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I solved a police mystery!

(7 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by the canuck
  • Latest reply from the canuck

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  1. the canuck
    Member

    had a voicemail today from police in the city where i had a bike stolen--7 years ago.

    Long story short, several forces have realised that the Bike Register website lists about 40 instances of a stolen bike with the same serial number. This cropped up when someone tried to sell a bike he'd owned for a decade and Bike Register said it was stolen. the serial # was the same one i'd listed for my bike.

    I explained why I'd put the wrong number on my police report: the manual described the location of the serial number, but it's actually really difficult to spot--you have the turn the bike upside down and get a good light to see it. however, near that spot is often a sticker with a set of letters and numbers--turns out that's just the frame number. but clearly, i'm not the only one to make this mistake.

    police officer reacted as if this was a completely new idea to him, and explained a lot.

    I'm helping!

    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. unhurt
    Member

    Holmesian deduction!

    ...er, and I'm off to look at the underside of my bike again.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. jonty
    Member

    Extremely Prawo Jazdy vibes to this story.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. Arellcat
    Moderator

    The frame number is usually stamped into the bottom bracket shell or dropout, no?

    When I do the BikeRegister marking for colleagues, I ask for the number that is stamped into the frame, and also any longer number that is on a sticker, as this often includes (coded) information about date or location of manufacture, paint colours and size. But the more details (and images) the owner can provide, the better the chance the Police have of positively identifying a stolen/recovered bike and thus returning it to its rightful owner.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. Blueth
    Member

    Don't get too optimistic. Being unconvinced that the chip had been installed on another bike I asked at a Police marking session about the possibility of having a bike scanned to check.

    The feeling seemed to be that it would be hard to find anyone who knew where the scanner was and the likelihood of it actually being in working order, if found, rather low.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. Arellcat
    Moderator

    The Police in That York were using what could be vaguely described as a cross between an industrial tattoo machine and a dot matrix printer. Instead of pre-made stencils and blue goo, they'd program it with the appropriate numbers and letters and bzzzt-bzzzt-bzzzt into the paint.

    All seemed great until I asked them how the registration process worked, and they said they marked the bikes with the owner's postcode and maybe some other bits and pieces.

    Today I discovered for myself, by way of idle experimentation, just how hellishly easy it is to obtain the code for a locked 4-digit combination cable lock, if said lock is on the cheap side. Of course, five minutes' fiddling is a long time for people who would rather simply carry bolt cutters.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. the canuck
    Member

    "The frame number is usually stamped into the bottom bracket shell or dropout, no?"

    on my Specialized, there's a model number on a sticker on the top of the bottom bracket, and the serial number is engraved on the bottom of the bottom bracket.

    Posted 5 years ago #

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