Originally Posted by Kilroy1988

What kind of an accusation is that? I've spent quite a bit of time in eastern Europe and Croats, Serbs and Greeks (who I have experience interacting with most) are about the friendliest, most humble people you can find. You're clustering an entire corner of a continent together as being full of thieves? If you didn't want to start a flame war, you shouldn't say such silly things.
What evidence do you have to suggest that bicycles are stolen on a "cottage industry" scale by anyone in eastern Europe?
If you want to compare crime rates in western and eastern Europe, then you should be assuming that things coming from England or France are far more likely to be stolen than things from Serbia! Bicycle theft is a major problem in urban western Europe and stealing in general is more prevalent in the countries we see the highest volume of internet sales from (England, France, and Italy).
For example, Italy has a theft rate consistently floating at more than 1,500 per 100k people.
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Italy/theft/
While Serbia maxed out at only about a fifth of Italy's recorded rate in Italy in recent years. 350 per 100k.
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Serbia/theft/
And if you think there's some underground international crime ring involving foreigners committing all these crimes and smuggling it back to eastern Europe, I want some of what you're smoking.