When I was a kid, my dads bike was stolen. A few months later the Minneapolis police called him to say they had his bike. At that time, Minneapolis had a bike licensing program.

In my community (Madison WI) they used to have a bike licensing program, I registered each of my bikes for the license, but never bothered to renew the license, once I had the sticker on my bike I assumed that would be adequate. My thinking was that if one of my bikes was stolen, that if the police in a nearby community found it, they would contact Madison to ask who owned the bike with XXXXX registration number. It worked for my dad.

But, about four years ago Madison canceled the bike registration program, they suggested residents sign up for Bike Index or Project 529. I chose Bike Index at that time.

A few years ago a friend of mine said that his daughters bike was stolen, she lived in a different state. She saw her bike on Craigs list a few days later, called the police, the police asked if she had proof that it was her bike. And she said - no. Police said - sorry. And that was it, she did not get her bike back.

I just checked Bike Index, it lists all my bikes as registered in June 2021, plus most of my bikes also have the expired Madison license sticker on them. And looking at my list of bikes on Bike Index, that reminded me that I never posted a photo for each bike, which I should do.

They used to sell these stickers, but now they appear to only sell the ones with a scannable graphic. I bought ten. Only have two left.