Fantastic recovery of a Seven Odonata in San Fransisco!

This is one for the SBR recordbooks - we just got a Seven Odonata in San Fransisco back - almost two years after the thing was stolen. 

This recovery is also unique because the bike has been stripped/buffed of almost all of its paint in what we can only assume was an attempt to camouflage its origin. Most thieves will spraypaint or 'chop' a bike after they steal it, but this one was crudely removed of its orange paint job instead. Crudely being the operating word here.

Here's a timeline: On August 25th, 2008, Chris registered his 2005 Seven Odonata with the Stolen Bicycle Registry.

Almost two years later, on May 4th, 2010, I got this email: 

Hello, I would like to communicate with the person who listed bike #3162. I purchased a bike with that serial # at an Oakland flea market. The bike has been stripped of paint but is otherwise in good condition. Thank you,

Needless to say the original owner was still looking for it, and he was pretty surprised. The rest of the story goes like this: 

May 4th: Thank you Bryan and HELLO (redacted)! The bike was originally orange with no decals so I've been running all over town looking for an orange bike- clever thieves! Call me anytime. She was custom built for me and I would love to get her back!

May 5th:  Bryan - (redacted) bought my stolen Seven for $440 and is willing to let it go for that ... SBR rocks! I cannot really believe this is happening ... this scenario is so much more civilized than all of my imaginings.  I'll pick up the goods on Friday and send you some pictures.

I asked the owner to send me some photos, since the paint removal is unique - most thieves put stickers all over the bike or spraypaint them, or chop them into 'frankenbikes' to prevent anyone from knowing it is stolen. And while I'm glad the owner has his bike back, man, they sure did a number on the paint job ....

Fantastic recovery, but this is why I hate bike thieves. Look what they did to that poor Seven!

There are more photos of this recovered Seven here, here, here, and here. 

I've dropped a handful of "death to bike thieves" stickers in the mail for this owner to slap on their recovered Seven as a warning to any potential future thieves. Great recovery though! 

P.S. here's a follow-up from the awesome guy who found the bike for sale: 

My experience in the SF bay area is that bikes are stolen to be sold. I have read on Craigslist of recoveries through a few shady shops which seem to end up with stolen bikes which are offered for sale. I however think more bikes surface at the flea markets - in particular the two in Oakland. Police monitoring is nil --thus theft victims only opportunity to recover a bike is their presence during the (often) brief period it is visible/for sale. I have read of people who have shown up (early) at both flea markets and found their bikes.

05.15.2010 -- An even later follow-up: I'm always interested in how bikes get stolen in the first place, so I emailed the owner for his full story. Lots of good info in here:

Okay, here goes...Beautiful Saturday a year and a half ago, my wife and I rode to the (now famous) Ferry Terminal on San Francisco's waterfront.  We locked our bikes together using a ... medium sized cable lock.  Now, that weak lock in my mind did precipitate the events, but you should know that there were HUNDREDS of people around.  The people were not just wandering here and there, they were seated and facing the bike rack (maybe 20 bikes, and crowded rack).  I'll never make that mistake again, but, at the time (we just went to Pete's for a coffee to go) I felt just fine.

Returning to the site, we found my bike missing but hers still there, unlocked.  My wife, Deb, has this great vintage Ibis "Spanky" and the fact that remained suggested to us that there was only one thief ... Anyway, one could imagine many scenarios ...

  .. visited the security office for the Terminal.  There we found the only two "officers" on duty actually in the office.  Nice.  When I shared the story of the loss of my baby, they both giggled at the fact that we had used a cable lock and suggested that it was our fault.  Nice again.  They admitted that bike theft at that rack is pervasive.  Admission of culpability was not forthcoming and my wife had to escort me from the office, as I was beet red with anger.  I should mention here that she was actually much more angry than I was.

Now, remember that this bike was handmade for me.  I definitely could not afford it, but you know...  So, we set about recovering my baby as best we could.  50 or 60 flyers were posted, mainly in areas around SF where bikes are known to be sold for drugs et. al.  But I knew that we needed to approach the shops.  Every shop in SF got a flyer handed to them with the personal story and heartfelt plea for assistance.

At the shops, we received eerily consistent advice and admonitions.  Seemed like it would probably turn up at a flea market in the East Bay.  We were imperfect in canvassing the flea markets - it turns out that people have had good luck going early and often AND getting their bike back.  Of course, the problem here is obvious... and that's where SBR comes in as you know.

So, last fall, (redacted) finds my beauty at the Colosseum flea market.  Based upon Her terrible appearance, he bids for the bike based on the components alone ... The bike sat alone and lonely for six months at (redacted)'s house. Unridden! Shame! (redacted) hears about SBR and looks Her up and then contacted you.  You know the rest.

I'd like to suggest that there is one or more people that are stealing bikes in SF, successfully and consistently ... They are not random.  It seems like they are making a living off of us. As an aside;  I was just speaking with a friend of mine from Denmark.  They take bikes seriously there, as we all know ... Not only do they have these neat locks that are fixed to the frame (though not ideal for super light racebikes), but all bikes there are registered at the time of sale, much the same way SBR works. If your bike is stolen, all it takes is one phone call.