Originally Posted by
RubeRad
If you use the registry to promptly report your bike as stolen, that report will have a date, which I assume would count as evidence in your favor, putting the ball in court of the alleged thief (or receiver of stolen property) to provide some proof of a sale -- email/txt history from responding to craigslist ad for instance.
It's not going to hurt to do that.
But how does the cop who shows up to the scene know that you're not the one running the scam where you sell your bike so someone for cash, then report it stolen so you can 'recover' the bike and keep the cash that there is no transaction record of? (This is why you as a bike buyer should demand a signed receipt from the seller, so you can't be the victim of this scam)
For that matter, if the bike was actually stolen the thief might just claim you are running the above mentioned scam. How does the policy or the court know who's lying? If that's all the proof you have the cops are going to let the thief keep the bike.
It certainly won't hurt you to have timestamped documentation of the theft. If you can combine that with other evidence (not sure what...) it starts to build a stronger case for you.
But if that's all you have, you don't have anything...including your stolen bike.