Advocacy & Safety - Story of a stolen bike

Hi,

This is my first post to this forum, but i have been lurking around for a while now. I am from southern part of finland.

This happened to me about two weeks ago.

My girlfriend left her bike to train station on saturday morning. When she came back around 10.30 pm, the bike wasn't there, it was obviously stolen.

On next monday i went to police station to report a stolen bike. Police said everything i suspected: ok, there is nothing we can do, come and check our lost and found sometime. I came home, went to local store for 10 minutes. When i came back, i saw my girlfriends bike in front of our apartment building. WTF i thought. I checked all details to make sure. Next i ran upstairs, got a new chain lock and locked the bike on bike rack. I called the police but they were too busy at the moment to send a patrol. I ran again upstairs, took my video camera and went to balcony to wait. I waited about 45 minutes before the guy came out, he tried to take the bike while i was filming him. After few seconds he realized that everything wasn't OK and took of. I ran after him, but i didn't have a plan what to do, so i just left him alone.

Next morning i went to the police station again, showed my video and now they were interested. Police asked id i could make dvd for them and take some still frames. After I made the dvd and took it to station i was cruising on the streets. Hey, that is the man who tried to take the bike yesterday. I followed him and his friends from distance and noticed that they are going to next to police station. I saw a police patrol on the yard, i went to them and told my story. They made some phone calls and went to take the guy in.

After few days, I and my girlfriend were invited to police station to give a testimony. There we heard that our case is going for the prosecutor and the guy is going to have a trial about our stolen bike.

We got our bike back, only lock was missing. Just came back from 11 days tour in Turku archipelago with just recovered bike.


Ville

Hey, nice to hear that sometimes the bad guys get caught.

It's remarkable that the stolen bike was in front of your building!

And I wonder what went through the thief's mind as he found "his" bike locked to the rack.

Hi,

This is my first post to this forum, but i have been lurking around for a while now. I am from southern part of finland.

This happened to me about two weeks ago.

My girlfriend left her bike to train station on saturday morning. When she came back around 10.30 pm, the bike wasn't there, it was obviously stolen.

On next monday i went to police station to report a stolen bike. Police said everything i suspected: ok, there is nothing we can do, come and check our lost and found sometime. I came home, went to local store for 10 minutes. When i came back, i saw my girlfriends bike in front of our apartment building. WTF i thought. I checked all details to make sure. Next i ran upstairs, got a new chain lock and locked the bike on bike rack. I called the police but they were too busy at the moment to send a patrol. I ran again upstairs, took my video camera and went to balcony to wait. I waited about 45 minutes before the guy came out, he tried to take the bike while i was filming him. After few seconds he realized that everything wasn't OK and took of. I ran after him, but i didn't have a plan what to do, so i just left him alone.

Next morning i went to the police station again, showed my video and now they were interested. Police asked id i could make dvd for them and take some still frames. After I made the dvd and took it to station i was cruising on the streets. Hey, that is the man who tried to take the bike yesterday. I followed him and his friends from distance and noticed that they are going to next to police station. I saw a police patrol on the yard, i went to them and told my story. They made some phone calls and went to take the guy in.

After few days, I and my girlfriend were invited to police station to give a testimony. There we heard that our case is going for the prosecutor and the guy is going to have a trial about our stolen bike.

We got our bike back, only lock was missing. Just came back from 11 days tour in Turku archipelago with just recovered bike.


Ville

Re-locking your bike was a good idea, as was video taping it. Pursuing the thief could be risky, as they're known to carry weapons. It's best to leave pursuit to those who are trained for it.

I'm glad to hear that you got your bike back.

I would have loved to have seen the look on the thief's face when he came back to a locked bike. . .

Upload this video to youtube if you can.

It's remarkable that the stolen bike was in front of your building!

Well, I said to police woman who saw my video, that I thought this happens only in movies. Woman laughed and said you don't know how unbelievable things happen in real life...


Upload this video to youtube if you can.

I could upload it to youtube, but i don't feel comfortable doing so. It's not my job to give "shame punishmet" for unconvicted guy.

Ville

Pursuing the thief could be risky, as they're known to carry weapons. It's best to leave pursuit to those who are trained for it.

That's true, but the local police actually encouraged my brother to find the thief himself the last time his daughter had a bike stolen, since they weren't going to do anything about it.

Since my brother was sure that it was just some kid from the neighborhood who took the bike, he wanted to know what would happen to him should he assault the perp in the line of apprehending him for the cops.:D

Did any of you earlier responders notice the country of this story? Finland.

I am surprised the thief didn't just hop on another available bike. When I was in Finland a couple years ago, there were bikes everywhere. Most were locked with the built in rear wheel frame lock. A few had cheap chain locks. In some cases there were more bikes than bike racks. This was in Oulu... way up in the north.

Take note that the OP mentioned the bike rack in front of the apartment building... how many US based posters have a bike rack in front of their apartment building?

Re-locking your bike was a good idea, as was video taping it. Pursuing the thief could be risky, as they're known to carry weapons. It's best to leave pursuit to those who are trained for it.

I'm glad to hear that you got your bike back.

I would have loved to have seen the look on the thief's face when he came back to a locked bike. . .

Psh... come on, they don't have weapons in Finland:rolleyes:

That's true, but the local police actually encouraged my brother to find the thief himself the last time his daughter had a bike stolen, since they weren't going to do anything about it.

Since my brother was sure that it was just some kid from the neighborhood who took the bike, he wanted to know what would happen to him should he assault the perp in the line of apprehending him for the cops.:D

Which is sad, because IF it had been a car they'd have been there in a hurry to take a report as well as to investigate it, and every cop making a stop would be looking for it.

I wonder IF they would have taken that attitude IF it was a $6,000.00 road/mountain bike?

Acaully in the US IF it had been a car, they are in no hurry, they come out and take the report and you call the impound lot a week later to see if it turns up, BTDT.