches something on the sheet. The sheet can be printed on a daily basis so that it's very current. Then perhaps a course of action can be implemented where by the volunteer calls the police when there's a hit.

The other is that one would think that the pool of people that were the victims of theft (perhaps starting with the ones that can be identified from people that posted on CL)would be a little motivated to step up and help out with something like this.

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Permalink Reply by A.K.A Paul on February 16, 2010 at 4:47pm

BTW...The idea I had about the hot sheet would be that the bikes listed would come from the Stolen Bike Registery.


Not Nathan Fillion (aka Paul) said:

I'd be willing to help out. Two ideas I have....

One is using a "hot sheet" for any volunteers to use to check serial numbers and descriptions of bikes. Something like the police used "way back when" to check for stolen cars and their license plate numbers. If any volunteers used the hot sheet I think you could get more out of each volunteer if every volunteer were checking the sheet for descriptions and then looking more closely at the serial number once a description matches something on the sheet. The sheet can be printed on a daily basis so that it's very current. Then perhaps a course of action can be implemented where by the volunteer calls the police when there's a hit.

The other is that one would think that the pool of people that were the victims of theft (perhaps starting with the ones that can be identified from people that posted on CL)would be a little motivated to step up and help out with something like this.

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