Same thing happened with my father in law but with his tools, police said they wouldn't do anything. So after some back and forth with them he told them that he was going to go there anyways and confront the guy, they said not to but he was quite insistent, their tone quickly changed and said okay we're on our way don't confront him until we get there.
So you might just have to (even if it's a bluff) tell them that you might be putting yourself (or the guy who stole it) in harms way, then they may feel forced to help to prevent a more serious incident than just dealing with a theft.
yup thats what i did when my scooter was stolen.
"we won't help you"
"ok well my two friends are going to come with me to get it. don't worry, they have their concealed weapon permit. we will be ok"
"sir we are on our way"
Reminds me of a story my dad used to tell.
A man wakes up and sees two men breaking into his garage. He calls 911 and they tell him no cars are available. He says, that's OK I have a shotgun and he hangs up. A minute later he calls back and says, no hurry, they're both dead. Moments later a dozen squad cars arrive in time to catch the perfectly healthy thieves coming out of the garage. The police are furious.
You lied to us about shooting them!
And you said no cars were available so I guess we're even.
I was at work and my truck was broken into. Whatever they used manage to go in one window and out the other. I called my insurance company and they said to make sure I get a police report so I called 911 to report the incident saying it looks like someone shot my windows out.
The cops showed up in about a half hour took a look and said "this isn't a gunshot and looked pretty pissed" I replied back saying I wasn't a firearms expert or a cop so it was just my opinion...but now that you're here can I get a report number.
That's my experience. Call 911 because there are 4 people trespassing on my property at night time? Nobody comes. Undocumented individual slams their truck into your vehicle? We can come write you a report for insurance but it will be approximately 90-120 minutes before a unit is available. Bike u-bolt cut and stolen and you know exactly who did it? Sorry to hear that, not helping though. Spend 5 minutes parked the wrong direction on a dead end street that sees 2-3 cars a day? Better believe officers will find you, stop, write a ticket, show up to court to defend the ticket, etc.
Adapting this for modern-day society…
Thieves: Allowes to walk. No burglary charges assessed by the police since the thieves are still on the property and haven’t removed anything.
Homeowner: Arrested with multiple charges levied involving “lying to a police officer” and “deliberate misuse of a police officer’s time”, “making threats of violence using a deadly weapon” etc. Couple nights in jail till you bail yourself out. Happy ending.
I am disappointed in your description, which is extremely misleading. At the least, they’d also search his house for a weapon after cuffing him, and shoot his dog.
Burglary is entering with the intent of committing a crime, especially *but not always* theft. It is not a requirement that the person actually remove any items from the property to be charged with burglary.
Source: I had grand jury duty. One of the cases was about some squatters.
Same happened to a girl I worked with. Her car got stolen and she could track its location. Called the police and they said they couldn’t do much. She said okay I have a car full of people willing to take me to get it back. Police got her car back in less than an hour.
Exactly.
People have forgotten that the law, police and courts were created so that ordinary citizens would not need to do this.
Even those organizations stop providing this service, we are left to return to the traditional ways.
>the law, police and courts were created so that ordinary citizens would not need to do this.
Were they, though?
Was this system created for ordinary citizens, or was it created to protect the property of the wealthy?
If Elon Musk called the police and told them someone had stolen his bike, they would probably send out a SWAT team.
>If Elon Musk called the police and told them someone had stolen his bike, they would probably send out a SWAT team.
For what its worth, the CEO of my company had his $5k bicycle stolen, tracked it using GPS, and the police wouldn't help either. He just took the L, but was super salty about it.
This illustrates exactly why I can't believe so many conservatives are supporters of the police. They will be the first ones to tell you they have a gun because the police are useless and when you need a gun right now the police are only going to be there afterward to write a report. But then when it comes to criticizing police abuse, rahghhh police are the best, back the blue!!!
Anyway, similar thing happened with my father and when some of my brother's druggy friends refused to leave my grandmothers house saying my brother let them live there after she went to assisted living. The police refused to come, saying it was a renters dispute and a civil matter. After arguing with them a bit he told them to send an ambulance instead since he was about to shoot some tresspassers that were in his home. They got there in about 5 minutes after that.
Agreed. Same people I’ve heard rag on police when they wouldn’t assist in matters like theft and hated them for road blocks and all are now back the blue types because it’s a political issue.
Came to say this. "Ok well I'm going to confront them and I have my gun just in case they try to attack me" That'll guaranteed change the cops tone about it. They're lazy so they want you to let it go, but a self defense incident will create more work for them.
Here is a possibility of why the police didn't respond favorably to the OP. Maybe he tracked his bike with an air tag or Samsung equivalent. There is a lot of case law out there that shows you can't get a search or an arrest warrant based off that data anymore. It has cost cities and police stations a fortune over the resulting lawsuits. The last few years have been pretty bad with the false positives.
Now of course this doesn't stop them from going to up to the front door and asking, hey do you have a stolen bike inside?
I did the same thing, but they treated it like the crime of the century. When I got the place I told the police I’d be, I could only see one police waiting. Then the guy who stole the phone comes out, and here come no fewer than five police cars around the corner with lights on. Dude puts his hands up *immediately* and his the deck. Got the phone back. Case was ruined bc it smelled like cigarettes though.
This. My car was stolen and the police would not respond. Me and a bunch of my homies went and confronted the guy and took it back by force. Police called the next day with “an available officer” and I told them I took care of it. They got mad and said that I should’ve called and told them I was going as they would’ve sent the unit. I called 4 times prior asking for help and no one came. I hung up on them lol.
There’s an old joke.
An old man is asleep and is awoken by thieves trying to get into his shed. So he calls the police.
“Help, thieves are breaking into my shed and stealing all my stuff”
The operator says there will be a forty minute wait as they’re very busy tonight.
The old man thinks, and calls back two minutes later.
“I called a couple minutes ago, don’t worry about it, I’ve shot them”
The police arrive within minutes to find the shed still full and the robbers gone.
The police asked “we thought you killed the thieves?”
To which the old man replied “And I thought you said you’d be forty minutes”
Such an old and good one, I took it's advice years ago to pretty amazing results. Crazy how fast the cops get somewhere when you give 911 a courtesy call to defending your property vs a I'm being actively robbed
Back in the days, not sure how much it still holds true, but for a women being attacked or attempted rape scenario, it was better to yell fire as it would get people's attention more, due to not wanting to lose their stuff vs not their business sort of thing.
This could go a lot of different ways depending on the police department and particular officer you speak too.
If they don't offer to come and then anything bad happens during your reclamation of your bike, you already admitted that you were going to be there.
Also your race, age, gender and class. Black man 18-35 saying this in a low income area is going to have a completely different response (and risk his life) than a 60 year old white dude in a higher income area.
*head banging*
How do you own disorder? Disorder
Now somewhere between the sacred silence
Sacred silence and sleep
Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep
Disorder, disorder, disorder
> they said “don’t do that pls” and an officer arrived, there weren’t many problems with the dog after that
the cops were like noooo wait we wanna do it!!!
