Bicycle Thief, or Just Someone With a Replenishing Superfluity of Bikes for Sale?
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- By Greggory Moore Follow @greggory_moore
- | Friday, 19 August 2011 04:23
10:18am | So I'm making preparations for Burning Man, right, and I don't have a bike. I've been meaning to get one anyway, so I'm on the hunt.
I want something cheap — decent quality, but cheap — because a) I have
yet to figure out how to make bank with this writing thing, and b) there
are SO many bike thefts around town that should I become the next
victim, I don't want to feel overly stressed over the loss and
replacement.
Before starting my craigslist to search, it occurred to me that I would
have no way of knowing whether this or that listed bicycle is stolen. I
figure some of them must be. A bloke steals a bike, he's gotta sell the
damn thing somehow, right?
Well, call me Eddie Ethico, but I don't want anything to do with stolen
property — I don't care how good the deal is; and ignorance of such a
thing is not what I call bliss.
While perusing the ads, I came across one with a couple of mountain
bikes for sale. $70, ready to ride. "Have other bikes also," the ad
said.
Monday I go see the guy, who lifts the door of his near-empty apartment
garage to reveal five bicycles. The two in back, he says, are his
personal bikes, the ones he rides. The other three are for sale, $70
apiece. He's ridden them all at one time or another, he tells me. "So
now you're finally getting around to getting rid of them?" I ask,
relatively full of credulity but finding it a little odd that he had
held on to not one, not two, but three similar bikes he no longer rode
at all.
I test-ride all three, find one in particular I like: a 21-speed Schwinn
with smooth gears and a comfy, fat seat. The rear wheel's a little
wonky, but he assures me it's just a matter of doing something or other
with the spokes (I know next to nothing about bikes). As he watches me
ponder, he drops the price to $60. I'm sold, but I don't have the cash
on me. (I'd intended to sleep on it, since I couldn't pick up the bike
until Wednesday, and I'd been wavering on whether I might rather have a
beach cruiser.) Will he take a check? He won't, and sends me off to a
nearby liquor store with an ATM.
Is it really my reluctance to pay the $2.50 transaction fee that gives
me pause? I don't know, but I return with a fib that the machine wasn't
working and promise to come back Wednesday with the cash — which I
almost fully intend to do when I say it.
During the interim I call a bike shop to see how much it would be to get
a tune-up, replace a wheel. I discuss with my Burnermate a couple of
bikes in disrepair a mutual friend says we can have. And then on
Wednesday, just for the sake of last-minute comparison, of considering
all of my options, I take another gander at craigslist.
An ad for a 20-inch Trek trail bike has just been posted. Is that too
small for my 5'8" frame? The 26-inch Schwinn I'd test-ridden seemed
fine, but the guy was significantly taller than I am, so maybe a smaller
frame might work for me, too? I click on the link.
Before I read a word of text I recognize one of the bikes in the four
pictures there. When my glance goes upscreen to the phone number, I'm
sure I know it. But of course I double-check: yes, that's the one.
The bike featured in the ad's headline is, beyond question, not one of
the three bikes offered for sale on Monday. And because of its unique
color, I am just this side of certain it is not one of the two bikes the
seller said were his current riding bikes. No, this bike is new to the
scene. Six speeds. $60. "Have other bikes also."
Maybe there's an explanation here that doesn't involve illegal activity.
But if someone were involved with bicycle theft, isn't this exactly how
the back end of whole business might go down?
I didn't buy the bike (any of them). I didn't even let the guy know I
had changed my mind. To him I say: Dude, if you're out there and you're
an upstanding citizen who really did just happen to hold onto three
bikes you weren't riding even though you had two others and then within
48 hours somehow came up with another, smaller-sized bike that you felt
like putting up for sale, my sincere apologies for flaking on you, and
for suspecting the worst.
But can you blame me?
