Reporting serial numbers to the police is the only way the police can return stolen bikes, and it's also the only thing the (good) pawn shops will check & report to police.
Our approach was to set up an online registry so people can keep track of their own serial numbers so that they have something to report when they go to the police, and therefore some fractional chance of recovering their bike.
Most people don't use it.
Because the kind of people that are organized enough to register and record with an online registry service are the kind of people who are organized enough to record their serial number in the first place.
And hopefully the kind of people that are willing to invest in a good lock and learning how to use it. Stickers, after all, don't stop bike theft, even if you pay for the stickers and they're hard to remove.
I'm pretty cynical about bike registries as anything more than comfort for the already-neurotic.
Christopher Chan *Executive Director* Edmonton Bicycle Commuters' Society 10047 80 Ave (entrance in rear lane) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6E 1T4 edmontonbikes.ca *w:* (780) 433-2453 || *c:* (780) 700-5564
On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 5:03 PM, Cycle Re Cycle Cycle-Re-Cycle swm < cycle.re.cycle.swm@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello All, Our community, non-profit bike shop, Cycle-Re-Cycle, is looking into the logistics of starting a community bicycle registry. The local police department doesn't have anything like it and bicycle theft is pretty rampant in our community. We keep serial numbers and descriptions on all bikes we sell, so it seems that the next step is just to print stickers with a sequential number on it to adhere to all the bikes leaving the shop.
Has anyone ever started a bicycle registry like this? Thoughts or tips?
Thanks Cycle-Re-Cycle Benton Harbor, MI
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