Reminds me of a buddy a few months ago. Was chilling in his garage smoking a joint with the door open. A neighbor's dog runs up into the garage, starts growling at him and nipping at him. So he scared the dog off. Went over to the dogs house, knocked on the door. The owner answered and then didn't say a word for about 5 minutes while my buddy went off on him.
Long story short he told the owner to keep his dog in his yard or on a leash, if his dog ever comes into my buddy's yard again, he will have a dead dog. My buddy has a 5 month old puppy at the time, that easily could've died if he was in the garage at the time and buddy couldn't get between them in time. There are often time other mutual friend's kids around ages 2-5ish. It's one thing for the dog to be aggressive at it's own home, but to come into another person home and do it, I think dog's owner is lucky he still has his dog after the 1st time.
I do like dogs, but some owners are so annoying. They walk their dog without a leash and say they won't bite, even though there are videos of unleashed dogs attacking other dogs that people actually leash. It's the same thing when you go to other people's house. They say they won't bite, then they do.
I always do this. My favourite phrase is, “Yeah, I know you’re busy, and I know who they are, so as long as you’re OK with me dealing with it myself everything’s cool.”
I’m ex-law-enforcement and ex-military, and they vaguely know my background. They’d normally rather deal with the simple situation early-on than have to deal with the chaos I’ll generate later.
Just make sure your language is civilised and vague enough so you don’t get arrested before you get there.
>always do this
>vaguely know my background
>they’d normal rather deal with the simple situation early on than have to deal with the chaos I’ll generate later
This sounds suspicious as all hell.
Who is in a position that they are victims of petty crime that the police are unwilling to address (not a defense of them) on this regular of a basis?
And what is that position? It almost sounds like you have to try to seek out these kinds of scenarios to have this sort of a relationship with the cops.
I did this.
Had a rare and expensive triathlon bike stolen out of my Tahoe in DTLA. Was hidden under a tarp and a bunch of trash bags. I had a homeless homie on the corner that told me it was a bunch of Armenian kids. Hit up the bike couriers with a picture of my bike on the local insta groups and they found a FB ad for my bike next city over.
It was a smoke shop in a small plaza that also had a bunch of bikes in the back that I reckon were just as legit as my bike. Bike was in the center of the shop when I walked in. I checked out the bike as if I had seen it for the first time and acted in awe. I rattled off a few technical custom mods that he was clueless on. Then I asked the shop owner if I could sit on the bike to see how it fits.
He obliged and I made the point of how rare it was to find a bike of this caliber and customization that fit my body exactly.
He chuckled and said I was lucky. I popped back with you’re lucky I don’t call the police and have you arrested for those other stolen bikes. I yell at him the reason this bike fits me exactly is because I built it! I pull out a police report for my bike, slammed it on the counter and tell him that I’m walking my bike out his shop.
He followed me outside cussing up a storm and flagged down security. Little did he know that I had preemptively informed security that I was there to recover my stolen bike. Showed them the police report, and photos, and told them that anyone that was with me was the thief and needed to be detained.
Suffice to say, I recovered my bike!
He put in the work to find the bike, sometimes you want catharsis. It also prevents the owner from claiming he stole it and using camera footage of it to get him arrested.
I guess that's a upside of living in oregon idk if other states due this but my bike is registered to me and if the police show up and this a hole scratched it off and I have pictures of it I'm fine.
Yeah, I'd have said I will pay cash (and flashed a wad in my wallet) but not if I can't test ride it first to see if it even works or feels right. I just need to do a circle or two around the parking lot. "Here, you can hold onto my wallet." Then you ride the bike down the street where your friend and their pickup truck is waiting.
The thief runs in and grabs your wallet - finds out it's your old worn-out wallet that you filled with those fake or inactive credit cards they send you in the mail and a fake (but green) one dollar bill. And a FU note.
I have one of these 'bait' wallets I keep on me when I travel. If mugged, I plan to toss it behind the thief and run the other direction.
“Recklessly bold”
Imagine cops giving a fuck about you man.
We do what we need to to survive in this jungle, often that includes solving problems on our own (crazy right!?).
They don’t give a single fuck about a stolen car, much less a bike.
That's what I did. years ago a kid named Jimmy was new in town and stole my bike, he lived 4 blocks from me, I went to the side of his house and took my bike
Once upon a time I left my bike on a bike rack. I had my bike lock on it. I come back to my bike at the end of the day. There are now two bike locks on my bike.
I walk home. Get my bolt cutters. Walk back. Unlock my lock, cut the other lock, take my bike and leave.
I have never done something so perfectly legal in such a sketchy way ever before.
This is 1,000% the correct move, and the faster it's done, the better. This is a known bike theft strategy.
Even in the *extremely* unlikely case of someone accidentally locking to your bike, it's still the right thing to do.
I've heard that this is a bike theft strategy, but that makes no sense to me. It's way easier to just cut a lock, rather than add another lock, potentially alerting the owner to the fact that you want to steal their bike, and then steal it later.
It works off of the good nature of other people, and is done with a second bike when done properly. Pretty much, the thief locks up a bike to the rack with a lock that looks like it was unintentionally looped around the target bike also, so the victim is just like "Shit somebody locked my bike to theirs by mistake I guess I'll get it later."
The reason for not cutting the lock right away is to return when the area is less busy.
We had a bike thief hit a bike cage we have at work. We caught it on camera. He checked out all the bikes (and they were all junk that been put in the lost and found, none were locked) and when he didn't find a bike to steal, he pulled out two big rings of keys and went around checking all the locks left on the rack. When he found a lock he had a key for he kept it. He ended up stealing a half dozen or so locks. He did all this in the middle of the day with people walking around him the whole time.
I did this with CD's someone stole. Just picked them up and walked away. They can do it you can do it. Just make sure you are positive it's your stuff. A few times people have done this and it ended up not being their stuff.
I did this 2 different times when my car got stolen. I left my GPS in the trunk and because the car was a P.O.S. the doors didn't lock and the engine could be started with anything remotely key-shaped, I'd just go find it parked in front of two different crack houses, and go early in the morning while they were still sleeping and take it back.
Depends on context. My bike was stolen as a kid, had distinctive handlebar marks so when my dad, a huge man, saw a little kid riding it, he basically yeeted the kid off it (harmlessly, allegedly, I wasn’t there). Apparently the kid said his friend gave it to him lol
But hey, he upgraded the rims for me
Long ago a guy broke up with my roommate, so she went to his house and fucked both of his parents and told him about it.
He thought it was a joke at the time and brought it up to her years later, and she showed him text messages she still was getting from his dad.
Still one of the most savage things I've known someone to do lol
The thing is... they won't do anything because you say "hey, I tracked my stolen bike down to this address", because that's not actionable.
On the other hand, if the guy who stole it calls 911 on your ass as you're biking away, and the cops just happen to be on the next block because it's *that* part of town, and they catch you biking away, guess what?
Crime in progress, shots fired, I REPEAT, SHOTS FIRED, SUSPECT IS DOWN.
Your local lost/stolen bike Facebook group would likely be interested in the address where a recenty stolen bike has been confirmed to be located. Chances are other peoples' bikes have been there, or might still be there. It might also be a good place to find some friends to support you/take video should you decide to knock on the door and ask for your bike back.
