By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
It’s pretty clear what to do when your bike is stolen – call the police and report it, right?
But what if you bought your bike from someone who had stolen it from someone who had bought it from the original owner?
That takes a little more work to unravel, as police found out Sunday.
The bike in question has been returned to its rightful owner, but the last purchaser is out the $160 he paid for it, said Sgt. Lance Ewers.
Police got involved when they received a call at 5:35 p.m. Sunday from a man who saw his buddy’s missing bike parked outside a restaurant. The person who had been riding it said he didn’t want to give it back because he had bought it from another man for $160, whose name he couldn’t remember. Police were called to help untangle the ownership issue.
Ewers verified the name of the original owner from the serial number recorded when it was sold new at the Yellow Jersey Cycle Shop. That owner verified that he had later sold the bike, but not to the person claiming he had bought it for $160 from an unnamed person.
“Where everyone went wrong was: when you purchase a used bike you want to register the bike with the police department; it’s a quick process – it takes less than five minutes,” Ewers said. “It makes it so nobody can steal your bike and sell it to someone else. In this case there were two victims: the person whose bike was stolen, and the person who purchased the stolen bike.”
The “rightful owner,” it turned out, was the person who had bought the bike from the original owner, but had failed to register the new ownership with the police department. He was the owner at the time the bike was stolen.
Ewers added that he wanted to give a “shout-out” to Yellow Jersey Cycle for working with the police department to help prevent bike thefts by helping register bikes.
“The rightful owner will always get his property back if it’s registered properly with the police department,” Ewers said.
He added that this case is a good reminder to be wary of “good deals” when it comes to bikes; the bike in question, a Specialized mountain bike, was worth around $500 in used condition. Also, register your bike, he said.
Police are continuing their investigation into the theft.
