It was a Cannondale Six13 Team 1 frame (aluminum joints w/ carbon tubes) with DA, Mavik Ksyriums & a Garmin Edge 305. A really sweet bike. Stolen from my garage summer 2010. Keep reading for the happy ending.

I filed a police report, then distributed the standard "missing bike" posters at bike shops, pawn shops, to local teams & clubs - no luck. My homeowner's insurance paid for a Cervelo S2 (replacement value, not ACV), so I did OK. Eighteen months went by.

The LBS owner who sold me the bike receives an email with a link to a CL ad. There's my bike. Four photographs showing it in exactly the condition when I saw it last except for pedals & bottle holder. The Garmin is still on the stem. I call the police and meet with a detective minutes later, convincing him that this is my bike. One of 12 team frames built up, one of only two in this frame size, and I've got the Garmin's serial number and BIOS chip ID.

The detective meets the seller the next morning, badges him, takes a look at the bike, tells the seller that it's stolen, brings it to the station and calls me. Less than 24 hours after seeing the CL ad, I'm looking at my bike in the stolen property room. It'll take a few months to work through the legal system, but I've already struck a deal with the insurance company to buy it back, and I should get it back sometime this summer.

The thief nicked my bike from my garage (still don't know how the door went up) and pawned it later that day, signing a form swearing that it was his bike (that's a felony). He provided his name, ID and cellphone number, and the pawn shop gave him $80. (Eight Zero. Scroll up and read that description again.) A guy walked in a few months later, paid $900 for the bike (still way too low), changed pedals and rode it - he estimated - ten miles. His daughter had a trip planned, cash was tight, so he put it up on CL for $1,000. A cop knocked on the door a few days later and left with the bike.

Lessons for everybody out there: 1) Make your bike a little unique (it was in my team's livery, one of only a dozen built like it); 2) Record your frame S/N (the LBS and I both missed that one); 3) If you mount a GPS, record the S/N and internal BIOS ID number (the S/N can be removed, but not the BIOS number); 4) Take good photographs; and 5) If it goes missing, tell the world - you never know who's going to see it, remember it, and forward a link.