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The benevolent souls over at Mission Mission came across this jarring, albeit all too common, story. It tells the tale of Jen, who, understanding that Mission Mission is the Dateline NBC of San Francisco, asked them for help. It seems that Jen and her boyfriend had this bike that "they both loved more than anything in the world," but it got stolen outside Safeway in March. Yesterday, however, it showed up for sale on Craigslist. (The ad has since been deleted.) Anyway, the comments section is fill with tips on how to check the DNA of your bike if you ever come find yourself in a similar situation. Jen, by the way, plans on getting her bike back.
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This is honestly the main reason I don't bike around SF nearly as often as I used to. Bikes are stolen so frequently, and SFPD and/or our DA do so little to stop it, that really you need to think of your bike as disposable. It's just another thing to worry about when there are so many things to worry about already.
I ride a beater now. Was riding a much nicer road bike (that admittedly didn't fit me well, but that's not entirely the point) but I got so scared when this one was stolen that I went back to my $160 heavy mixte. It gets me around and while it's cute and I love it, I doubt anyone's going to yank it. (Though the world's worst saddle was stolen from it once for no reason...)
If it gets jacked, I'll be pissed, but I can find another $100 replacement that'll get me by. It won't keep me from riding. I know SFPD has a lot on their plate, but they were just so rude to me last night and so accusatory. I guess it's their job, after all, but it didn't make me feel any safer or more secure.
Thank you for the "Hey, that's my bike."
I'm off to listen to "My Sharona" now...
It's at The Alamo! In ... the basement.
When my bike was stolen, I asked a detective how likely it was to show up on Craigslist. I guessed about 90%, he corrected me and said 100%. Apparently, when no one is getting shot to death or mugged and they have the time, they will respond to Craigslist ads in the area, and have a pretty good success rate if the bike is "in the system". The problem is, few bikes ever get "in the system".
"In the system" means the victim has reported it, and the cop taking the report has bothered to enter the bike into the state property recovery database.
A summary of the comments on the Mission Mission post that I found useful: Use a post-bic u-lock, not a cable; leave as little space as possible in the u-lock so people can't slip in stuff to jack it open; take a picture of your bike's serial number on your cell phone, *now*; write down said cell phone number ASAP (email to self?).
Aw, thanks, Brock.
Learn from every mistake I have made in this situation. Keep records of your bike. Keep photos upon photos of the damned thing. (You with the bike is a pretty good choice.) Tag it in some way so you know it's yours - whether that's some physical modification to the frame (the cops were really interested in any discernible scratches) or by putting something in the seat tube that hopefully no one would think to look for.
And for god's sake, know your serial number. And get a good lock. And even if the cops take hours, figure out some way to file a police report instead of getting angry and going home. (Turns out we didn't have to wait there and could have just gone to the station at 17th & Valencia.)
Or you can use the National Bike Registry. It's 10 bucks for a 10 year membership.
http://www.nationalbikeregistry.com/
"Register your bike in the National Bike Registry. We will send you a Certificate of Registration and a tamper-resistant NBR label to identify your bike. Then, if your bike is ever stolen and recovered, no matter where, it can be returned to you. "
thanks for this article. i spent a lot of dough a new bike, hopefully i never have to deal with this =/
Resolution.
http://bayorbust.blogspot.com/2009/05/getting-your-stolen-bike-back-san.html