press charges.
ppl need to be held accountable for their behavior & actions.

If you don't press charges because of intimidation then you have contributed to submitting your neighborhood to an alternate and less desirable authority. Don't let it start with you.

I have pressed charges before (although in my case it was a attempted mugging and assault). I'll say this it was annoying because of the inefficieny of the Judicial system here but I never suffered any repercussions. Only one of the guys who were charged was above 18 and he went away for two years. Overall I'm glad I did because I am sure it was the right thing to do and it was very educational.

I think it's great that you're pressing charges. This guy is stealing stuff as a means for making a living. I would say no if it's just a bored idiot kid or something, but this guy will keep doing this until it doesn't make sense for him to do so. Chances are he wouldn't hit you again unless he's unbelievably stupid, and most good thieves really aren't. If you press charges and lose more stuff afterwards, he'll be suspect number one. This way, you have a legal record of the charges and make future cases more compelling. Good luck, man! Also, I'm not a lawyer :)

Glad you decided to go for it..

A little insight-

It's not that common to get a suspect in a theft case, and a case like this is pretty much a slam dunk for the cops. The pawn shop id'd the guy selling your bike, so there's a positive ID for the guy that had possession of stolen property. (He won't be charged with theft unless there's an admission, but receiving/possession of stolen property is a done deal). Next, the guy actually has to show up for court. In most property crime cases a plea bargain is made, and you'll never have to testify.. Most importantly, the bad guy gets criminal history points, and some sort of punishment.

Too often people don't follow through, so the bad guys have no consequences (criminal history points, jail time, fines, probation --> probation to violate) and their behavior just keeps on steam rolling over other victims. Good for you for going for charges.

Absolutely YES, you should press charges. Your community needs you to do it and the bicycling community needs you to do it. Press charges AND if you want to be a real hero of the community, go to court to be a witness.

press charges if you are not intimidating enough to get your **** nicked just like that.

Is it up to you to charge the store? If so absolutely. Pawn shops know most of their stuff is stolen. They need to be hammered every time they sell or accept stolen goods.

Play this from a position of power, not from one of the submissive. Your property was stolen, you were violated, the punk needs to be brought to justice. If no charges are pressed, he will only continue his thievery.

If I could only get my hands on the punks who stole my brand new Giant back in 1988, or my car stereo and OUT OF PRINT CD's worth a bundle, they would have to restrain me. There is nothing like the feeling of someone taking your stuff :mad:

If he gets charged he is much less likely to come back and get all that other cool stuff he has seen in your garage.

>I must be a bit paranoid but...

More like illogical. People steal stuff because they need the money badly. Not because they have some personal beef with the world. Pressing charges is likely to lead to some local druggie spending some time in jail or something. Up to you.

Steve

I wish I could have pressed charges when my bike got stolen last year. Whoever said that you might be helping the next person this thief might steal from is absolutely right.

Definitely keep us posted please! :)

death penalty

Just a LITTLE harsh...... I was thinking more along the lines of making him/her walk around with "I am dirty theif" tatoo'd to their forehead.....Send em' to Sherif Joe in Maricopa CO, AZ.... He'd have some good ideas :thumb:

i'd say no to charges, keep the (c)law out of it.

it cost us (the taxpayers) lots of dough to process, convict, and house felons - let's save it for the real bad ones, the killers, etc.

thread got me thinking... do any of you guys use the National Bike Registry? Is it worth paying the $$, that is, if stolen is there a higher recovery rate if registered?

Glad you are pressing charges. You are doing the community a favor and you may even be doing the thief a favor. He might think twice about setting foot on someone's property where he could be shot or beat up, or as said it may be a wake up call to him to stop this behavior and clean his life up. I have to say you sound intimidated, maybe you are just a real nice guy. Don't lose one iota of sleep over this, this might be the moment that makes him think twice later on about getting into selling crystal meth or going down some other dead end road.

I follow the logic, but essentially you then make theft a crime in name only, since there are no consequences. I wouldn't be willing to accept that side effect.

I had a similar situation, maybe. My place was broken into and a bunch of stuff was stolen. The nearby pawn shop got my DVD player, and the pawn shop reported the serial number (which they're required to do), and it came up as stolen. I got it back, and the detective told me that I could press charges, but she also told me that she felt fairly confident that the guy who sold it to pawn shop did not know that it was stolen, that he got from someone else, probably the thief, but that convicting the guy who sold my DVD player would not help punish the guy who actually stole it. They did get the name of the guy who they believe did steal it. I asked what they do about him. They said his name goes on a list of suspicious people, or some such nonsense. I asked what happens if he commits another crime and was told, "His name goes on the list again." "And if his name shows up on the list a bunch of time?" I ask. "Well, it doesn't look good."
So that's it. "It doesn't look good." Not very satisfying.
But I didn't press charges. I'm not sure I did the right thing, but I didn't want to punish that guy just to punish someone. I wanted to punish the guy who had broken in, but I guess that wasn't an option.
Incidentally, a few months later I was broken into again. This time nothing was recovered. So not pressing charges is certainly no guarantee that you'll be safe from future break ins.
If you think your situation is analogous to mine, that the seller might not have known that he had stolen merchandise, then it's a judgment call. I'm not sure I made the right call. But if you suspect that the guy who sold your stuff was the thief, then I see no reason not to go after him. Not going after him is no guarantee that he won't come back, and if he's not the original thief, then the odds that he's going to rob you in retribution seem slim.

+1

Just like they used to hang horse thieves.

I've herd that the death penalty is the only option that guarantees zero repeat offenders, is that true? ;)

That's the democratic way.

However, I do prefer the middle east and other asian nation methods. Cheap, swift and awfully effective. Even if it doesn't prevent (neither do our methods), at least it solves the problem of the individual at hand. No need for this trash to breathe my air.