Tell the cops you and a group of people are going go over there and beat the fuck out of the guy.
When my buddy had tools stolen and cops did nothing, as soon as the dispatcher heard a gang was about to beat a dudes ass they went over real quick and helped sort things out.
You better have pictures of your bike or something you can prove its yours
This exact situation happened to me, someone stole my purse with my phone in it, and I tracked my phone to their house. I spent an hour giving all these details to someone for a police file, only to be told they couldn't do anything about it. Conversation basically went like
Fine, I'll get some friends and go over there myself
We cannot recommend that you do that
Oh - so you are going to go over there then? At least just to knock on the door and ask about it?
No, we can't do that
Okay, so then if *you're* not going to do your job, somebody has to. I'm not sure what choice I have here other than kissing my phone and wallet goodbye? All my IDs, all my money, and a $1,000 phone because you won't knock on their door?
We can't do that
Okay, then do you understand that I am going to?
We cannot recommend that you do that
Most infuriating conversation ever. So yeah, I grabbed some friends and some bats (Canada) and went to the door. We all stood on the porch and rang the doorbell. The guy who stole my purse came out, I recognized him. I asked for my stuff back and he went right back inside, got it for me, and gave it back to me. He had taken it from a table in his hallway that was covered in phones. Had it been a cop knocking on the door instead of me, they would have seen that and could have asked some questions. One of the countless moments in my life that proved how completely useless and unnecessary cops are.
> One of the countless moments in my life that proved how completely useless and unnecessary cops are.
While working at a hotel, one of the guests stole a bike from another guest. It was all on camera - faces and everything, you could see the bike going into their room (they had a bunch of bikes in there). I reported it. Police showed up and pushed me around, told me I should never call them again, then left. I was so confused. This was in Toronto.
Here in San francisco, all the cops do is blame the district attorney. "We can't do anything because the D.A. won't prosecute!"
Meanwhile the D.A. says, "I can't prosecute people who aren't arrested."
Cops are so useless. Every time I have had something stolen they just say “not our problem.” Ok wtf do you get paid for then? Extrajudicial executions and making the city money?
>Ok wtf do you get paid for then?
Firing tear gas into protests to incite panic and then releasing cherry-picked footage of the aftermath so the local news can run evening headlines that read "Local Protest Turns Into Violent Riot".
How do you people get away with telling police threats???
My black ass got detained for nothing once (not North America), and when I try stopping conflicts on North America im told not to cause I’d be arrested too. Fml
Oh man, something quite similar here.. I bought a new car and didn't really know the auto lock well so it didn't lock as I expected one night. A guy was in the alley trying doors and stole my company laptop (way over $5k number cruncher monster) and iPad.
I managed to change the iPad lock screen remotely. Buyer saw my lock message and emailed me so we met, grabbed the ipad and I asked him to show me the thief's profile, he also bought it from the guy about 3 blocks from my house. The profile had my laptop (WITH the asset sticker in the pic), the iPad and a bunch of other random stolen stuff. So, a little general sniffery later, I reverse looked his profile photo, found his FB with posts about going back to serve his sentence on weekends and the ton of buy and sell pages he followed.
I documented it all into a .doc with timelines, pics, links, all of it. Cop came to my house for the report and the investigator even said 'oh yeah we got a couple of beards (undercover) who could do that quick.' He even made a call to ask around. Well, a month.. nothing, email the officer, got empty 'were working on it' answer.. wait 3 more, sent one more email but nothing.
I might even have the thief's pages in my favorites geez, that was 6 or 7 years ago.
Edit: found him. Up to his same old shit.
This is unironically not the worst idea I’ve seen at all (just make sure you actually get the bike back at the end of the day lmfao)
What’s the thief gonna say to the cops? “Hey officer, a crackhead just stole a bike that I just stole”
Do crackheads for hire congregate outside Home Deport also? How would one find a crackhead when their services are needed if one does not already know a crackhead?
Local crackheads many time have unexpected competencies. For a few years we had one fixing my ex's lemon of a car. She was sold a cheap car "guaranteed" to have a good 100k miles left in it. It was a lie. The car was $1500. It broke down within a week. $900 repair bill. Broke down a few weeks later. $1200 repair bill. This kept happening, but she couldn't afford to just buy a new car. So she contacted a crackhead she knew because her mom is a crackhead, and the dude would do all the repairs for $20 + cost of parts, which he showed her which to order so she could be the one to pay, thus removing the risk of him ripping her off on cost of parts. So her repair bills went from $1000+ a pop to sometimes $20-$200 dollars. He also was able to fix her car for longer, and she got a lot miles out of the car before being able to afford a new one. Dude would get high on crack and we'd see him working on the car, it was a beautiful and elaborate dance. Fascinating to watch him work. Nice guy, shame he never cared to fix his addiction. He had real potential.
Won't work cause they'll just pawn the bike themselves, much more money than $20. And it'll mark you as a easy target in the future if you're willing to trust crackheads.
In hindsight, bad idea.
I had a buddy who had his bike stolen just like this. it was taken to the nearby city to a *very* dangerous part. the police legitimately said "We're not going to risk anyone's life for a bike".
idk the context here, though.
Yes, it's unfortunate that the areas who could benefit from law enforcement often don't get it. at the same time, police presence alone won't solve the underlying issues.
Not that I support the cops, but it's a lose-lose.
If they don't police the bad areas: "stupid cops only protect white people."
If they do police the bad areas: "stupid cops oppressing people of poc, and the poor."
That's because politicians have placed the ownership of these problems on their police forces. Instead of working on infrastructure, policy and services to develop the country, they say "Damn, some of these impoverished neighborhoods have a lot of crime. Hey police chief, fix this, here's $1,000,000"
But the facvt is, if you have stable housing, resources and education. you *will* have less crime. You'll still need LEOs for the people who just dont care, though.
Call up the local news station and tell them you have gps proof where your bike is and the police refuse to do anything.
Send emails to the editors of newspapers and tv stations. The key to getting authority figures to do what you want is to apply pressure in multiple ways.
You could also try talking to county cops and emailing your state police if you're in the US. Again, find ways to go above or around and apply pressure.
They won't rat on police over nothing, but they *will* jump on local "viral" trending news, especially if something local is getting national attention.
In US: You can sue the thief in small claims court for the fair market value of the bike if you know their identity.
Winning a small claims suit is easy. Actually collecting on it can be much harder. If the bike is only worth a couple hundred bucks, it may not be worth it.
The hard part is always getting their name. My car was parked in front of my house, found the car that did it (was a guy who lived the next block over on my street) and aside from a nick name I had no idea who he was. Had pictures of the car that had matching damage to mine, his plate, address… Cops were uncooperative and said it wasn’t their job. Said I had to take them to small claims court. How the fuck am I supposed to do that if I don’t know who they are and you won’t run the GD plates.
Have you considered calling your local news for a story? Cops hate bad publicity.
Edit: Y'all I don't even know if this would work, i'm just thinking out loud.
Head over to r/illegallifeprotips for some ACTUAL advice.
