What a co-incidence. It was locked up just outside the Fort St. George, with someone else's lock. Luckily I had reported the theft to the Police when it happenned, so I was able to lock it up with my own lock- and anchor chain!- and leave a note, as we waited for the police to arrive.
They turned up within half an hour or so, and James used a pair of boltcutters to remove the other lock and we took it back.
In the absence of having registered the frame number, we had to prove to the Police that the bike was mine- which I did with the blog!
I showed them the original blog post, complete with photo, that I put up back in 2008 when I bought it, and they accepted that as easily sufficient proof of ownership.
The power of blogging!
In future, we'll lock the bike up on the boat- it might be more inconvenient, but I feel it's less likely to go missing if someone has to physically get onto the boat in order to steal it.
Did you meet the New Owner or just take the bike. Maybe he bought it and will sue you for cutting his lock? ? :-)
ReplyDeleteWe phoned up the police for advice, and they said that, as it was stolen property, it was still legally Amy's, even if bought in good faith by someone else. They told us to cut that lock off to take the bike back and supervised us whilst we did it.
ReplyDeleteWe did wait around for a while to see if anyone came back, and have left a note with telephone number if the other person who had the bike wishes to get in contact.
Congratulations on the recovery of your stolen property. How lucky was that! We've had a young urchin sniffing round ours and they're brand new so I've locked them both together and around a fence... doesn't stop some people stealing them though if they're intent on doing so :o(
ReplyDeleteI suppose the fact that it turned up on your doorstep, as it were, indicates that it may have changed hands after being stolen. The original thief would surely not have used it in the area he stole it from? Glad you've got it back.
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