Got my bike back!!!!

[seanN]

Hey

I have the good news that my stolen racing bike (the "Granny" bike) has been recovered (in Edinburgh), albeit slightly scratched and changed, and I will be able to race it again (if I dont finish building my new one)!!!

I dont know too much details, but my dad told me 4 people have been arrested for stealing 149 top - end road and mountain bikes, mine one of them. The arrest was made a couple of weeks ago, and although the police knew about my bike they never contacted me or my dad.

More details to follow.


P.S Calum - Your pedals are still on it, and are still in great condition  

[vmccullough]

fantastic 

[calumm]

WOW!  That is phenomenal.  I'm just delighted to have my pedals back.....ok, and your bike, I suppose too ;-)

I guess it takes the Police a while to track back through their records and work out wha's what - at least thy caught them, and got the bike back.  Seriously, I'm delighted for you.

Calum

[dreilly]

Thats incredible!  Usually when you get a biek niked you never see it agian.   I would love to know how it was found!

I am delighted for you Sean!

[Custard]

good news
sad when you cant leave your bike and assume it will be there when you get back!

[deekreid]

149? , Looks like there may be a lot of lucky people gettin phone calls to come and get there early xmas presents..  Glad to hear you,re getting yours back sean , nice one !

[garyb]

Good news Sean and Tam really pleased for you

[neil_in_oz]

Great news but a shame you had to chase them about it!
Hope they aren't expecting the other 148 victims to contact them to claim their property?
Maybe need to get the word out there via other Edinburgh clubs/shops/Braveheart?

[TNoon]

Well Neil, Sean and I did a bit more than just chase them about. 

But I believe strongly, that some things in life are worth fighting for......

We all know that the Police aren't much help in solving low level street crime like bike thefts, but Sean's first proper race bike (that we both had built) meant too much to me just to let it go......So, I decided to try and get the best out of a bad situation, and make it a sort of life learning experience for Sean.......By being pro-active.....

I received lots of sympathetic messages from people who had bikes stolen, and one very strange / surreal phone call a week after the theft........Whom I now know,  was one of the thieves........But, nothing for the next 4 weeks.

Then , out of the blue, another strange call on Thursday, from someone purporting to have found it. My first reaction was to get there straight away, to get the bike....until it was pointed out there might be neds around, waiting on me arriving with the £500 reward in my pocket ......The situation could get nasty, and even if I went along with some 'company', we all could end up in trouble / getting charged with assault !

So, sense prevailed and I contacted the Police, who, faced with the prospect of actually  catching some villains, got interested......Better late than never !

I think then, there may have been some sort of stake out.  I was told to rearrange the meeting for the following day (Friday)....... Eventually, after a great deal of palaver, I found myself at a housing scheme in Edinburgh, knocking on someone's door, asking if they had the bike.....to be followed swiftly by the cavalry!

It was a very surreal situation....... but there, in the corner of the living room, was the Granny Bike..And other than the decals being removed (carefully cut out, with a scalpel I think), it looked perfect, and exactly as we remembered.

I was so pleased, as the were cops, that we all had great big cheesy grins !

Then, back to the Station for all the paperwork, and I was told of what had been happening. About 2 weeks ago, someone was caught stealing a bike......Possibly in a sting set up by the CID...This person then named an accomplice, who in turn shopped another, until eventually the re-setter of the bikes was caught........The thieves supposedly admitted to 149 bikes, worth £65K according to the CID.

Sadly, other than our one, I don't think any of the bikes have been recovered to the Edinburgh owners....They were  being trucked down to London...All high end MTB's and Road Bikes apparently.....

The Cops showed them pics of Sean's bike, and they admitted stealing it, but for reasons unknown,  I wasn't informed of this. It's not certain as yet, but the person who phoned me, may truthfully have found it, and have nothing to do with the theft....Once this is established, I will reward them for finding it.

It seem's like all the publicity our bike got made it too hot to handle, and perhaps it was just dumped....So, all the hard work Sean did paid off...RESULT !!

I was very tired after all this.......It had dragged on all day...And, we had a busy w/end of racing in the North of England coming up....With an important Nat Champs Youth Crit the  following day. I still had  to get everything organised / the van packed, because I planned to drive down to Newcastle that evening....

However, Sean had the bit between his teeth, and in terrible conditions, got his best result ever......  12th in a bunch sprint against the best Youths in Britain.......He followed this up the next day at Dumfries by just out sprinting his Team Mate Hamish for 2nd place in the Scottish Youth Series.

A great ending to a strange few days....

There are too many folk to thank just now, but I must thank Brian Barnet, Colin Russell, and Morag Lamont who very kindly lent us bikes for Sean  continue his racing.

Tam

[Matthew]

Great to hear a happy ending to the story and good effort on your part Tam - it's persistent people like you that put thieves out of action.

Incidentally if anyone finds a suspicious bike on ebay it's always worth taking a minute to google a few keywords (e.g. [model of bike] "stolen" [location]) in case someone's reported it missing. Twice I've done this when something smelt fishy on an auction and I've been able to contact the owners to alert them. In one case they arrested the thief and recovered the bike - haven't heard back about the other one.

Lessons are: a)if it looks dodgy it usually is and b)if you're unlucky enough to have your bike stolen then tell the entire internet. 

[chris a]

Brilliant news Tam and Sean, I can stop looking down alley ways on routes round town, sounds like a bit of determination and hard work reaps rewards, that or a guardian angel is keeping a look out. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind taking your money Tam.

[steve]

Glad you got your bike back. I managed to find an item of mine that was stolen from my van up for sale on ebay and alerted the police to it. Due to my own detective work (the user name was close to the address of the shop that had bought it) I got it back!