Woman "steals' her bike back after finding it on Craigslist

gma.yahoo.com...

I have to hand it to this woman, she has brains and guts! Haha. Apparently someone had stolen her bike outside of a bar, and she later found her bike being advertised for sale on Craigslist.

A Colorado woman took matters into her own hands when her bike was stolen from outside of a Boulder sports bar. She tracked down her stolen bike on Craigslist, pretended to be an interested buyer and stole back her own bike. Kathryn Lucas, 25, parked her bike outside of a bar where she went to watch a University of Colorado football game on the night of Oct. 4, according to ABC News’ Denver affiliate KMGH. When she left the bar to head home, she discovered that her black Trek 1.2 road bike was missing. After filing a police report, she and her roommate began searching Craigslist to see if the thief was trying to sell the bike. Sure enough, Lucas found a posting with a photo of her bike. She immediately recognized her bike’s red handle-bar tape and her water bottle holder.

Lucas responded to the Craigslist ad, pretending to be an interested buyer. Minutes later, a person using the name “Lance Robinson” responded with his phone number and instructed her to text him so he could send her his address. On Sunday, Lucas went to the man’s apartment complex and asked if she could test ride the bike. “I started riding it and knew it was my bike, so I just kept riding it,” Lucas told KMGH. “I rode it to my car and then threw it it in my car and then drove away.”

Lucas said she had not been planning on getting the bike back that way, but took advantage of an opportunity and made a spur-of-the-moment decision. “They were a lot bigger than I thought they were,” Lucas said. “I thought it’d be like a little person that stole bikes and I’d be like, ‘Hey, I called the police and that’s my bike and you’re trying to sell it to me,’ but I just took it for a ride and went with it.” After she had recovered her bike, Lucas called the police and gave them the thief’s address. “Lance Robinson” turned out to be 18-year-old Denzel O’Neal Crawford, who did not have a prior police record. Crawford was arrested, confessed to stealing the bike and was released on bond. Police also told Lucas that, though her recovery mission was successful, it was not a tactic they recommend, according to KMGH. “They told me for future reference that I probably would not want to do that by myself,” Lucas said.

Now, I commend her for going and getting her bike back, but she should have called the police first. I guess the next time he steals something, he won't be advertising it on craigslist

That's pretty funny, good for her. I'm glad she didn't get hurt, things could have gone differently.

The same thing happened in the city I used to live in. Some idiot stole a bunch of stuff then put it on a similar site as Craigslist the very same day with pictures and everything!

Anyone that stupid deserves to get caught

Good for her! Takes a lot of courage to do that.

This story is simillar to an experience I had this past summer. My bike was stolen outside a coffee shop in may, I found my lock cut off on the floor where it was locked up. Anyways I put numerous ads on craigslist and kijiji with a description of my bike and offered a reward. I checked out all the shops that are known for selling stolen bikes and filed a police report. About a month later, I hadnt checked my email in a few days and I find my inbox full of people responding that someone is selling my bike! So I look it up and find the seller actually copied and pasted all the info from the description in my stolen bike ads! Anyways, I made up a bunch of fake emails and approached the seller from a few angles. One of the emails got a response, I got his info and made a time to meet him. I went straight to the police dept. told them I was about to go and get my bike back and if they could help. They got a couple undercovers and met the seller where I told them. About an hour later- the cops came back with my bike in hand

best day ever!

reply to post by Veritas1


I have been cruising around craigslist myself.I am thinking
of buying a camper to set up as a vacation "home".I see
ads where people are looking for their stolen campers and
rv's.Whenever I do buy one I want to make sure it has a clear
title.No title could be trouble or possibly stolen property.

I have also been looking at vintage bicycles.I want another
50's style schwinn with big fat tires,pedal brakes and lots
of chrome.I want to pedal myself back into a size 14 while
I can.How can you tell if a bicycle is stolen or not?

reply to post by mamabeth


One suggestion is to get the serial number from the seller (it is usually under the pedal assembly at the bottom of the frame) and do a search online for stolen bikes of that serial or call the police dept. and ask if they have reports of that bike being stolen. When my bike was stolen the fact I didnt have the serial number made it a little difficult to even get it back from the cops, luckily I had many photos and names of the custom parts on the bike so they knew it belonged to me. Now I have all my bike serial numbers written down in case any are stolen it helps the chances of getting it back.

Apparently someone had stolen her bike outside of a bar

Think I've heard this situation before, of course what she did saved a ton of time and effort...

Good for her in getting her bike back !

But she shouldn't have lost her bike in the first place .... if it had been locked/secured properly.

Not sure what she was thinking in leaving her nice TREK unattended in front of an urban bar where the famous "liquid courage" is being sold ?

A good lock prevents losing your bike as well as having to resort to having to " take some friends or a gun with her and called the police first " in the first place....

What did the Irish kid get for Christmas?

My bike!

Save your indignation, I am Irish so I get to tell the jokes. Off to drink some whisky and punch someone in the face...

reply to post by Veritas1

Nice story, OP. Fortunately for the lady concerned she didn't meet up with some really bad guys or it might have turned out differently. The police were right: it would have been better to let them deal with it.

As for locking a bike, that usually helps. A lot of bike thefts are opportunistic so if a bike is unsecured it's more likely to do a disappearing act than if it's locked to something.

However, we need to be careful what we lock our bikes to. Earlier this year, someone visited our neighbors and locked their bike to a "disabled parking" sign right out front of the building. Well, someone or a few someones came along and deciding they wanted the bike, they lifted the whole sign on its pole straight out of the pavement (they're often a slip fit into a hole in the concrete), slipped the bike lock off the pole and off they went, leaving the pole lying on the ground. I guess it took them all of ten seconds to do it.

So, signs like that are not always the best thing to chain a bike to!

**By the way, Veritas1, please check your messages.**

Mike