At Santa Cruz bike church we've always had a policy against trading or buying bikes, which helps our reputation locally despite our often grubby appearance. The bigger problem has long been one of being used as a chop-shop of sorts (which I think is what Graham is asking about?). We have two fairly successful tactics for combating this problem:

1. All patrons must sign-in to use the shop. Sign-in includes

recording the serial number of the bike being worked on. We don't actually share this information with the police, but thieves are aware that serial numbers can be used to demonstrate ownership and are *tremendously reluctant* to record the number of a bike they know to be stolen. This has the added benefit of being a repository for the serial numbers of legitimate patrons--that way, if his/her bike is stolen and recovered by the cops, (s)he can look up the serial number in our database and recover the bike.

2. We ban some folks from using the shop. On a very few occasions we

have actually banned a person because we became aware that (s)he had stolen a bike. Much more commonly we encounter patrons who *probably* have something to do with the thriving bike theft industry in our town and also exhibit other behaviors that force us to kick them out of the shop (stealing from us, hostility/ aggression, unsolicited "advice"/ harrassment for other patrons).

Hope that is of some use for other folks.

in cahoots, kyle

On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Chris Chan chris.chan@edmontonbikes.ca wrote:

We don't see a lot of high-end bikes coming into our shop, so when something catches our eye, we check the serial number in CPIC. You can do it here: http://edmontonbikes.ca/stolenbikes/%C2%A0(on the right side) It's the national police database of stolen goods. If it doesn't show up when we first check, we hang onto the bike for a few weeks and check again. The database only stores numbers for 3 months, so if we don't find it in those first two checks, chances are that no one can legitimately claim the bike anyway. For high-end bikes, we've also called the local bike shops that deal in the specific make of bike (e.g. only 1 shop carries Cervelos in Edmonton), since their clients usually chat with the managers. Otherwise, the bike is basically ours to do with as we like.  You're kind of out of luck if you have a fancy bike and don't/can't report it to the police.

On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 1:49 PM, Graham Stewart grhmstwrt@gmail.com wrote:

...

I'd like to know what policies shops have in regards to bicycles of suspicious origin (possibly stolen). Here at the bike dump we have a strict policy to not trade or buy bikes.  But, we also don't ask or check about nice bikes found in alleys, garbage, donated, or pulled out of the river.  We don't usually say anything when someone comes in with a nice bike to fix missing the back wheel and seatpost, or tries to sell a Trek 8000 for $20. I know there are lots of stolen bike registries out there, but do any of the co-ops take the time to check?  What do you say when someone brings a bike to fix that was likely stolen at some point?  Do you ask for or record serial numbers? Obviously, asking where they got the bike from based on profile alone is a really shitty thing to do.  Stopping scruffy looking native guys for questioning because they are riding a nice bike is the sort of thing the asshole cops do. Graham at the bike dump in Winnipeg _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:

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