How to catch motorcycle thieves

I

iriderockets

Member
Here I thought the thieves steal bikes and sell them for parts or as a whole to other foreign and domestic third parties... Now an innocent bystander would be caught with this just cuz he wasn't aware he has bought a stolen bike.

But eh, worth a shot!
 
I doubt this will help when most bikes are parted out.

One obvious thing to do is etch a 5-6 digit number on all major parts. If stolen, you can add to the report that the parts have been tagged, with the number, this lets police get back to a bike from a part that could be found anywhere.
 
CafeRay said:
I doubt this will help when most bikes are parted out.

One obvious thing to do is etch a 5-6 digit number on all major parts. If stolen, you can add to the report that the parts have been tagged, with the number, this lets police get back to a bike from a part that could be found anywhere.
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Yeah and magic numbers on a part are going to catch people. :rolleyes:
 
espro said:
Yeah and magic numbers on a part are going to catch people. :rolleyes:
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and let's be honest, most people that will buy a part, even if they realize it was stolen and found the magic number wouldn't report it, because they will be out of their money
 
iriderockets said:
Basically, put a piece of paper with your name and phone number inside your tire and ask the mechanic to call you to confirm ID. If the bike is eventually taken to a shop for a tire change, you can get notified and potentially alert the police to a thief.
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And when you sell the bike, don't forget to remove the wheels, dismount the tires, remove your little note, then remount (and maybe balance) the tires and reinstall the wheels before selling the bike.

I can just imagine what happens if you forget to remove it......
 
kruzuki said:
And when you sell the bike, don't forget to remove the wheels, dismount the tires, remove your little note, then remount (and maybe balance) the tires and reinstall the wheels before selling the bike.

I can just imagine what happens if you forget to remove it......
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Yes, I can imagine what happens if you forget to remove it too. The mechanic will call you, and you will tell him that you sold your bike, all good. :rolleyes:
 
AMAZIN- said:
Here I thought the thieves steal bikes and sell them for parts or as a whole to other foreign and domestic third parties... Now an innocent bystander would be caught with this just cuz he wasn't aware he has bought a stolen bike.

But eh, worth a shot!
Click to expand...

Still possible that the police can talk to the person who bought the bike, figure out the phone number/name/address of the person they bought it from, and then try to trace back the thieves.

Obviously this does not prevent theft. It only helps to catch a thief after the fact.

I thought it was a cheap (no cost) way to help a problem.
 
kruzuki said:
And when you sell the bike, don't forget to remove the wheels, dismount the tires, remove your little note, then remount (and maybe balance) the tires and reinstall the wheels before selling the bike.

I can just imagine what happens if you forget to remove it......
Click to expand...

A thief was actually caught this way.. from the reddit thread:

Q: What about when you sell the bike and forget it's in there..."




A: Then, hopefully, I'll get a phone call. It has happened. I have done this to customers' bikes for years. Once or twice that I'm aware of the owner sold the bike and, some time later, he was called to verify the identity. It's a matter of explaining that the bike has been sold and that it is no longer their concern, but this is how one of the thieves was caught.

My customer sold the bike and someone stole the bike from the buyer. The bike was broken down on eBay. One guy bought the wheels for a racebike and, when he was fitting new tires to them, found the note card. My customer was a friend of the guy who bought the bike and new it had been stolen, and between the them and the eBay buyer, and the police, they snagged the guy selling parts on ebay with a couple of stolen bikes in his possession.
 
ZX600 said:
and let's be honest, most people that will buy a part, even if they realize it was stolen and found the magic number wouldn't report it, because they will be out of their money
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Police find storage units and shops full of suspect parts all the time. Without any id, they have no way of tracking parts to a crime. This is why parting out stolen bikes is driving more thefts.
 
CafeRay said:
Rental car companies spend big dollars for parts labelling, and numbering parts is actually An OPP recomendation.
I chose advice of professionals.
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Yeah what's the recovery rate of stolen motorcycles by those professionals again?
 
N3WMAN said:
All this will do is catch the guy who bought your rear wheel on eBay.
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Which will lead to the account name/banking info of the guy that sold it who is probably the guy that stole it.

I don't expect it to accomplish much but it's a good idea that takes next to no effort if you're doing a tire change anyway.
 
Why are you guys so dead set against even trying to make it harder for criminals? Especially when the tactic requires so little effort on the owner's part?

Why just throw your hands up in complete hopelessness?
 
-D- said:
might as well add stickers to the air filter too and for sure the oil filter
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Air filter might work but there's no where to put a sticker that wouldn't block filter media and the oil filter would be visible on many bikes.
 
Taped to inside of air filter cover
Inside tire,
under seat,
Under grips
Inside of fairing, especially belly
Hell spray paint it on your valve covers if you have a heavily faired bike


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