Bikes - Stolen or removed by the authorities

A friend of ours just had her bike go missing from outside an apartment block on a main road. We are pretty sure that it was stolen but were wondering if there is any remote chance that the bike could have been moved by the property owners or the authorities? Has anyone ever heard of this being done? We are assuming not, but if there is any hope then that would be good.

Yes, it happens quite often that they remove old bikes. However, they usually leave a notice on the bikes and in the vicinity that they will be doing this. And they do this months in advance, but it would be in German. I don't think they touch the bikes that actually look new or like they have been used, but you never know. It is usually done by the property owners. That being said, there are gangs that travel through Munich several times a year simply to steal bikes. Your friend may have just been unlucky.

As it was there for less than an hour, I guess she was unlucky. Is it normally area related or just bad luck?

Most likely just bad luck. We had a gang come through the GSF last year and took all the good looking bikes. I was lucky as I drove to work that day. They cruise around with panel vans and take them to the eastern border where they sell them back to the German tourists. 30 in gas and 500+ in profit. Not a bad gig if your into that sort of thing. Of course the 500 lasts them 3-4 months or so. Of course as they get squeezed into the EU, they will have to steal and sell 3 or 4 times as much to make up the diff. So, this might be a bad year for theft in Munich.

Yeah, once I was coming home in the wee hours of the morning and as I walked down the street towards Josephplatz, I heard lots of crashing noises. Lo and behold, it was one of those panel vans eurovol mentioned, and I realized as the van drove away that someone was throwing bikes into the back that were parked in front of the U-bahn.

Be careful... make sure to lock your bike to something, don't just lock the wheel to the frame... I learned this the hard way as well.

Well i left my bike at Fraunhoferstrasse for about a week, and it was locked up...

Can you believe when i returned, some f**ker had locked it up with a chain and padlock, so the padlock was around the spoke of the wheel??

so i unlocked my bike, it didn't move an inch and i pondered...

Need guys in the know, so i called on a mate and got the padlock chipped away in 2 minutes.

The cheek of the tw*t to lock my OWN bike up with HIS lock?!

What gives?

KT

My colleague at work has had her bike stolen 6 times at least within the past 2.5 years. She lives in Westend. How annoying

Its not the much different up here in North Germany. I had my bike stolen from outside my house. It was about 3 years old and really didn't look that good, although I had JUST put new tires on it

One year I saw a council truck going along with bikes piled high in the back. They had all be dredged from the river before the boating season. The river is near the railway station and it seems some lazy bastards just want a quick ride back to their train, steal a bike and dump it in the river...

You would think the police would CCTV the areas that get bikes stolen from (Bahnhoff and Karstadt) then catch the bastards, but German police don't come across as being very proactive...

"Lock it or lose it" is the motto here. If you don't lock it and the council sees it lying about, it will take it to the lost and found office.
Lost Bike Depot opening times:
Tuesdays 8.00-12.00 and 14.00-18.30
Munich Lost and Found office info
And if you want a new bike go today! Today is auction day for bikes there.

Cool! Thanks for that Katrina!

The bike auction is actualy not at the Bike Depot but at:

on Wednesday, 30 March 2005 starting from 09.00 o'clock in the inner court of the messuage Oetztaler road 17/Rgb., in 81373 Munich Sendling auctioneers.

(*Translated by google.)

Has anyone ever gotten a bike there before? I can't make it till around 1:30pm. Will the good deals be gone by then? Is it worth going? Do large bike dealers go there and scoop up all the bikes worth getting within the first couple of hours?

Thanks if anyone knows.
-prof

A colleague of mine got a really nice mountain bike there last year. Not sure how early he went but I'd probably try to get there early.

Hi Toytown

Let's say that you were to lock a bike somewhere where it shouldn't be locked. Could it be that it would be towed somewhere, like a car parked in an illegal place?

If so could anybody tell me where it might have been taken or whom I should contact I would be eternally grateful. I noticed in other posts that some people seemed to think that this might happen and the fundburo was mentioned as a possible destination??

any help greatfully appreciated.

Topics merged by admin

Hi,

I think the concensus of this thread was that if you locked it somewhere and its gone not long after then it is likely stolen, sorry.

You should still try the funburo though as I thought I had lost my brand new mountian bike for 6 months.. It turned out that it was at the Fundburo all along! Defo worth checking.