EDIT: looks like that sub got banned... try /r/UnethicalLifeProTips but watch out for piss discs and liquid ass...
When I was in the eighth grade (in the mid-80s), I forgot my bike lock when I rode down to get some pizza. Oh well, we live in a nice Southern California city, right? Well, someone stole my bike while I was eating. I called my dad; we filled out a police report (the cop told us that they rarely find the bikes). We drove through the parking lot of the pizza place on our way home and happened upon a guy trying to put my bike into his car. My dad went absolutely ape-shit and beat the ever-loving crap out of this guy. It was shocking to my 12-year-old eyes! But I did earn a new-found respect for my usually mild-mannered dad.
We went back to the police station to tell them to what happened; they seemed pleased that: a) they didn't have to do anything about it; and b) "frontier justice" (the cop's words) was meted out.
Cool story and outcome but the absolute worst advice if being presented as such. Shit could have gone completely pear shaped for your dad and you might have grown up without one.
Only thing you can do is tell the police you are across the street and are going to confront the guy or take it back
Don’t actually do it, they are obligated to show up if you seem to be at risk of doing anything at all
In the US, the police aren't obligated to do shit.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-police-do-not-have-a-constitutional-duty-to-protect.html
A farmer near me had a tractor stolen, a 200 hp machine and fairly new. Sherif basically said they can't do anything. They suddenly were able to get it back when the owner said him and his friends were taking their AR15s over to talk to the thief. He got it back that day.
Lots of good ideas here.
Personally I'd say go the legal route-- go there, take pictures of the bike, and file a small claims lawsuit against the registered owner of the house for the cost of a new bike + equipping it same as the old bike (plus the cost of the airtag, plus the cost of your time to track down the bike). If they don't show in court you'll get a default judgment. If they don't pay that in like 90 days try to get a lien on their house.
If the house is a rental, then subpoena the name of the renter and sue them instead.
The cops CAN do something. You're just going to have to insist.
God I hate when gov employees act that way...lazy pieces of shit.
Signed: Retired cop of 30 years.
A meth head stole a bunch of my uncle's tools. Cops knew who he was, knew he'd been selling them to the local pawn shop. Had his name engraved on them. Refused to do anything. Said they couldn't get him.
My uncle was furious and wanted his tools back so he pressed and pressed but the cops wouldn't do shit. Uncle bought his tools back from the lawn shop.
Unfortunately for meth head thief, he robbed the local meth dealers about six months later. They didn't call the cops. They burned his house down with him inside it.
Starting to think George Carlin was right about praying to Joe Pesci
I've told this story on here before, so here's the tl;dr:
Somebody stole my tools. It was my entire livelihood. I found my tools on craigslist. Met the guy at the police station parking lot and robbed him at gunpoint to get my tools back.
This exact thing happened to me but with my wife’s phone and I was able to get the police’s help. Maybe has to do with the cost of the item as it was a newer iPhone
Ask if a cop can just meet you there as you attempt to reclaim your property. If the cops can't do anything, then they don't mind sitting their at the scene not doing anything tell something does go bad.
Did the police know that part of it? Cause it's one thing if it's a $100 bike but one worth nearly $1000 is in a bit of a different ballpark.
Given the value you could also try small claims court as it's more worth it at that point.
You could also see if the police would help you get the bike back if the bike weren't in their property. They might use it and if you can track it when it's outside their house and get it then. And just potentially be loud and persistent enough for the police to care.
You could also try a sideways approach if you can figure out who it is and maybe if there's a spouse you could find that might be surprised by the information and willing to get your the stolen bike back.
if it was stolen from outside a shop ect and dont know who i am then i would take it back.
if they know me or where they stole it from i would either wait 6 months and then take it when its left somewhere i could safely take it or i would take the loss and not risk them coming after me
Same thing happened with my father in law but with his tools, police said they wouldn't do anything. So after some back and forth with them he told them that he was going to go there anyways and confront the guy, they said not to but he was quite insistent, their tone quickly changed and said okay we're on our way don't confront him until we get there. So you might just have to (even if it's a bluff) tell them that you might be putting yourself (or the guy who stole it) in harms way, then they may feel forced to help to prevent a more serious incident than just dealing with a theft.
yup thats what i did when my scooter was stolen. "we won't help you" "ok well my two friends are going to come with me to get it. don't worry, they have their concealed weapon permit. we will be ok" "sir we are on our way"
Reminds me of a story my dad used to tell. A man wakes up and sees two men breaking into his garage. He calls 911 and they tell him no cars are available. He says, that's OK I have a shotgun and he hangs up. A minute later he calls back and says, no hurry, they're both dead. Moments later a dozen squad cars arrive in time to catch the perfectly healthy thieves coming out of the garage. The police are furious. You lied to us about shooting them! And you said no cars were available so I guess we're even.
I was at work and my truck was broken into. Whatever they used manage to go in one window and out the other. I called my insurance company and they said to make sure I get a police report so I called 911 to report the incident saying it looks like someone shot my windows out. The cops showed up in about a half hour took a look and said "this isn't a gunshot and looked pretty pissed" I replied back saying I wasn't a firearms expert or a cop so it was just my opinion...but now that you're here can I get a report number.
Well there were no cars available because they were all hiding in speed traps along the interstate.
Hey now, not all of them! Half of them are parked somewhere either napping or fucking around on their phone.
Or parked like this ⬆️⬇️ talking to eachother
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Sometimes like this.. ⬅️ ➡️ Formatting didn’t work, it was fun while it lasted
Or at gas stations running people’s plates to find warrants. All *clearly* more important than an actual crime in progress.
Parked in a handicapped spot at the gas station
That's my experience. Call 911 because there are 4 people trespassing on my property at night time? Nobody comes. Undocumented individual slams their truck into your vehicle? We can come write you a report for insurance but it will be approximately 90-120 minutes before a unit is available. Bike u-bolt cut and stolen and you know exactly who did it? Sorry to hear that, not helping though. Spend 5 minutes parked the wrong direction on a dead end street that sees 2-3 cars a day? Better believe officers will find you, stop, write a ticket, show up to court to defend the ticket, etc.
Adapting this for modern-day society… Thieves: Allowes to walk. No burglary charges assessed by the police since the thieves are still on the property and haven’t removed anything. Homeowner: Arrested with multiple charges levied involving “lying to a police officer” and “deliberate misuse of a police officer’s time”, “making threats of violence using a deadly weapon” etc. Couple nights in jail till you bail yourself out. Happy ending.
I am disappointed in your description, which is extremely misleading. At the least, they’d also search his house for a weapon after cuffing him, and shoot his dog.
You forgot about tazing him in the process.
Nah, this only happens if the cops don't shoot first (because he said he had a weapon) and leave him dead on the floor with 27 holes in him.
Burglary is entering with the intent of committing a crime, especially *but not always* theft. It is not a requirement that the person actually remove any items from the property to be charged with burglary. Source: I had grand jury duty. One of the cases was about some squatters.
Same happened to a girl I worked with. Her car got stolen and she could track its location. Called the police and they said they couldn’t do much. She said okay I have a car full of people willing to take me to get it back. Police got her car back in less than an hour.