I mean, hey, if he did that some police officer might actually find the guy, briefly detain and identify him, and determine whether Greggory's reasonable suspicions really had any merit.
Heck, some unfortunate cyclists might even get their bikes back.
We can't have that, right?
Mr. Moore's job is not to run and file a report with the police for every injustice he witnesses. His job is to report what he sees.
Reporting reasonable suspicions of criminal activity has more to do with civic and personal responsibility than it does with whether one is compensated for doing so. Sort of like filing official complaints when one suspects that a a police officer has committed misconduct.
But perhaps those are concepts somewhat alien to you.
"Cronkite, Rather" and "other greats"? Really? Greggory is an excellent writer, granted, but he is an opinionist, not a hard journalist. And I would like to hope that if either of them had ever suspected that crimes were being committed in their communities, that they would have the sense of personal and civic responsibility to report their concerns to their local PD's.
But perhaps that's just me.
Three, hard times for alot of people out there these days. Hard to jump to conclusions without any evidence. He very well could be really good at fixing up bicycles and is trying to make an honest living at doing it. (Most bicycle shops do this with used bikes, he probably can't afford the overhead of a store front.) A harder question to ask is where has trust gone in our community, the only way to build trust is to have it. (I am not preaching, I as well would be concerned and may not buy the bike) A friend just had theirs stolen and it ended up in a used bike shop just around the corner from where it was stolen.
tell me you wrote that sarcastically. please.
this guy is almost certainly a bike theif that you have unconvered yet you are not going to tell the cops and save several if not dozens of people the pain and violation of being robbed etc etc because you would rather write about it and for some bizarre reason known to no one you cant do both?
i almost typed that i hope mr moore has his house robbed and i witness it but instead of calling the cops, i write a blog post about it, maybe even submit it to the post or the PT, but i wouldnt mean that, you see, normal caring members of society dont wish awful things upon others, and they dont step out of the way and let bad things happen that they could easily stop.
wow, reading this makes me lose a little bit more of my faith in humanity.
wanted to be more, well, "proactive," you might have considered securing the serial number(s) of the bike(s) you were interested in, and while obtaining the serial number(s), you might also have gauged the seller's reaction or disposition (defensive?). Armed with this information, you might have contacted local police departments and brought it to their attention. Probably less effort than writing this article...
I sent Greggory the stills but haven't heard back yet. Perhaps the police would be interested if they had an address for the culprits.
Seller won't take a check, cash only now, after lowering his price. Red flag number two.
What guy in today's economy has five bikes, and only rides rwo of them? Another red flag, strike three.
Mr. Moore, a wise number to write down and keep in your wallet: 562-435-6711. Next time you see something this, please call this number and tell who answers it what you have told us readers. Then sit down and write your next column. Maybe you could try that number now and tell who answers where this great low cost bicycle supermarket is being operated at?
Greggory goes so far as to ask his FB pals what THEY might do if they were he. Most people I know who are Greggory's age or older are not quite so equivocal or uncertain in the face of the various clues he has personally observed in this case.
So what happens if Greggory calls?
The cops could learn that the guy was coming by his bicycles lawfully. Sweet! Greggory can tell all his friends and family about a great legal source for inexpensive bikes and the guy makes more sales!
Win-win.
On the other hand, maybe a suspected criminal gets arrested. While the guy is in custody there is one less person stealing and/or selling stolen bikes in Long Beach, and some crime victims (some of them likely to be young people) might get their rightful property back.
Yes, I can see why this would be such a difficult dilemma for Greggory.
And if you're buying a bike, you can run its serial number at stolenbicycleregistry.com/searchserial.php to see if it has been reported stolen.
Craigslist is a huge enabler of petty thieves, and they've done little to stem the tide. It's too easy for someone to steal 5, 6 bikes a day and sell them on CL with impunity. CL doesn't keep enough info on them to do anything, and the cops hardly care, even when you've found *your bike* for sale on CL.