While this is the mountain bike capital of the world, unfortunately it is also the stolen bike capital. I have been buying and selling bikes for some time and in July 2006 I decided to start a program called Bike Rescue here in Vancouver, BC. The program is all about getting stolen bikes back to their owners, assisting victims of bike theft with replacement bikes and we are moving towards doing more education & awareness of the bike theft problem and prevention tactics.
Basically, the program works within 2 frameworks. The first is done by scouring the area, internet & ads for ‘too good to be true’ bike deals. We then meet with the individual selling the bike and try to determine if they have a suspect bike. If we feel the bike warrants further attention we then ask the due diligence question of 'Is this bike stolen?'. One would think that everyone selling a bike would automatically answer no to that question, but I have become pretty good at getting to the bottom of the origins of a bike. If the seller admits to the bike being stolen, then we are not able to purchase the bike (it is illegal to knowingly buy or sell stolen goods). The information of the transaction is noted and then given to local authorities (my knowledge to date is that only 2 of these leads have ever been followed up on, both leading to seizure of the bikes and one to an arrest for drug possession but not the bike). If the seller maintains that the bike is not stolen we then negotiate the purchase of the bike and bring it to the Bike Rescue program. This includes online serial number checks, searching the bike sites & internet for stolen bike reports and posting 'recovered bikes' lists on our site (in the future we want to start posting lists at a few different locations that are bike centric like bike shops, coffee shops, school campuses). We also submit extensive detailed lists to the police and are often able to find a match through the description of a bike, not just with a serial number.
The second way our program works is when we receive a report of a stolen bike. This allows me to be a bit more aggressive in my search efforts. Armed with the knowledge of a bike being stolen allows me to do a quick identification of a bike when I see it. All to often the resources available to both police and private individuals is sorely lacking & updated too slowly to identify bikes that have been stolen within the last 30 days. This window of opportunity allows thieves and their ilk to to effectively sell and ride stolen bikes with little if any threat of consequences from the police. If we identify a potentially stolen bike, we then have some choices to make. Stolen bikes will often change hands rapidly and many times within the first few days. The trail back to the original perpetrator of the theft is so convoluted and cold that the odds of figuring out who it actually was, let alone the police charging them is highly unlikely (and convictions are virtually non existent unless the thief is caught red handed). If the bike is in a situation that I can safely relay the information to the police and have the bike seized, that is the preferred course of action. All to often, bikes disappear quickly and are never seen again or chances of retribution by the thief / seller is too great so we need to decide 'Do I buy it or walk away?'. While I have confidence in my ability to gauge and handle a dangerous situation, I am not willing to put myself or others in a position of one day having some one come up from behind with a baseball bat because they think I gave information about them to the police. Many bikes are not purchased the first time I come across them due to the circumstances surrounding them. Another choice is to purchase the bike with the full intention of returning it to the rightful owner. When a bike is purchased, I keep little if any records of the transaction for the very reason I just gave (I am not a police officer and therefore do not enjoy the protection or training they have). The trick of course is to not reward thieves and criminals for their efforts. I do not deal with the same people on a regular basis, even if it is to retrieve a known stolen bike. Obviously if the same person is knowingly (or purposefully ignorant about) reselling stolen bikes they are part of the problem and should be dealt with by the police not private citizens. There are however a rather large number of people who do buy and sell bikes privately and are completely on the up & up (one of these people is who actually showed me how to check serial numbers online, thanks James!), but occasionally even they come into possession of suspect bikes.
Recovered bikes are returned either directly to their owners or to the police. With police returns, we have often been instructed by one agency to return the bike to the appropriate enforcement organization within the jurisdiction from which the bike was originally stolen. To date, we have had minimal contact with owners who have been reunited with their bikes through police involved returns. Interestingly, I often attach a Bike Rescue card to these bikes and have counted 8 of them being resold at police auctions (and 11 more without cards attached). Bikes returned directly to their owners are obviously the most prefer of the possible scenarios. The surprise and joy you see on the face of someone who is reunited with their bike is the single best reward in doing this whole thing. Often, people having their bikes returned to them ask if they owe us anything for the service. The spiel goes something like this: "The bike is yours to take free of charge. Who are we, or anyone for that matter, to demand or even ask that you pay to have your own property returned to you. While we did pay $xxx for the bike, that is covered by the resale of unclaimed bikes. If you agree with the Bike rescue program, whatever you feel good with between a handshake and full reimbursement for a bike is OK by us. But there is no obligation to pay anything." To date, the total of reimbursements is around $6700, an old school Specialized Ground Control, a bottle of wine and a set of new top notch Race Face Atlas cranks for the $150,000+ worth of bikes returned. Keep in mind that the majority of bikes are returned to the police and the owners are never even aware of Bike Rescue having been responsible for the return of the bike.
