Originally Posted by
Falkon
The course of action is to call the police first. Put your lock on the bike if you wish, but if you have the receipt with serial, you have all the proof you need.
but see, having the receipt only shows that he owned it at some point. as far as the police know, he could have sold the bike or given it away and is now trying to scam whoever is currently in possession of it (not that that's the case, but the cops don't know that).
ideally, i think the cops should be involved (as in, in a perfect world where cops functioned the way they ought to), but since he never reported it stolen i'm not sure how a receipt proves anything. though i suppose he could report it stolen now.