Stolen Stumpy
 

My beater/kid hauler was stolen off of my fronch porch near japantown in san jose this afteroon in broad daylight. If anyone local spost it drop me a line. Email below is best. I still looks just like this except that is has a beat up wtb saddle, a silver rear rack that has foldable nashbar shopping panniers, and a trailer hitch attached to the left rear droput.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0...4DCB5099F7.JPG

Totally my fault btw. It was a beater that id run errands on and never really locked up when parked at my house. Im just more pissed that someone had the gaul to do it mid day, after kncoking on the fronch door btw. The way my front porch is you couldnt see it from the street. My wife decided not to answer it but just caught him leaving with the bike.

I think it was an '83. Specialized stumpjumper. Rusty light blue.ddeore, mostly all original.

damn sorry to hear that man :( I'll keep an eye out...

downtown SJ isn't horribly bad as far as bike thieves, but i get paranoid when i'm more than a few feet away from my bike if I know it's unlocked.

last week a guy rolled by me on a bike near city hall.. "carbon fiber trek for sale".. didn't seem shady at all...

Don't even think about beating yourself up about this - thieves will steal what they want no matter how well you protect it. They suck; when they steal bikes, they suck even more.

I hope you have good luck and recover it!

DD

It's probably a good thing your wife did not answer...bikes can be replaced. Stiil sucks, hopefully ill will befalls the scum.

I'm sorry man! I have a SJ frame I'd offer you gratis, but it's too small.

Scumbags. I really do despise thieves.

Those early Stumpjumpers are great bikes. I ride my son's all the time.

Hope you get it back in one big piece.

A pox on their house. Like one of those deadly poxes.

Cool Biplane fork. That will stick out.

I will keep an eye out, could pop up on craigslist.

Very, very true.

Not cool... I've a few garbage saves here if you can't find it.

Bummer, man. I'll keep an eye out as well.

+ a bajillion.

Stumpy is back! More later but in short, I passed a fellow riding it a half block from my house, tailed him on my woodrup, called the cops, tailed him some more while they took 30 minutes to show up, and now he's in jail for an unrelated federal open warrant. Decided not to press charges as he's in jail for a while anyway. He painted parts of it purple and the trailer hitch and panniers are gone , but it's mostly there. It's a beater anyway.

So overall a good ending.

Glad you got it back! Sorry about the clean-up needed and loss of items though.

my version of a happy ending would have been a beating that leaves him unconscious then calling to EMS from a payphone to tell them that someone is unconcious on the street. Then while he's in police custody they run his ID and put him in the slammer after...... that's more of a happy ending...

Absolutely. Especially after the news of the warrant. This could have been a much different and more horrible story. I'd tell my wife not to open the door again next time. I'd rather have someone like that take the bike than get access to my spouse and home.

Glad you got the bike back though.

I love my old Stumpjumper, and would not take kindly to someone helping themselves to it. Good work to you. You were smart not to try to do it without police involvement, even if they were slow to respond.

hope its not a http://frame8.loadup.ru/12/b4/764743.3.3.jpg kind of situation!

awesome! :)

You are more merciful than I am - I'd have pushed hard for charges and gone for felony theft based on the bike's original MSRP (not sure what the felony cut offs are in your adopted state). I'd be even more ticked at the loss of the panniers, they're spendy! I'm sort of funny about people who mess with my stuff.

I'd like to hear more about the chase, did he know you were following him? Did he go inside a home and you just waited outside of it? How did that play out? Also, how did you know it was yours?

Good deal - both the bike and the perp are where they belong :)

I love a happy ending!

DD

Glad you have it back, and +1 for handling the villain in a level-headed and gentlemanly way.

At least he was using the bike for transportation instead of selling it for $10.

so what did you tell the cops? did they make you identify the bike or anything?

"like"

I described the bike and every detail about it to the cops, then furnished pics which proved it was mine. That part was easy. The only reason they made me do that was because i didn't know the serial number.

As to the missing stuff, the Nashbar shopping panniers cost me $20 5 years ago and they were falling apart. No big loss there. The $10 trailer hitch was a month old and is the most annoying part but hey, I got the bike back which I didn't really think would happen. I'm not going bankrupt or getting pissed over $10.

When the cop asked him if he did it he admitted to taking it off my porch and admitted he made a bad choice.

As to going after the guy in court, it's simply not worth my time. More importantly, he got what was coming to him anyway and he knows it. He was a career homeless person, and was using the bike as his transportation. Honestly, had he knocked on my door that day and asked me if he could have the bike I would have given it too him. He made the wrong choice. Karma is a *****.

Beating someone up over a beat up old rusty bicycle who just stole it to get by isn't my style. The worst part about it was the sense of violation with him entering our premises in the middle of the day and doing as he pleased, but as has been noted he's already paying for that one way or the other.

I forgive him. I told the cop that had brought my bike back, if the guy does get out of jail and comes around again and needs a bike, I will give him one.

If the guy was aggressive, unrepentant and didn't take accountability for his actions this would all be different.

good that is the right attitude. that dude has probably had a pretty sh***y life anyway. they're just bikes, and all of us who collect them are lucky enough that we can afford more than one... or 5.

Good on ya, Stumpy. The thief was probably one of my old San Jose State classmates.

Well handled, man.

But while I'm thinking about this, I actually have a spreadsheet as a Google document that I can access from any computer or my phone. On it is a matrix listing every bike I have (including unbuilt framesets), their serial number, and all their build details. I mean everything. Down to color of bar tape, tire size, and importantly, a photo of each bike in what is recognizably my living room. This is really so i can keep track of what I'm doing with bikes, but it would also be evidence in case something was ever stolen. I even have a record of who I bought the bike or frame from, including email address / phone number, in case I need backup! It was easy to do and I recommend it to everyone.