Here's my story:
1.5 yrs ago my All Carbon Hybrid bike was stolen from my parking garage. Filed a police report, an insurance claim and posted the incident on the Vancity Bike Watch website
http://vancitybikewatch.ca/
That was it...no further hope of every seeing my beloved bike again. A few days ago, I get an email from a complete stranger stated he thinks he's seen my bike on the local Vancouver Craigslist...he checked the Bike Watch site to see if it was reported and saw my posting there. Sure enough, the CL ad was my bike. I called the VPD Property Desk non-emerg number and was instructed to reach out to the seller & arrange a meetup...it HAD to be in Vancouver, or else I'd need to work with other police departs (RCMP etc) which may have other policies. VPD would arranged for an Officer to meet me ahead of the seller to go over what would happen.
Sure enough, I met the officer 1 hr beforehand...he was very eager and focused on this...was his 3rd bike sting that day. He also had a team of at least 5 or 6 officers positioned all around the area of the intended meetup. Got the call from the seller, he had arrived but changed the agreed location to a few blocks away...I heard the officer beside me relaying all these new details to his team while I was on the phone w. seller. I even got him to state his car type & colour. Told him I'd be 5 or 10 minutes walking over. Officer had me stay put while he went to the new location with his team. 45 min. later he drove up and had my bike. Turned out the guy had very useful info for the police and was giving details of a bigger operation/ring he was involved in...so the police were extremely pleased with the outcome...so was I.
Now I just have to square things with my insurance.
Way to go VPD!