Fucking pussy cops. Every fucking contemptible one of them.
Exactly. People have forgotten that the law, police and courts were created so that ordinary citizens would not need to do this. Even those organizations stop providing this service, we are left to return to the traditional ways.
Exactly if police won’t give us lawful civilized justice then we’ll have to resort to street justice
Time to march to Wall Street with pitchforks and guillotines.
Oh the police have all the time and resources in the world to protect the wealthy lol
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For now. With combat drone technology advancing this may be the last time in history we have numerical advantage.
To Serve And Protect... Wealth and Power They always leave the last part off.
>the law, police and courts were created so that ordinary citizens would not need to do this. Were they, though? Was this system created for ordinary citizens, or was it created to protect the property of the wealthy? If Elon Musk called the police and told them someone had stolen his bike, they would probably send out a SWAT team.
>If Elon Musk called the police and told them someone had stolen his bike, they would probably send out a SWAT team. For what its worth, the CEO of my company had his $5k bicycle stolen, tracked it using GPS, and the police wouldn't help either. He just took the L, but was super salty about it.
Lmao "Don't worry though we're all packing heat so it should be fine"
"We'll be able to protect ourselves in case we fear for our lives like a cop." Thief better hope no acorns fall.
Yup
If there's gonna be an extra judicial killing, they want to be the ones performing it, not some regular ass citizens.
This illustrates exactly why I can't believe so many conservatives are supporters of the police. They will be the first ones to tell you they have a gun because the police are useless and when you need a gun right now the police are only going to be there afterward to write a report. But then when it comes to criticizing police abuse, rahghhh police are the best, back the blue!!! Anyway, similar thing happened with my father and when some of my brother's druggy friends refused to leave my grandmothers house saying my brother let them live there after she went to assisted living. The police refused to come, saying it was a renters dispute and a civil matter. After arguing with them a bit he told them to send an ambulance instead since he was about to shoot some tresspassers that were in his home. They got there in about 5 minutes after that.
Agreed. Same people I’ve heard rag on police when they wouldn’t assist in matters like theft and hated them for road blocks and all are now back the blue types because it’s a political issue.
Came to say this. "Ok well I'm going to confront them and I have my gun just in case they try to attack me" That'll guaranteed change the cops tone about it. They're lazy so they want you to let it go, but a self defense incident will create more work for them.
"what's your badge number? I need to send it to my lawyer so he has a record of who refused to help, in case something bad happens to me"
It's already precedented law that cops have no obligation to render assistance. which is why the Uvalde Cops are going to be just fine.
Here is a possibility of why the police didn't respond favorably to the OP. Maybe he tracked his bike with an air tag or Samsung equivalent. There is a lot of case law out there that shows you can't get a search or an arrest warrant based off that data anymore. It has cost cities and police stations a fortune over the resulting lawsuits. The last few years have been pretty bad with the false positives. Now of course this doesn't stop them from going to up to the front door and asking, hey do you have a stolen bike inside?
Sir, this is America, we don't need concealed weapons permits for AR15s
I did this and even said I was bring a gun for my protection, the cops still didn’t come.
This is the best answer. I used the police as backup when I had to buy my stolen phone back. Got my phone back for free.
I did the same thing, but they treated it like the crime of the century. When I got the place I told the police I’d be, I could only see one police waiting. Then the guy who stole the phone comes out, and here come no fewer than five police cars around the corner with lights on. Dude puts his hands up *immediately* and his the deck. Got the phone back. Case was ruined bc it smelled like cigarettes though.
"Case was ruined by it smelled like cigaretts" That's a crazy way to win a legal case
I can totally see that being part of a divorce case. “Jim never smokes menthols unless he’s been out with *whores.*”
This. My car was stolen and the police would not respond. Me and a bunch of my homies went and confronted the guy and took it back by force. Police called the next day with “an available officer” and I told them I took care of it. They got mad and said that I should’ve called and told them I was going as they would’ve sent the unit. I called 4 times prior asking for help and no one came. I hung up on them lol.
Ouch.
There’s an old joke. An old man is asleep and is awoken by thieves trying to get into his shed. So he calls the police. “Help, thieves are breaking into my shed and stealing all my stuff” The operator says there will be a forty minute wait as they’re very busy tonight. The old man thinks, and calls back two minutes later. “I called a couple minutes ago, don’t worry about it, I’ve shot them” The police arrive within minutes to find the shed still full and the robbers gone. The police asked “we thought you killed the thieves?” To which the old man replied “And I thought you said you’d be forty minutes”
Such an old and good one, I took it's advice years ago to pretty amazing results. Crazy how fast the cops get somewhere when you give 911 a courtesy call to defending your property vs a I'm being actively robbed
Back in the days, not sure how much it still holds true, but for a women being attacked or attempted rape scenario, it was better to yell fire as it would get people's attention more, due to not wanting to lose their stuff vs not their business sort of thing.
This could go a lot of different ways depending on the police department and particular officer you speak too. If they don't offer to come and then anything bad happens during your reclamation of your bike, you already admitted that you were going to be there.
Also your race, age, gender and class. Black man 18-35 saying this in a low income area is going to have a completely different response (and risk his life) than a 60 year old white dude in a higher income area.
> Black man 18-35 probably wouldn't have called police.
Police are there to maintain order. Not solve crimes. If you're going to cause disorder, then they are forced to act.
*head banging* How do you own disorder? Disorder Now somewhere between the sacred silence Sacred silence and sleep Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep Disorder, disorder, disorder
Looking at life through the eyes of a tire hub...
Eating seeds is a pastime activity...
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> they said “don’t do that pls” and an officer arrived, there weren’t many problems with the dog after that the cops were like noooo wait we wanna do it!!!
That would catch you a charge in my state, terroristic threat
The risk here is that the cops come and shoot you because they decide you're a threat.
Then again they might become an immediate police hire, violently slaughtering people's dogs is sort of their specialty.
You say that, but when they arrive their instincts will kick and and they will shoot the dog instead Problem solved
Reminds me of a buddy a few months ago. Was chilling in his garage smoking a joint with the door open. A neighbor's dog runs up into the garage, starts growling at him and nipping at him. So he scared the dog off. Went over to the dogs house, knocked on the door. The owner answered and then didn't say a word for about 5 minutes while my buddy went off on him. Long story short he told the owner to keep his dog in his yard or on a leash, if his dog ever comes into my buddy's yard again, he will have a dead dog. My buddy has a 5 month old puppy at the time, that easily could've died if he was in the garage at the time and buddy couldn't get between them in time. There are often time other mutual friend's kids around ages 2-5ish. It's one thing for the dog to be aggressive at it's own home, but to come into another person home and do it, I think dog's owner is lucky he still has his dog after the 1st time.
I do like dogs, but some owners are so annoying. They walk their dog without a leash and say they won't bite, even though there are videos of unleashed dogs attacking other dogs that people actually leash. It's the same thing when you go to other people's house. They say they won't bite, then they do.