After a minimum of 30 days from the time we come into possession of a bike, if we can not find any reports of a bike being stolen or lost, we then resell the bike to assist in financing the program. The 30 day hold is self imposed to allow victims the opportunity to report a theft and time for the CPIC (Central Police Information Center) database to update. It is during this time period that we conduct our own searches for stolen bike reports and often connect with the rightful owner long before the bike ever shows up in the CPIC database. Some bikes are donated to local charities such as OCB (Our Community Bikes), and we are hopeful we will be able to start up a bike gift program for those who could not otherwise afford a bike. Our goal in the near future is to establish ourselves as a not-for-profit society, but this could take several months, possibly as long as 2 years. Until then, it is being run as a one man show of sorts. But of course there are always many behind any successful endeavor. That said, if anything goes wrong (and boy has it a few times!) I personally accept full responsibility for the running of Bike Rescue.
Since starting the program on a full scale basis in July 2006, we have returned well over 150+ bikes at no charge to their owners (some have given full or partial reimbursement for monies we paid out for bikes, but that is their choice and not a requirement). The most celebrated bikes were Ken Maude’s from Race Face who’s pair of custom HUKK bikes were stolen and we found them for him. The most notorious was a Kona Dr Dew returned to it's owner in January 2008 and led to a good thrashing of Bike Rescue on CTV news (see the link page for the archived story). We have put nearly 500 bikes through the program, many of which are still in our possession because they are awaiting police check clearances, have come back as stolen in the checks & are awaiting the owner or to be turned over to the police, or they have cleared all the checks and we are still searching around to see if anyone has reported a lost or stolen bike that fits the description and time frame (this usually applies to odd ball & highly customized bikes that can be easily identified by the owners). Since we want to concentrate more on the return aspect and not simply become a used bike store, we generally sell only enough bikes needed to keep us going. And any one who thinks this is a lucrative business, you really need to see my VISA balance!
To claim a bike that is in the program, the claimant needs to fulfill only a few basic requirements to prove not only previous ownership but that it was in fact stolen. This can be done by providing a police incident number which includes the serial number that predates the time frame of of the bike coming into our possession and proof of ownership such as a receipt. For a claim without a serial number or proof of ownership, a claimant must provide detailed information about a bike prior to viewing it. I rarely change or alter bikes except to fix broken parts prior to resale. When they are changed, I take note of the changes and require the claimant to describe the changes made to the bike (a prime example is the Van's sticker I removed from a Norco Atomik and the owner not only could tell me about the missing stickers but was wearing the shoes the stickers came with on the day he picked up the bike!). To date, there have been 4 attempts to scam a bike out of me that I have caught on to.
Bike Rescue is a sole proprietorship operation that is trying to be run on a not for profit model. At this point I still consider this to be a pilot project as the viability of running it has yet to be determined. However, we try to keep a positive balance around $5000 if you consider the the bikes in inventory being sold at a reasonable value. This buffer is what allows us to continue to bring bikes into the program and return bikes free of charge. Some people seem to think that there is money to be made in doing this project. As any bike shop owner can attest to, there is a very narrow margin in bikes, let alone when you start returning bikes for free. Essentially it is run from volunteer efforts with some monies paid to mechanics for servicing that I am unable to perform.
Bike rescue is in no way affiliated with any law enforcement agency nor is it a publicly audited entity. We do have a great working relationship with the Vancouver Police Anti-Fencing Unit and the Coquitlam detachment of the RCMP. They have and continue to assist us with bike checks through both serial number and description matches. Once a bike is identified as stolen or suspect, the bike is turned over to the appropriate jurisdiction for further investigation or to be returned to the rightful owner. It is not uncommon for law enforcement to contact us about a suspect bike that has no serial number match but is a close enough match to a description of a bike stolen within their jurisdiction. We then hand over the suspect bike to the police and allow them to finish an investigation of the bike to determine if it is in fact the bike they are looking for. As many bikes that they have identified by this method have also been returned to us due to the bike not being the one they are looking for. Also, on a number of occasions officers have referred the victims to our site to report their the missing bike to us. While the relationship we have slowly forged with the police has been rocky at times, the fact that 9 Vancouver Police Officers, 5 RCMP members and two instructors at the Justice Institute have all purchased bikes from me in the last 2 years I feel speaks to the level of confidence they must have in what Bike Rescue is doing.
Not all things with this program are roses and puppy dogs. There have been a number of mistakes made along the way and it is a constantly evolving beast. While the majority of people I have had contact with like the program in principle, I most certainly have my critics that consider it to be adding to the problem. The biggest complaints surround misunderstandings about my methodology for purchasing bikes and the amount of information I share with law enforcement agencies. Obviously, I am concerned for my personal safety and will not get into a discussion about the amount of information I share with the police or the details involved in the purchase of any bikes. It is tough at times to see both myself and this program treated like a piñata because I can not enter into a discussion without compromising my personal safety, but that is some thing I can live with when it comes to doing something I believe in. And since I don't see any others out there doing any other viable solution, this program will continue to run as long as I can maintain it. To loosely quote my favorite movie line, "My faith does not require others to believe."
I am always open to discussion and I can be easily contacted through both email and phone. Thanks for giving this a read and your interest in Bike Rescue.
Cheers!
Gord
www.bikerescue.org
(604) 788-8706