A high-end mountain bike stolen from a garage in Westminster, Colorado last fall was purchased in February on E-by by a person living in Park City. Recently, the bike was relisted on the website pinkbike.com and was identified as the stolen bike. The Park City police department was notified of the posting and they set up an undercover operation to recover the mountain bike.
According to the Westminster, Colorado police department, the Orbea Rallon mountain bike was identified on the classified pinkbike website by the serial number. In October, the owner had reported it stolen from his garage. He reported it to the local police but also to the company that sold him the bike originally. Westminster, Colorado Police Department Public Information Officer, Cheri Spottke says they have a method for tracking pawned merchandise, but it is essential that they have a serial number.
“Anytime that an item is stolen with a serial number and it gets reported to the police, that item gets entered into our computer system. Pawn shops are required to turn over pawn slips that have any serial numbers associated with them and then those are run through the computer and we check those items to see if they were stolen. If you turn in a bike and there is no serial number on it, obviously we can’t check to see if it was stolen.”
She says the mountain bike, valued at $8000.00 will be returned to the original owner in Colorado. She suggests due diligence for anyone purchasing from a website or pawn shop.
“Yeah, it will be returned to the original owner and unfortunately, the person who purchased it, will be out money, obviously, because they purchased a bike and now, they don’t get reimbursed for purchasing that bike. You know, if you’re going to purchase something off of one of those sites, check with the police department to make sure that that serial number is not registered as stolen.”
Because the case in Colorado is still being investigated, Spottke said the bike has not been returned to the owner. As of this report, no one has been charged with the theft. The person living in Park City, who purchased the bike from E-Bay has not been charged according to Captain Phil Kirk from the Park City Police department. Kirk says they have a bike and ski registry that can help identify and recover stolen items. He says when people register their bikes with the department, they’ll have to supply the serial number. It is one way to assure that the bike goes back to the original owner. Currently, there are 153 bikes registered with the Park City Police Department. He says there is a national database that can also assist in recovering stolen items to the rightful owners.
He suggests people, purchasing anything through an on-line classified site or through a pawn shop, take reasonable steps to insure the items are not stolen. Kirk says it’s a buyer beware situation when purchasing items from other places besides a store.
“I think it was in the neighborhood of four to $5,000.00. I think he purchased it for a couple thousand and I think this individual was into selling items on-line as kind of a business enterprise."
Police determined the seller was not aware he had purchased stolen bike, but he will be out the money he paid for it when he bought it on E-bay. Kirk says another way for a buyer to exercise caution is to think twice if a price is too good to be true.”
The Park City Police Department bike and ski registry is a free service and you can find the link on KPCW.org.
https://www.parkcity.org/how-do-i/sports-equipment-registration