highhung723

Vague description and when I asked for more pictures, it didn't match the picture in the listing. It's a Cannondale Saeco R4000 in red with yellow lettering and has a unique distinction (won't say in case someone here is missing one). I've emailed the seller saying that the pictures don't match and he is taking a long time to respond.

I've searched lost bike registries and even searched "stolen" on searchtempest.com (for craigslist searching) and found nothing that matches. This could simply be a lazy seller who took a picture off the internet and put it on CL. But in the event that it's a real stolen bike, what do I do next?

SlimRider

Call your local police department with the details. Inform Craigslist that you've contacted the police and forget about it afterwards.

You would have fulfilled your responsibilities as a good citizen of the USA!

mulveyr 

If mismatched pictures, vague descriptions, and unresponsive sellers on Craigslist are indicators of stolen bikes, then that would mean that there are no legitimates bikes on my local one. :-)

highhung723

I know what you mean. It's just the CL picture was taken from Google images and it looked like the seller was trying to pass it off as his own. It wasn't a stock picture, but one shot inside a house by someone else. On top of that, the actual picture shows a VERY distinct "mark" on the bike that any rightful owner would recognize immediately.

I've heard of people doing this, mostly with Brooks saddles, so I wouldn't put it past someone to try it with whole bikes. Not completely sure if this is the case though.

triumph.1

Craigslist is the scam mecca of the internet. There probably isn't even a bike and the scammer is just trying to find a sucker to steal money from. Flag it for removal and move on with your life.

vol

Then the seller must have been very dumb to display the picture.

Jyyanks

I think your best bet is to just flag the listing and even if this seller gets back to you, don't even think about buying he bike from him/her

geo8rge

Probably not stolen. You could post the pictures sent to you on craigslist under the heading, "Is this bike yours" or similar. But again, I do not think it is stolen. If someone with that type of bike saw the ad they would be suspicious.

cehowardGS

IMO, your evidence is THIN, almost invisble. Now, if you can match a serial number to a stolen list, or have a definite ID of said bike, that is another story. Speculation can be almost as wrong as a theft! If you have proof, that is one thing, if you think, that is another.

Hope that helps..