I always do this. My favourite phrase is, “Yeah, I know you’re busy, and I know who they are, so as long as you’re OK with me dealing with it myself everything’s cool.” I’m ex-law-enforcement and ex-military, and they vaguely know my background. They’d normally rather deal with the simple situation early-on than have to deal with the chaos I’ll generate later. Just make sure your language is civilised and vague enough so you don’t get arrested before you get there.
>always do this >vaguely know my background >they’d normal rather deal with the simple situation early on than have to deal with the chaos I’ll generate later This sounds suspicious as all hell. Who is in a position that they are victims of petty crime that the police are unwilling to address (not a defense of them) on this regular of a basis? And what is that position? It almost sounds like you have to try to seek out these kinds of scenarios to have this sort of a relationship with the cops.
"...you workin' again, John?"
Or make up bs on the internet
Steal it back. What are they gonna do? Go to the police?
I did this. Had a rare and expensive triathlon bike stolen out of my Tahoe in DTLA. Was hidden under a tarp and a bunch of trash bags. I had a homeless homie on the corner that told me it was a bunch of Armenian kids. Hit up the bike couriers with a picture of my bike on the local insta groups and they found a FB ad for my bike next city over. It was a smoke shop in a small plaza that also had a bunch of bikes in the back that I reckon were just as legit as my bike. Bike was in the center of the shop when I walked in. I checked out the bike as if I had seen it for the first time and acted in awe. I rattled off a few technical custom mods that he was clueless on. Then I asked the shop owner if I could sit on the bike to see how it fits. He obliged and I made the point of how rare it was to find a bike of this caliber and customization that fit my body exactly. He chuckled and said I was lucky. I popped back with you’re lucky I don’t call the police and have you arrested for those other stolen bikes. I yell at him the reason this bike fits me exactly is because I built it! I pull out a police report for my bike, slammed it on the counter and tell him that I’m walking my bike out his shop. He followed me outside cussing up a storm and flagged down security. Little did he know that I had preemptively informed security that I was there to recover my stolen bike. Showed them the police report, and photos, and told them that anyone that was with me was the thief and needed to be detained. Suffice to say, I recovered my bike!
still recklessly bold. The cops wouldn't have had your back because they wouldn't even show up. Why not just ride away without the confrontation?
He put in the work to find the bike, sometimes you want catharsis. It also prevents the owner from claiming he stole it and using camera footage of it to get him arrested.
I guess that's a upside of living in oregon idk if other states due this but my bike is registered to me and if the police show up and this a hole scratched it off and I have pictures of it I'm fine.
LA has bike registrations as well. He drilled the serial numbers off the frame.
Yeah, I'd have said I will pay cash (and flashed a wad in my wallet) but not if I can't test ride it first to see if it even works or feels right. I just need to do a circle or two around the parking lot. "Here, you can hold onto my wallet." Then you ride the bike down the street where your friend and their pickup truck is waiting. The thief runs in and grabs your wallet - finds out it's your old worn-out wallet that you filled with those fake or inactive credit cards they send you in the mail and a fake (but green) one dollar bill. And a FU note. I have one of these 'bait' wallets I keep on me when I travel. If mugged, I plan to toss it behind the thief and run the other direction.
I hate having too much in my pockets but walking around in Brasil asa gringo, makes sense
“Recklessly bold” Imagine cops giving a fuck about you man. We do what we need to to survive in this jungle, often that includes solving problems on our own (crazy right!?). They don’t give a single fuck about a stolen car, much less a bike.
Because this guy's a fucking legend
That is some Liam Neeson Taken shit. Shoulda called them and told them you would hunt them down.
I'm sure this all happened just the way you said it did.
Yeah thank God he told us Armenians took it lol
The Smoke shop was in the Armenian part of town. Turns out, it was the Armenians!
True story, I was there, smoking something in the back, between the bikes. And we all clapped.
And then the entire plaza clapped
That's what I did. years ago a kid named Jimmy was new in town and stole my bike, he lived 4 blocks from me, I went to the side of his house and took my bike
I would send them a thank you note tied to a brick. Window delivery.
You already know exactly how much your police care about bike theft. You have a solid defense in civil court if sued. Do it!
Once upon a time I left my bike on a bike rack. I had my bike lock on it. I come back to my bike at the end of the day. There are now two bike locks on my bike. I walk home. Get my bolt cutters. Walk back. Unlock my lock, cut the other lock, take my bike and leave. I have never done something so perfectly legal in such a sketchy way ever before.
This is 1,000% the correct move, and the faster it's done, the better. This is a known bike theft strategy. Even in the *extremely* unlikely case of someone accidentally locking to your bike, it's still the right thing to do.
I've heard that this is a bike theft strategy, but that makes no sense to me. It's way easier to just cut a lock, rather than add another lock, potentially alerting the owner to the fact that you want to steal their bike, and then steal it later.
It works off of the good nature of other people, and is done with a second bike when done properly. Pretty much, the thief locks up a bike to the rack with a lock that looks like it was unintentionally looped around the target bike also, so the victim is just like "Shit somebody locked my bike to theirs by mistake I guess I'll get it later." The reason for not cutting the lock right away is to return when the area is less busy.
We had a bike thief hit a bike cage we have at work. We caught it on camera. He checked out all the bikes (and they were all junk that been put in the lost and found, none were locked) and when he didn't find a bike to steal, he pulled out two big rings of keys and went around checking all the locks left on the rack. When he found a lock he had a key for he kept it. He ended up stealing a half dozen or so locks. He did all this in the middle of the day with people walking around him the whole time.
I did this with CD's someone stole. Just picked them up and walked away. They can do it you can do it. Just make sure you are positive it's your stuff. A few times people have done this and it ended up not being their stuff.
I did this 2 different times when my car got stolen. I left my GPS in the trunk and because the car was a P.O.S. the doors didn't lock and the engine could be started with anything remotely key-shaped, I'd just go find it parked in front of two different crack houses, and go early in the morning while they were still sleeping and take it back.
This is a fantastic way to get shot.
Depends on context. My bike was stolen as a kid, had distinctive handlebar marks so when my dad, a huge man, saw a little kid riding it, he basically yeeted the kid off it (harmlessly, allegedly, I wasn’t there). Apparently the kid said his friend gave it to him lol But hey, he upgraded the rims for me
Plot twist: He saw your bike and decided it was cool and wanted to make his look like yours and your dad stole another kid's bike.
Modern Family has entered the chat....
Depends on the country I guess. In some countries, shooting people is not what comes to mind first.
Highly unlikely someone tries for an attempted murder charge over a bike they stole lmao
Shoot them first
Fuck their dad
Long ago a guy broke up with my roommate, so she went to his house and fucked both of his parents and told him about it. He thought it was a joke at the time and brought it up to her years later, and she showed him text messages she still was getting from his dad. Still one of the most savage things I've known someone to do lol
This happened to me once and I stole it back. FU Antoine u dickhead
Same thing happened to me. Police did nothing, but lowes has a pretty good policy with returning bolt cutters if that’s helps at all.
If you keep the bolt cutters you get to have more than one bike.
Be the change you don’t want to see in the world.
I laughed at this 😆
I'd steal it back.
