Bike Shop Uses BikeChecker Facility To Recover Stolen Bike
15 Dec 2015A STOLEN bike has been recovered after a thief tried to sell it to a cycle shop in Wandsworth and the observant retailer checked its status on BikeRegister, the National Cycle Database.
The thief offered the nearly new Genesis Borough bike worth around £700 for sale to the cycle shop, claiming that it had come into his possession via a house clearance.
The retailer was immediately suspicious when the thief accepted a low offer for the bike, but as he had agreed to provide photo ID (which the bike shop photocopied) and a mobile number, the shop assumed that it was a legitimate sale.
It was only when the shop’s maintenance team were servicing the bike to prepare it for sale that they noticed it smelled like someone had been using an angle grinder near it. Angle grinders are commonly used by thieves to remove bike locks.
As a result of this suspicion, they did a search on the bike’s frame number using the BikeChecker facility (www.bikeregister.com/bike-checker) on the BikeRegister database and found that it had been flagged up as stolen.
Retailers and members of the public can use BikeChecker to check the origin of second-hand bikes being offered to them for sale. The use of BikeChecker is also recommended in BikeRegister’s Code of Practice for the Purchase and Sale of Second-hand bikes, which has been developed for retailers in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police Service and other police partners.
Once it was established that the bike was stolen, the Met Police got involved and were able to contact Niall Branley, the real owner, to tell him that the stolen bike had been found. The bike thief is currently being sought by police.
Niall said: “Even though I had the bike securely locked with a D lock and a combination lock, the thief still managed to steal it from outside my home which is on the top floor of a block of flats. He was clearly very determined and obviously knew the value of the bike.”
Delighted to have the bike back, Niall said: “I would definitely recommend getting your bike registered and marked as it is the only way that the police were able to identify it and return it to me. I will be recommending BikeRegister to all my work colleagues and urging them to get their bikes registered too. Keep up the good work!”
For further information and images contact: Jodie Fisher, Marketing Executive for Selectamark.
Phone: +44 (0)1689 487829
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @bikeregister
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