stolen..now back! gem in a pile of BSO frames...

[Voltron]

The new replacement bike... She tried a city bike type with the battery behind the seatpost, but the extra wheelbase and fenders made it too hard to park inside. So dug this frame out of the junk room... And shes back to happy except the "can I get a bigger what do you call it.. umm chainring? Yeah, get me a bigger one of those so I can pedal faster" thing again





Gotta love reflectorized tires. It's funny how now the lock is twice the size and three times the weight of the controller. Lol.

 

[Voltron]

Look who came home.... even though it's been a year and a half, recognized it instantly on a CL ad, and went over and got it back.

Now the healing begins for her...lol.

 

[wturber]

super curious how that conversation / recovery process worked.

 

[Voltron]

It was surprisingly civil. I had pics on my phone of it including the repaired crack in the headtube. I explained how it had been stolen, and he related how it had been given to him by a guy who works for the dumpster co abandoned in the trash. Im the suspicious type, but that actually sounded about right, as it was set up with backpack battery and stolen without it, and I could see your normal bike thief being to dumb to get it running, then dumping it.
I suppose it didn't hurt that I'm twice his size and had a driver with truck waiting and ready to call the cops if trouble broke out. That all made it easier to be polite about things.

 

[wturber]

It was surprisingly civil. I had pics on my phone of it including the repaired crack in the headtube. I explained how it had been stolen, and he related how it had been given to him by a guy who works for the dumpster co abandoned in the trash. Im the suspicious type, but that actually sounded about right, as it was set up with backpack battery and stolen without it, and I could see your normal bike thief being to dumb to get it running, then dumping it.
I suppose it didn't hurt that I'm twice his size and had a driver with truck waiting and ready to call the cops if trouble broke out. That all made it easier to be polite about things.

I'm not convinced by the explanation. But the main thing is you got it back with minimal hassle/resistance. What are the odds?

 

[Voltron]

Yes.. super long odds. But I'm believing more in the karmic re-balancing. This is the fourth bike I've recovered (3 of mine and 1 friends) after being stolen. It helps that I like looking at bikes, and I never forget a pretty face, and it's a medium small city.

Part of why I semi believe this guy is as I was pulling up to the house I realized he's a passing acquaintance from a few years back (small cities again), that I knew as a bike and computer guy then, so he's been living in the same house for years, married, and medium elderly, so not the classic crack head bike fence profile. I could however see him being the guy who everybody on the block knows is into bikes so he gets given junkers, as that happens to me a lot too. Or he's just a very successful conman who's really good a covering when a large righteously angry man shows up to surprise confront him as his elderly wife walks their tiny dog nearby.
Who knows the darkness that lurks in mens hearts....

 

[Chalo]

Glad to hear about the recovery. I too built a bike for my then wife, only to have it stolen (before it was motorized). About a year and a half later, a coworker found it and arranged its return. By then I had lost the reason and motivation to motorize it, so it went into my loaner fleet. Now years later, I'm reconfiguring that same bike as an e-bike for a friend who's recovering from grievous injury. So I guess there are happy endings sometimes, even if they take a long time to unfold.