Polaris OBark

I hope this is the correct forum for this. Interesting read:

https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-...alisco-mexico/

Robvolz 

damn paywall

Bald Paul

Unbelievable!

WaveyGravey

My bikes are low tech vintage for the most part. Hopefully will not attract thieves.

Iride01 

New story about the same stuff that's been going on for many decades.

vol

I thought with the increase of bike sharing programs bike theft would decrease.

slow rollin

Yup. More reason to stay out of the bay. This is why we can't have nice things.

JW Fas

Copy/paste any article URL into the search of archive.is, and you'll get a non-paywalled version to read.

https://archive.is/FJTkg

Polaris OBark

I didn't get the paywall.

Sorry.

(Brave Browser, legal bypass: https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome )

Paul Barnard

That was a very interesting read. Both fascinating and infuriating.

Polaris OBark

You should read the article.

Iride01 

I did. But once you get all the human interest part out of the way it's the same thing that's been going on for ages. Just different people and different tools of the trade on both sides.

Maelochs

Non-news flash: there are people who realize that stealing expensive bicycles and selling them in an organized fashion is still profitable.

Polaris OBark

The mix of $10K+ bikes, the international theft ring aspect, and very brazen internet resale of a vast stock of stolen bicycles, as well as the BikeIndex OC sleuthing are all inconsistent with "been going on for ages."

(I guess I was being generous in assuming that you hadn't bothered to look before commenting, here and in the other thread.)

Iride01 

Well they weren't $10,000 bikes back then. Not certain why for the purpose of my comment that bike index matters. That's just a new tool, IMO.

Like a lot of articles today, I don't think the author researched fully and just took and made some comments suggesting this is all a new thing. When it really isn't IMO.

Polaris OBark

Maybe you should read (or comprehend) the article.

Iride01 

What is it you think I need to comprehend. Or are you not comprehending the article well enough to tell us what that is?

Polaris OBark

If you aren't interested in the topic, why not simply skip the two threads you have made (uninformed) comments in?

Maelochs

Which parts are new?

One wrinkle is that is one company selling a lot of used bikes online ... as opposed to what? I assume stolen bikes have always been listed for sale online ... and I assume that the same people listed a lot of bikes since not everyone does this ... it isn't like teams were stealing for themselves, but were stealing for an organizer (nobody rents or steals a van, coveralls, and power tools and goes out stealing high-end bikes without first knowing where to fence them.

As for a Mexican crime cartel of some sort controlling a lot of theft in California and bike-friendly western locales... okay. That is new ... but how does it matter? I assume there is a similar organized-crime link to most Boston-New York-area thefts too.

Tye news that law enforcement isn't putting serious resources into recovering stolen bikes? Yes, that is a shocking change ........

When I read this article my take is ... yup, people are still stealing high-end bikes. Of course, people are still stealing bikes of all types. My bikes are not "high-end" but they are still likely to get stolen if I get careless -- obviously high-end bikes attract more organized thieves.

What is the Big News, though? There is no new technique revealed here ... pretty sure it is people breaking into buildings or cutting chains with grinders, something which has been going on for a long, long time.

There is no new tip on how to keep bikes safe.

There is really no actionable information at all.

This is a mildly interesting and reasonably well-written article (a bit hard to read in the little window because I didn't sneak around the pay wall, nor did I pay) but I only read it to see what all the debate was about and now that I read it ... meh. What is the Earthshaking News which makes this article so important?

I am not that interested in organized crime or the failure of the US government to prosecute international crime. And so far as I can see, the only real "story" here is not about bike theft, but rather about a Mexican criminal conspiracy operating with impunity in the US. The fact that it is bikes and not pure-bred poodles or cars or jewelry .... sort of incidental.

base2 

Well, I liked the article.
I also like that the guy behind Bike Index has a similarly hyper developed sense of right & wrong to develop a platform with which to track, report, share, and correlate all the data. Not that much will ever come of it, it's a lot better than nothing.

For a variety of reasons not germane to the discussion, America's police have sort of decided to sit on their hands. Even if they didn't all the thief has gotta say when found in possession of stolen property is they bought it legit "from a guy in the Jimmy John's parking lot" and claim to not have a description to help the police with. Investigating anything related to stolen property is a non-starter for the police. Indeed, even reporting a theft is a waste of their time with useless customer service burdens.

It's no surprise a cartel has taken advantage of this fact. No, I don't expect this to change. But, it's nice to know someone, somewhere is concerned enough to try.

I found a Bianchi Volpe once in Seattle on Bike Index. It was stolen from Vermont, 15 years prior. None of the contact information was actionable. Re-registered and sold it.

I found a Salsa Journeyman once. It was not on Bike Index. I knew it was stolen. I bought it off the thief. After a bit of examination, I called the Bikeshop on the seat tube sticker. Explained the situation, serial number, etc...They took my information and said they'd see what they could do. After a bit the proper owner called me and we arranged to meet at the local police station. He reluctantly agreed to pay me the price I paid to get the bike back from the thief. I would've given his bike back free of charge if he declined and eaten the loss myself just to do the right thing. It happened to work out.

The shop had a bike stolen. We filed a police report and notified Bike Index. A week or 2 goes buy and a random guy shows up with a story that he'd bought the bike in a local parking lot. I said: "that's nice." wheeled the bike over to the repair stand, secured it there and had an employee call the cops. I heard every excuse in the book. I even expressed sympathy that he bought a stolen bike and unwittingly delivered it to the rightful owners. It became a game of chicken. Would he leave before the cops arrived? I told him the bike was marked and would forever be documented as stolen as long as that bike exists. He'll never be able to take it to a shop or get it serviced. I turned the computer monitor so that he could see the Bike Index page, the police report number and the bold red "STOLEN" in the status line. I then offered to sell it to him legitimately for exactly my cost to diffuse the situation. (My cost+his cost still equaled a great deal.) As soon as the cops arrived 45 minutes after the initial phone call, he bolted. Never to be heard from again.

Such is the bike world.

Iride01 

If you don't like my comments, then why not just ignore them so you don't have us both filling the thread with comments many other won't care for?

Polaris OBark

Thanks for the suggestion.

Iride01 

Thank you!

Roughstuff

I have the solution. Develop a bicycle seat and seat post that can detect the proper butt for its true rider. If someone else uses it BOOM! some plastic explosive in the seat detonates and the thief becomes cheekless. Artificial intelligence to the rescue.

Paul Barnard

Can you point me to another such instance? High dollar bicycles stolen. Transported across an international border. Being sold online in original form. U.S. officials pretty well ignored it. A citizen undertook an extensive investigation. Found a person overseas behind the thefts. Found a stateside business involved in the thefts. U.S. officials still did pretty much nothing.

I'll enjoy reading that story too.