Originally Posted by
djetelina
Not to dwell on the obvious BUT if the OP had been a little proactive and took a few minutes to use a free public BikeRegistry service off the net to register and TAG his bike BEFORE he got his bike stolen he would be in a much better position than he is presently finding himself in. As it is, with no proactive action taken beforehand, he is now a member of the 2% club. (as you probably know from your research, a transalt.org study showed a 2.2 recovery rate for stolen bikes).
Do you honestly believe the police actively discuss stolen bikes in their morning role call/briefing with the intent of “going out and apprehending the scoundrels???”
Believe it or not, most police (and the majority of the public) COULD NOT CARE LESS.
SO, to improve the situation, WHO needs to take action?
IMHO, therin lies the 2nd mistake.
I rest my case.
So it's the OP's fault b/c he could have registered with one of these services and slapped a sticker on the bike? He still wouldn't have the bike back. So 98% of bikes never make it back, but that's a meaningless statistic for your argument -- what proportion of registered bikes are recovered? Is a bike thief going to care about removing the sticker, even if it means taking a brillo pad to the paint to get it off? And who's out looking for those tags anyway? Do you "honestly believe" the cops pay much attention to those tags considering how little attention they pay to bikes in the first place?
The tags can't hurt anything, but it's bs to imply the OP is somehow to blame for not registering the bike or that the odds of recovery still wouldn't be very long if he had done so. It's lame to play all high and mighty on someone who just got their ride jacked. If your bike disappears and you come asking if anyone has seen your sticker, I sure hope you'll also say you had 2 u-locks and a cable with multiple locking mechanisms so you don't have to deal with self-righteous comments about how you could have prevented the theft.