Large quantity of bikes recovered by police
I thought I would recycle the "bike thief in custody" thread.
Sadly only one bike was returned to its owner-- the rest will probably end up at police auction down the road.
Quick debriefing- the thieves are back out on the street, reports matching their MO have been coming in daily, and their vehicle was spotted this morning. Stay tuned for a separate post on that subject.
This week a north suburban police department reportedly recovered around 100 bikes. A Chicago victim from the Lakeview neighborhood who lost her and her husband's bikes in a garage break-in spotted it on craigslist and got help from the police in that suburb.
It is unclear as of yet whether the seller is an actual thief or a habitual customer of thieves.
I am waiting to hear back from a Chicago detective (yes, there is a Chicago detective with an interest in bike theft!) who was going to try to get an inventory list. He uses the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry in addition to whatever mysterious police- internal database he may have at his disposal to identify owners of recovered bikes.
So, apologies if you've read this before, but the majority of these bikes are not going to find their way back to their rightful owners by themselves-- please, if you know anyone who's lost a bike in the past few weeks/months, please please please urge them to place a report at stolenbike.org, and to at least try to file a police report by calling 311 (the most reasonable wait times by far are at night.)
Old thread content follows.
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On Saturday police took a known bike thief into custody, impounded their vehicle, and seized 5 bikes. One has been claimed (the owner reported it to the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry later in the day.) Unable to give further details at this time, sorry.
There are still 4 "victimless" bikes waiting to be claimed. They have most likely been stolen in the past week-10 days. These thieves seem to favor Logan Square, Wicker Park, Bucktown.
If you know or hear of someone who has lost a bike in the past few weeks, please please urge them to make a report ASAP at the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry ("stolenbike.org") and if it's a match we'll get in touch with them immediately.
Thanks!
Sadly only one bike was returned to its owner-- the rest will probably end up at police auction down the road.
Quick debriefing- the thieves are back out on the street, reports matching their MO have been coming in daily, and their vehicle was spotted this morning. Stay tuned for a separate post on that subject.
This week a north suburban police department reportedly recovered around 100 bikes. A Chicago victim from the Lakeview neighborhood who lost her and her husband's bikes in a garage break-in spotted it on craigslist and got help from the police in that suburb.
It is unclear as of yet whether the seller is an actual thief or a habitual customer of thieves.
I am waiting to hear back from a Chicago detective (yes, there is a Chicago detective with an interest in bike theft!) who was going to try to get an inventory list. He uses the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry in addition to whatever mysterious police- internal database he may have at his disposal to identify owners of recovered bikes.
So, apologies if you've read this before, but the majority of these bikes are not going to find their way back to their rightful owners by themselves-- please, if you know anyone who's lost a bike in the past few weeks/months, please please please urge them to place a report at stolenbike.org, and to at least try to file a police report by calling 311 (the most reasonable wait times by far are at night.)
Old thread content follows.
===
On Saturday police took a known bike thief into custody, impounded their vehicle, and seized 5 bikes. One has been claimed (the owner reported it to the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry later in the day.) Unable to give further details at this time, sorry.
There are still 4 "victimless" bikes waiting to be claimed. They have most likely been stolen in the past week-10 days. These thieves seem to favor Logan Square, Wicker Park, Bucktown.
If you know or hear of someone who has lost a bike in the past few weeks, please please urge them to make a report ASAP at the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry ("stolenbike.org") and if it's a match we'll get in touch with them immediately.
Thanks!
Views: 59
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on
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Sorry folks, still no word, and it's not looking like there will be.
I can't remember who at this point (it was either the victim that led police to the bust, or the Chicago detective) mentioned they thought there might be a public viewing.
At this point feel free to call the Morton Grove police station and ask when that viewing might be-- maybe it will light a fire under them to get it set up.
The recovered bike was supposedly purchased by the arrestee at a northwest suburban flea market; it was stolen from a garage in Lakeview days before, and the arrestee, who told police he was running a "repair shop" (but had no paperwork whatsoever) had already changed major components on the bike in order to put it up on craigslist without the owner recognizing it. The woman who led police to the bikes had dismissed the ad at first but decided to pursue it-- she only recognized her bike by her serial number, which the shop she bought it at (On the Route) still had on file.
"Teaching moment" time . . .
If you're reading, and there's no record of your bike's serial number anywhere . . .you would not have been able to recover your bike or help facilitate an arrest if this happened to you.
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I don't think the Morton Grove PD grasp the idiocy of having every bike theft victim in Chicagoland make a trip to Morton Grove on the tiny chance their bike is there, but here goes:
On Saturday October 30 the MGPD is having an "open house" where the "well over 100" bikes recovered from a guy running a "repair shop" (see above) will be available for potential owners to identify them.
Owners are expected to have a copy of their police report, ID, and proof of ownership.
The info I received says 12 to 4 PM.
I would absolutely confirm this closer to the date.
I am working on seeing if we can have a team get up there either that day or ideally beforehand to check the bikes against the Stolen Bike Registry.
Please, if you haven't already, list your stolen bike at stolenbike.org and make sure a police report has been filed.
Please don't post any individual bikes to this thread-- it won't be checked and we won't remember.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on
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Here's a link to the TribLocal article which appeared in yesterday's paper.
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Thanks-- note corrected time-- 1-4 PM.
"Well over a hundred" has become 83 . . . it sounds like they've at least got through the "counting the bikes" phase of inventorying . . .
Kevin Conway said:Here's a link to the TribLocal article which appeared in yesterday's paper.
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Permalink Reply by Ace Mann on
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Kevin Conway said:Here's a link to the TribLocal article which appeared in yesterday's paper.
Kevin thanks for the link.
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