I live in Montreal and the cops do not investigate theft under 5,000$.

I guy I knew kicked in my apartment door and made off with a new Trek 520 and he was seen leaving the building by a friend of mine who had met him.

I filled the cops in on the details and they told me to claim it on insurance.

I decided to make the perp pay and I hired a friend who is a PI. He put so much heat on the guy that he finally turned himself in and confessed to 7 break and enters and turned the PI on to 3 cases of insurance fraud. The cops and insurance company gave the PI cash for clearing crimes from their blotter.

The perp sold my 1500$ bike to a crack dealer for 50$ worth of product but he would not give up the guy.

I dogged him through the court case and levered the court into making him sign a promised to repay 2000$ plus interest.

We have a system in Quebec that he pays the Gov't and they issue me a cheque and if he misses payments they can seize tax returns and a portion of his earnings.

He left town shortly after making the last payment.