When police stations pick up stolen bikes, do they know to look inside handlebars for business cards and addresses and stuff, or do they just check the serial number for an owner and then toss the bike into the police auction?

I've never been to a police bike auction, but I had some friends in college who went and said there were TONS of bikes there. We could register our bike serial numbers with both the campus police and the national registry. I stored my bike in my dorm room or in my house and managed to keep it thru my whole undergrad stint.