General Cycling Discussion - How to find out if a bike is stolen?????????

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fish0n
03-31-06, 02:59 AM
How do you check the serial number on a bike with the police to find out if it is stolen or not? I think it would be very cool if they had a website where you could just type in the serial number and or the make, color of the bike into a search engine.


David

huhenio
03-31-06, 06:30 AM
... find it on cragislist or ebay, more likely to succeed. A new one that is ... foggedabouddit
flipped4bikes
03-31-06, 07:47 AM
You can go to the National Bike Registry. They have a list of police depts participating in the database. Dunno the policy for searching the database, prolly depends on who you talk to...

So few people bother to register with the NBR, so it may be stolen, but you still won't know.

supcom
03-31-06, 07:53 AM
How do you check the serial number on a bike with the police to find out if it is stolen or not? I think it would be very cool if they had a website where you could just type in the serial number and or the make, color of the bike into a search engine.


David

Call your local police and ask them?
folder fanatic
03-31-06, 11:56 AM
The pontentual buyer is faced with doing detective work on his/her own to do a probable educated guess if the bike in question is stolen or not. If you buy at a flea market or out of a car trunk, it is suspicious. If you buy at a street corner, ditto. Classified ads even Ebay or Craigslist, use caution.

I now buy only new from a reputable dealer in a real building to do my buying.
fish0n
03-31-06, 05:40 PM
Anyone else?

I have seen a person post their serial numbers on craigslist before, so potential buyers could check it out.
Bikewer
03-31-06, 06:18 PM
We "recover" a lot of bikes, and very seldom are they entered into the NCIC (National Crime Information Center). This is because so few people make a note of their serial number! I've taken many dozens of stolen bike reports, and the number of people that could tell you the serial number is very small.

For that matter, most can't tell you anything about the bike at all. Frame material? "Dunno". Frame size? "Dunno". Hehe, only the enthusiasts.

I have had some luck by calling the bike shops that leave a sticker on the bike, often they will have a record of who bought it. One shop had the records, but only filed under the owner's name. Not of much use when you don't know the owner...

Have the local police run the serial number, that's about as far as you can go towards authentication.
jcm
03-31-06, 10:50 PM
I rode past a Centurion hanging upside-down on a fence next to the trail two days ago. I stopped to look at it. The squid trashed the rear wheel. The frame is lugged Cro-moly. Nice, actually. Looks like a late 70's or early 80's 10 speed. Upper crust components. Right size for me.

Tomorrow morning I'm going back to get it if it's still there. I'll run the numbers and description by the police and bike shops in the Everett area. I'll hit the pawns, too.

If no results, I might play with it. I'll take pics of the 'as found condition' for reference just in case... What the heck