My Bike was just stolen. What do I do?
We understand. That
really sucks.We started our shop after Beth’s Bianchi Milano was stolen from our shed, so we really know what you’re going through right now.
Make the call
First thing you’re going to want to do is call and make a police report. This can seem like a waste of time, but it is important if you want to make an insurance claim or get it back if it ends up in a police property room.
Get Online
Next, take to the web. Resources like Bike Index and the DC Stolen Bikes Facebook page are great open source ways to get the word out about your missing Mongoose or purloined Pegoretti. Post on your personal Twitter feed and Instagram account. Pictures help. You did have pics of your lovely steed, correct?
Contact local shops
You know who hates bike theft? Bike shop employees! We’ve all seen shady characters pushing bikes through our doors asking how to use the shifters or valves on a bike way too big or too small for them.
So give your local shops a call or email. We put our messages up on our internal Slack channel dedicated to this very issue. We’ve recovered several bikes in the shop and successfully returned them to owners, so don’t lose hope. One bike we recovered had been missing for over a year.
Set up alerts
Set up alerts on Craigslist , OfferUp and EBay along with other sales sites to see if your disappearing DeRosa makes its way to online commerce.
In our experience, most bikes that show up on these sites do so rather quickly so scan them as soon as possible. If it turns up on one of these you have a few options. One can take the rather unconventional yet effective method of stealing your own bike back like our customer Danny did a few years ago. We do not endorse this method as it could lead to losing more than your bike in the process. We have heard of DC police setting up sting purchases for these cases, but don’t count on it.
Find a new friend
After all this is done, you’re going to want to replace your faithful Fairdale , and we know just the shop who can help you out. If you’re looking to prevent this heartache, read our post on bike security procedures.
