Sometime around the Fourth of July our family bikes were stolen from our backyard near Hawthorne Elementary in Idaho Falls. Two bikes and a hook on rider bike were stolen. I have never had anything stolen before and it just makes me sad.
One was my bike (the mom) that had a We-Go rider connected to it. We just bought this addition so our little guy could go on bike rides with us. My son’s 20inch Kent mtn. bike was also stolen.
We are really sad that our family can no longer go on our nightly bike rides.
Here are the pictures of the bikes, if you have seen them please contact us. No questions asked we just want our bikes back. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28443107@N02/ thanks, Donna 681-3769
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
First of all, I’m sorry for your loss.
Did you report this to the Police? (Of course, they offer no promise to recover the stolen property, but it puts a stake in the ground for other things to turn up.)
For example, most people who steal bikes, tools, etc. aren’t interested in keeping the merchandise…they want money. First stop: pawn shops. I don’t know how many pawn shops are still operating in town, but the reputable ones should receive daily police reports with descriptions of property that’s been reported stolen. They should also require the “seller” to show valid I.D. and keep that record on file, so they can be identified if and when any items they pawned match descriptions in the police report. But if your bikes aren’t reported to the police, they’ll never show up on the report.
Of course, a lot of thieves are aware of how good pawn shops operate, and they’ll avoid them and opt for more private transactions.
With bikes, the best thing you can do (besides locking them up) is to take pictures, as you did, and to keep the serial numbers on file so if they’re recovered, you can provide proof of ownership.
From a person whose bicycles are treasured like family members, I truly hope you are able to get your bikes back. If not, I hope that some stroke of good fortune gets you back on some new bikes instead. Best of luck!
I remember having a bicycle stolen many years ago at the (then new) Shop-Ko. I left it unlocked outside for about 10 minutes while I went in to buy something. My heart sank when I got outside and saw it missing.
Good luck on finding your bicycles.
Thanks for your sympathy. Luckily we had all of the serial numbers for the bikes and we did report it to the police first thing. They said there was about a 60% chance or recovery with the amount of information we had, pictures and numbers. We also went to the bike depot and looked. For anyone who is not familiar the bike depot is behind the animal shelter and it is where the police take bikes when they find them abandoned. There are a lot of nice bikes down there! I hadn’t thought of checking out the pawn shops that is a good idea. I have kept my eyes out on craigslist and posted a similiar article there as well.
Here’s a tip I’ve done to all the bikes I’ve owned since I was little: Take off one of the “grips” on the handlebars and then take a piece of paper and write your name address and phone number on it, roll it up loosely and then stuff in the handlbar. Put the grip back on and viola!
I’ve had bikes stolen out of my garage, off my front & back porch. It only takes a second for them to disappear. I always keep my locked up even in the garage. It’s ashame we have to resort to this, but it’s cheaper than spending hundreds of dollars for a new bike.
Many times people will shave the serial number off or paint the bike before trying to pawn or sell it. A thief never thinks to look in the handlebars for any ID. Living in a big city I’ve had numerous bikes stolen over the years. Usually I never got them back, but this little trick has worked twice for me in ID’ing my bike once it was found. Both times the serial number was removed and once they spray painted it a different color. But all I had to do was pull off the grip and pull out the piece of paper with my name & address on it.
It’s a cheap alternative and what do you have to loose? (cept your bike of course!)
Good luck cacao, hope yours are recovered!
WHat a terrible thing. At least you had the serial numbers. Its a good thing for everyone to write down serial numbers and even take a photo for identification. You never know, they may show up.
Welcome to Mayberry…..I don’t lock my doors…house, car…anything. But then,we have a big mean dog in the house.
We did get a really cool wagon for our little girls several years ago that was stolen out of our yard.
Police report? Remembering that this is Mayberry, it would have taken them a month to show up to make the report (it WAS after all just a wagon) and then we never would have heard from our city’s finest again.
Just curious if the bicycles were locked? I
There are deeper roots to this problem. As with most crime, the gangs have turned this into a business. Local bangers round up the bikes and a truck moves them all to California or wherever else to sell. Watch you goodies.
My son’s bike was just stolen about a week and a half ago. It was a 20″ Harley Davidson bike that was bright orange. If anyone sees one like it, please let me know. I will have the police look into any that look like this. It is no longer sold. Thank you!
208-357-8713
Yesterday a friend told me that both of her daughters’ little motorcycles were stolen while they were charging in the back yard.
A couple of years ago, my son’s Haro BMX and helmet were stolen, which he accidentally left right next to our front door overnight. I ran an ad in the Post Register (even offered a $100 reward), posted posters around the neighborhood, as well as filed a police report. Even though I had several pictures of the bike and serial number, the officer told me that he was confident that the number would have been immediately filed off, and the bike would most likely be repainted within a day or two. This happened during a rash of bike thefts in our area.
I sure hope you get lucky, and that the creep responsible gets caught! I would also check E-Bay, in addition to Craigs. Luckily when we were a victim, the creep did not realize that about 10 steps away was my new Haro, as well as two Treks that were near new, sitting in our unlocked garage. I now never forget to walk the yard every evening, as well as check to make sure the garage/cars are locked.
To CR67: That is an awesome tip, and one I have not heard of before! Guess what I will be doing tonight. Thanks for sharing!