Are stolen bikes ever recovered?

[tc1]

Check with your local law enforcement. A few times a year they may hold an auction of unclaimed recovered stolen property, and bikes are always on their list. I have never been to one, the boyfriend says 5 bikes is plenty. And we are out of storage space.

[NbyNW]

Yes, don't give up hope. I still haven't found mine (I may never stop looking), but Meg did find hers, seven months later on craigslist. The police recovered it and they have been reunited!

There was another woman who had her bike stolen around the same time as I did (a 44 cm Cannondale w/ 650 c wheels -- all of our bikes were distinctive for their small size), and I found her bike on craigslist a few weeks ago, for sale down in Tacoma. I called her right away, and she called the police. I have not yet heard back whether they've been able to retrieve it, but I noticed the next day that the ad had been pulled, so hopefully that's a good sign.

I ended up filing an insurance claim for my bike and had a new one in about two months. It's "of like kind" as far as the insurance company is concerned, but it doesn't feel the same as the one I lost, but bikes are unique that way . . . I'm getting used to it.

[newfsmith]

Many years ago, my son had a freestyle BMX that he had built part by part, until he finally bought the Haro frame of his dreams and transferred all the parts to it. A few months later, while he was delivering papers to a second floor apartment, it was stolen. We reported it to the police, but assumed it was gone. Fortunately for him, we were able to place a claim on our household insurance and he got a new bike. A year later, the police called and asked him to come ID his bike. It had been located 2 towns over, in a "bike chop shop" that had been found during a drug bust. We then had to go to the insurance company to pay back their settlement, but he did get his original bike back. However, he couldn't look at it without crying again. He finally gave it to a friend.