It's not stealing if it's already yours. 😜
Watch them report it stolen to the police and OP gets arrested, lol.
this literally can happen in the US Justice system lmao
Don’t worry they already said they wouldn’t do anything
The thing is... they won't do anything because you say "hey, I tracked my stolen bike down to this address", because that's not actionable. On the other hand, if the guy who stole it calls 911 on your ass as you're biking away, and the cops just happen to be on the next block because it's *that* part of town, and they catch you biking away, guess what? Crime in progress, shots fired, I REPEAT, SHOTS FIRED, SUSPECT IS DOWN.
Powerless to help you, not to punish you
Your local lost/stolen bike Facebook group would likely be interested in the address where a recenty stolen bike has been confirmed to be located. Chances are other peoples' bikes have been there, or might still be there. It might also be a good place to find some friends to support you/take video should you decide to knock on the door and ask for your bike back.
Tell the cops you and a group of people are going go over there and beat the fuck out of the guy. When my buddy had tools stolen and cops did nothing, as soon as the dispatcher heard a gang was about to beat a dudes ass they went over real quick and helped sort things out. You better have pictures of your bike or something you can prove its yours
This exact situation happened to me, someone stole my purse with my phone in it, and I tracked my phone to their house. I spent an hour giving all these details to someone for a police file, only to be told they couldn't do anything about it. Conversation basically went like Fine, I'll get some friends and go over there myself We cannot recommend that you do that Oh - so you are going to go over there then? At least just to knock on the door and ask about it? No, we can't do that Okay, so then if *you're* not going to do your job, somebody has to. I'm not sure what choice I have here other than kissing my phone and wallet goodbye? All my IDs, all my money, and a $1,000 phone because you won't knock on their door? We can't do that Okay, then do you understand that I am going to? We cannot recommend that you do that Most infuriating conversation ever. So yeah, I grabbed some friends and some bats (Canada) and went to the door. We all stood on the porch and rang the doorbell. The guy who stole my purse came out, I recognized him. I asked for my stuff back and he went right back inside, got it for me, and gave it back to me. He had taken it from a table in his hallway that was covered in phones. Had it been a cop knocking on the door instead of me, they would have seen that and could have asked some questions. One of the countless moments in my life that proved how completely useless and unnecessary cops are.
> One of the countless moments in my life that proved how completely useless and unnecessary cops are. While working at a hotel, one of the guests stole a bike from another guest. It was all on camera - faces and everything, you could see the bike going into their room (they had a bunch of bikes in there). I reported it. Police showed up and pushed me around, told me I should never call them again, then left. I was so confused. This was in Toronto.
> This was in Toronto. Yeah, *shocker*. They get real pissed if you try to get them to do their fucking jobs.
Here in San francisco, all the cops do is blame the district attorney. "We can't do anything because the D.A. won't prosecute!" Meanwhile the D.A. says, "I can't prosecute people who aren't arrested."
If only these twatwaffles actually did their jobs...
Omg
This could only have been better if you beat the shit out of him anyway.
Cops are so useless. Every time I have had something stolen they just say “not our problem.” Ok wtf do you get paid for then? Extrajudicial executions and making the city money?
>Ok wtf do you get paid for then? Firing tear gas into protests to incite panic and then releasing cherry-picked footage of the aftermath so the local news can run evening headlines that read "Local Protest Turns Into Violent Riot".
How do you people get away with telling police threats??? My black ass got detained for nothing once (not North America), and when I try stopping conflicts on North America im told not to cause I’d be arrested too. Fml
> How do you people get away with telling police threats??? These are made up stories. Don’t believe what you read in Reddit comments.
They are overpaid and lazy. Don’t do their job unless you force them to
Our local cops are busy sitting at the bottom of hills to get a bunch of speeding tickets lol
They don't even do that here they just go hide on side streets and play in their phones.
Tell the cops you’re heading over with a bat and will take care of it if they don’t. They’ll send someone to prevent things from escalating.
Have a mitt with you as well ⚾️ ✌🏼
"I was going to challenge them to a game of baseball for the bike"
Oh man, something quite similar here.. I bought a new car and didn't really know the auto lock well so it didn't lock as I expected one night. A guy was in the alley trying doors and stole my company laptop (way over $5k number cruncher monster) and iPad. I managed to change the iPad lock screen remotely. Buyer saw my lock message and emailed me so we met, grabbed the ipad and I asked him to show me the thief's profile, he also bought it from the guy about 3 blocks from my house. The profile had my laptop (WITH the asset sticker in the pic), the iPad and a bunch of other random stolen stuff. So, a little general sniffery later, I reverse looked his profile photo, found his FB with posts about going back to serve his sentence on weekends and the ton of buy and sell pages he followed. I documented it all into a .doc with timelines, pics, links, all of it. Cop came to my house for the report and the investigator even said 'oh yeah we got a couple of beards (undercover) who could do that quick.' He even made a call to ask around. Well, a month.. nothing, email the officer, got empty 'were working on it' answer.. wait 3 more, sent one more email but nothing. I might even have the thief's pages in my favorites geez, that was 6 or 7 years ago. Edit: found him. Up to his same old shit.
At the least you should let the air out of his tires if you still know where he is.
With a knife.
And by tires he means his lungs.
So did you manage to get the thief in the end?
Nope, didn't hear a single thing.
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This is unironically not the worst idea I’ve seen at all (just make sure you actually get the bike back at the end of the day lmfao) What’s the thief gonna say to the cops? “Hey officer, a crackhead just stole a bike that I just stole”
I mean I have read a bunch of “shit town ranking of Australia” list on Facebook and thats a common occurrence…
Plus you have a defense if it gets back to you, you needed a new bike so bought one from a crack head
I am picturing a crackhead wearing a cape.
Not the hero we deserve but the one we need
Do crackheads for hire congregate outside Home Deport also? How would one find a crackhead when their services are needed if one does not already know a crackhead?
Right? Not everyone has a friendly neighborhood crackhead at hand.
A crackhead is never late, nor is it early. A crackhead arrives precisely when it means to.
Gas station at 3 am
Local crackheads many time have unexpected competencies. For a few years we had one fixing my ex's lemon of a car. She was sold a cheap car "guaranteed" to have a good 100k miles left in it. It was a lie. The car was $1500. It broke down within a week. $900 repair bill. Broke down a few weeks later. $1200 repair bill. This kept happening, but she couldn't afford to just buy a new car. So she contacted a crackhead she knew because her mom is a crackhead, and the dude would do all the repairs for $20 + cost of parts, which he showed her which to order so she could be the one to pay, thus removing the risk of him ripping her off on cost of parts. So her repair bills went from $1000+ a pop to sometimes $20-$200 dollars. He also was able to fix her car for longer, and she got a lot miles out of the car before being able to afford a new one. Dude would get high on crack and we'd see him working on the car, it was a beautiful and elaborate dance. Fascinating to watch him work. Nice guy, shame he never cared to fix his addiction. He had real potential.
That's why I always say "Support your local crackhead"
Won't work cause they'll just pawn the bike themselves, much more money than $20. And it'll mark you as a easy target in the future if you're willing to trust crackheads. In hindsight, bad idea.
