Originally Posted by
Skipjacks
How can you prove you ever owned that serial number in the first place?
See what I'm saying?
Without some proof of your loss the cops are going to side with the person who is in possession of the bike today.
Did you file a police report when it was stolen? That's the kind of thing that would give you credible documentation that the bike was stolen and not sold. Even then the current owner can claim you sold it then filed a police report. Though at that point there is a burden of proof that starts to spread to the current owner.
These are all good points, and I've actually wondered what I could do to "register" my current bikes to prevent this in the future. Is there a reliable and legitimate way of doing so? What do most of you on here do?
Originally Posted by RubeRad
Also, it's quite possible (more likely even) that whoever is in possession of the stolen bike is not the thief, but bought it from the thief, and probably has no idea it was stolen.
And then there's this. What happens in these circumstances? The new "owner" hasn't done anything wrong, so would they suddenly be out of a bike they paid for? I can only imagine some person claiming one of my bikes was previously stolen from them. I'd feel really bad, and probably just give it back if they really could prove it and seemed to care about the bike, but that's a pickle of a situation.