Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
My Merlin Extralight has a serial number (1611). It must have been filed off.
Sorry about your loss. Where is the sn on the bike? I wonder how hard the police looked for the sn. You'd think that the city would be liable for the cops mistake. THe DL id number is a good idea. Where would you engrave it though? I once had the cops engrave a bike on the handle bar, I guess so that they would see it right away. But it is pretty easy to swap out the bars.
I've seen techniqes for uncovering a s/n with chemicals after it was filed off. I think that was on a gun.
I've got a Gary Fisher x-caliber. I took photos of the s/n right away. It is somewhat unique because the s/n is double stamped. Might be a good idea to stick something in the seatube so you could ID it even w/o an sn.