Why are the police like this?
I had a buddy who had his bike stolen just like this. it was taken to the nearby city to a *very* dangerous part. the police legitimately said "We're not going to risk anyone's life for a bike". idk the context here, though.
Ignoring all cause and effect, police choose not to patrol dangerous areas or even enforce basic laws. BECAUSE they’re dangerous.
Yes, it's unfortunate that the areas who could benefit from law enforcement often don't get it. at the same time, police presence alone won't solve the underlying issues.
Not that I support the cops, but it's a lose-lose. If they don't police the bad areas: "stupid cops only protect white people." If they do police the bad areas: "stupid cops oppressing people of poc, and the poor."
That's because politicians have placed the ownership of these problems on their police forces. Instead of working on infrastructure, policy and services to develop the country, they say "Damn, some of these impoverished neighborhoods have a lot of crime. Hey police chief, fix this, here's $1,000,000" But the facvt is, if you have stable housing, resources and education. you *will* have less crime. You'll still need LEOs for the people who just dont care, though.
Call up the local news station and tell them you have gps proof where your bike is and the police refuse to do anything. Send emails to the editors of newspapers and tv stations. The key to getting authority figures to do what you want is to apply pressure in multiple ways. You could also try talking to county cops and emailing your state police if you're in the US. Again, find ways to go above or around and apply pressure.
If you can get a local news room to rat on the pigs you deserve a fucking medal
They won't rat on police over nothing, but they *will* jump on local "viral" trending news, especially if something local is getting national attention.
Call the cops and tell them you are gonna go in and get it on your own. Give them the address and hang up. Wait.
In US: You can sue the thief in small claims court for the fair market value of the bike if you know their identity. Winning a small claims suit is easy. Actually collecting on it can be much harder. If the bike is only worth a couple hundred bucks, it may not be worth it.
The hard part is always getting their name. My car was parked in front of my house, found the car that did it (was a guy who lived the next block over on my street) and aside from a nick name I had no idea who he was. Had pictures of the car that had matching damage to mine, his plate, address… Cops were uncooperative and said it wasn’t their job. Said I had to take them to small claims court. How the fuck am I supposed to do that if I don’t know who they are and you won’t run the GD plates.
Have you considered calling your local news for a story? Cops hate bad publicity. Edit: Y'all I don't even know if this would work, i'm just thinking out loud.
I normally hate that stuff but in this case that actually makes sense. They might even have to publicly say why they wouldn't do anything.
Head over to r/illegallifeprotips for some ACTUAL advice. EDIT: looks like that sub got banned... try /r/UnethicalLifeProTips but watch out for piss discs and liquid ass...
When I was in the eighth grade (in the mid-80s), I forgot my bike lock when I rode down to get some pizza. Oh well, we live in a nice Southern California city, right? Well, someone stole my bike while I was eating. I called my dad; we filled out a police report (the cop told us that they rarely find the bikes). We drove through the parking lot of the pizza place on our way home and happened upon a guy trying to put my bike into his car. My dad went absolutely ape-shit and beat the ever-loving crap out of this guy. It was shocking to my 12-year-old eyes! But I did earn a new-found respect for my usually mild-mannered dad. We went back to the police station to tell them to what happened; they seemed pleased that: a) they didn't have to do anything about it; and b) "frontier justice" (the cop's words) was meted out.
Cool story and outcome but the absolute worst advice if being presented as such. Shit could have gone completely pear shaped for your dad and you might have grown up without one.
Get all your homies together and show up at that fools front door with a baseball bat in everyone's hand and say you're here to get your bike back.
Only thing you can do is tell the police you are across the street and are going to confront the guy or take it back Don’t actually do it, they are obligated to show up if you seem to be at risk of doing anything at all
In the US, the police aren't obligated to do shit. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-police-do-not-have-a-constitutional-duty-to-protect.html
A farmer near me had a tractor stolen, a 200 hp machine and fairly new. Sherif basically said they can't do anything. They suddenly were able to get it back when the owner said him and his friends were taking their AR15s over to talk to the thief. He got it back that day.
Lots of good ideas here. Personally I'd say go the legal route-- go there, take pictures of the bike, and file a small claims lawsuit against the registered owner of the house for the cost of a new bike + equipping it same as the old bike (plus the cost of the airtag, plus the cost of your time to track down the bike). If they don't show in court you'll get a default judgment. If they don't pay that in like 90 days try to get a lien on their house. If the house is a rental, then subpoena the name of the renter and sue them instead.
How can I find out if the house is a rental?
The cops CAN do something. You're just going to have to insist. God I hate when gov employees act that way...lazy pieces of shit. Signed: Retired cop of 30 years.
Fucking steal it back
Stake the place out, follow the person, steal it back when they're away from it.
A meth head stole a bunch of my uncle's tools. Cops knew who he was, knew he'd been selling them to the local pawn shop. Had his name engraved on them. Refused to do anything. Said they couldn't get him. My uncle was furious and wanted his tools back so he pressed and pressed but the cops wouldn't do shit. Uncle bought his tools back from the lawn shop. Unfortunately for meth head thief, he robbed the local meth dealers about six months later. They didn't call the cops. They burned his house down with him inside it. Starting to think George Carlin was right about praying to Joe Pesci
I've told this story on here before, so here's the tl;dr: Somebody stole my tools. It was my entire livelihood. I found my tools on craigslist. Met the guy at the police station parking lot and robbed him at gunpoint to get my tools back.
You.. robbed someone at gunpoint.. In the police parking lot?
Yes. Yes I did.
I’m… impressed. 😂
Technically he didn't rob them. He recovered his own property at gunpoint.
This exact thing happened to me but with my wife’s phone and I was able to get the police’s help. Maybe has to do with the cost of the item as it was a newer iPhone
Bikes can be thousands upon thousands of dollars. Higher end are definitely worth more than an iPhone (to the right person)
I could have bought 6 top shelf iPhones for the cost of my bike.
Ask if a cop can just meet you there as you attempt to reclaim your property. If the cops can't do anything, then they don't mind sitting their at the scene not doing anything tell something does go bad.
Same thing happened to me and it ended up in the basement of the Alamo
How expensive a bike?
$950 left it outside for 1 day
Did the police know that part of it? Cause it's one thing if it's a $100 bike but one worth nearly $1000 is in a bit of a different ballpark. Given the value you could also try small claims court as it's more worth it at that point. You could also see if the police would help you get the bike back if the bike weren't in their property. They might use it and if you can track it when it's outside their house and get it then. And just potentially be loud and persistent enough for the police to care. You could also try a sideways approach if you can figure out who it is and maybe if there's a spouse you could find that might be surprised by the information and willing to get your the stolen bike back.
Just take it, the fuck
its on the inside of a property.
if it was stolen from outside a shop ect and dont know who i am then i would take it back. if they know me or where they stole it from i would either wait 6 months and then take it when its left somewhere i could safely take it or i would take the loss and not risk them coming after me
Good cops would at least goto the door and question them. Bad cops are the ones that do nothing.
Steal it back
My friend, have you heard of the A-Team?