The Chainlink

Listing and recovery story:

http://chicago.stolenbike.org/node/193546

Theft in action:

Craigslist ad:

Seller info as per victim:

Name: Kirk Gxxxxxx
Phone:             773-621-5936      
Address: xxxxxxxx, Chicago, IL
Description: white male, approx 6'0'', approx 40 YO, pony tail
(edit-- info removed-- contact me if you need it.)
My guess is that the seller hits our favorite cesspool at 41st/Ashland early and often and keeps the thieves/fences in business.
Seller gets his money, victim ends up paying buyer, no legal consequences to anyone.
Stinks to high heaven.

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I'm OK with the assault charge if I keep my bike and they get beat...

That said I doubt very much the guy risking a petty theft charge is wiling to risk making it a much larger charge that the police actually care about.  These guys are jerks with angle grinders looking to make a couple hundred bucks with little risk not Scarface.

Chi Lowe said:

I was being hyperbolic there.  Maybe not shot.  Maybe stabbed.  Maybe you find yourself in a position where you have to fight, and you successfully defend your property, but you end up in jail for aggravated assault or worse.  Maybe the thief runs off.  Point is, you don't know until you get yourself into the situation.

In *your* non-criminal mind, if you were stealing a bike and someone shouted "stop thief" or showed up with a club, you might think twice.  But you're not a criminal.  That person stealing the bike in the picture is.  That automatically means they're not operating by the same set of rules, and that you shouldn't assume you have any sense of how they would react if confronted. 

Anyway, I'm not trying to judge.  Just shine some light on perhaps unconsidered potential outcomes.  At my age, I just try to avoid that kind of chaos.


notoriousDUG said:

I really doubt a bike thief is packing and willing to kill for a bike but even with that as a remote chance I would be willing to make them show it to me before I was willing to let them take my bike.

I'd like to hear more about this Chicagoland hippie-punching task force. 



Daniel G said:

These shitheads are taking too. many. bikes. And I really think they're killing the goose.

In most places, you inform the thieving community that they are becoming a problem by going out and arresting some of them and charging them with crimes. Maybe some of Chicago's hippie-punching task force could be diverted to using their talents to beat up bike thieves.

Until the police can be bothered to care, or passerbys can be trusted to say something, I'm looking into a GPS device that can be slipped into the handlebars or seat tube. Don't see any other way.

I'm pretty sure they have their own website...
Apie said:

I'd like to hear more about this Chicagoland hippie-punching task force. 



Daniel G said:

These shitheads are taking too. many. bikes. And I really think they're killing the goose.

In most places, you inform the thieving community that they are becoming a problem by going out and arresting some of them and charging them with crimes. Maybe some of Chicago's hippie-punching task force could be diverted to using their talents to beat up bike thieves.

Until the police can be bothered to care, or passerbys can be trusted to say something, I'm looking into a GPS device that can be slipped into the handlebars or seat tube. Don't see any other way.

It's a pretty safe bet that every single person posting here is a criminal to some extent. It's not like Criminal is some distinct species. 

Bike theft is such a low-risk crime that any amount of confrontation would probably move someone along to steal a bike elsewhere. 

Chi Lowe said:

I was being hyperbolic there.  Maybe not shot.  Maybe stabbed.  Maybe you find yourself in a position where you have to fight, and you successfully defend your property, but you end up in jail for aggravated assault or worse.  Maybe the thief runs off.  Point is, you don't know until you get yourself into the situation.

In *your* non-criminal mind, if you were stealing a bike and someone shouted "stop thief" or showed up with a club, you might think twice.  But you're not a criminal.  That person stealing the bike in the picture is.  That automatically means they're not operating by the same set of rules, and that you shouldn't assume you have any sense of how they would react if confronted. 

Anyway, I'm not trying to judge.  Just shine some light on perhaps unconsidered potential outcomes.  At my age, I just try to avoid that kind of chaos.


notoriousDUG said:

I really doubt a bike thief is packing and willing to kill for a bike but even with that as a remote chance I would be willing to make them show it to me before I was willing to let them take my bike.

Not saying that this Kirk dude isn't knowingly flipping stolen bikes; but take a look at the pics of the Masi in the stolen registry, and compare to the CL pics. They don't seem to me to be the same bike.

Read the recovery description.

NYC said:

Not saying that this Kirk dude isn't knowingly flipping stolen bikes; but take a look at the pics of the Masi in the stolen registry, and compare to the CL pics. They don't seem to me to be the same bike.

I am am not a big girl, but I would run up to someone and yell at them if I saw them stealing my bike. It is so easy to steal a bike, I really think they would just drop it and move on.  How often do shop lifters turn around and try to beat the shit out of security guards? They usually run.  I am always amazed when I hear about strangers walking by as someone is stealing a bike, and they do not do anything. I am straight shocked to hear about someone watching their own bike get stolen. 

What if it was your car, you child, your dog? I know these are not the same as a bike, but how would you react to these?

Here is a fun story about how to stop a bike thief  

http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/the-bike-thief-chapter-1-its?

It looks like he might be trying to steal the pink bike while the "Masi" is, to my eye, completely unidentifiable.  This is one strange thread...

The whole story is here at your fingertips, but if you'd rather just stare at the image and not read any of the text or follow the link I could see how that might be entertaining for you.

Zoetrope said:

It looks like he might be trying to steal the pink bike while the "Masi" is, to my eye, completely unidentifiable.  This is one strange thread...

Wow. Has Dug completed his studies of how long it takes to defeat various locks with an angle grinder? Wasn't he collecting old bike locks as some part of experiment? Looks like this took ~5 min to defeat a Krypto Evolution from the stolen bike registry report. Yikes! 

I have not gotten any new locks lately.

I very much doubt it took 5 minutes to defeat the lock but it does take longer to defeat a lock 'in the wild' because it is harder to hold it steady.


prof.gfr said:

Wow. Has Dug completed his studies of how long it takes to defeat various locks with an angle grinder? Wasn't he collecting old bike locks as some part of experiment? Looks like this took ~5 min to defeat a Krypto Evolution from the stolen bike registry report. Yikes! 

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