Quote:
Originally Posted by BigFish
Thanks guys! I am upset my bike was taken but at this point if I saw someone on it all I would do is hold them and call the cops and let them handle it! I do not think I will see the bike again and am positive the thief stripped its identity aka the baskets and skateboard deck and pvc pipe so he could more easily unload it! I am already onto ordering another bike and will have it completely rigged like the other one the weekend I return from Cutty!  A yardsale junker would not hold my weight plus my gears weight plus fish.....so rather than deal with any more headaches such as the bent rims I have had, the new bike will come with the HD rims and I will be good to go! 
Trust me if I caught the guy in the act....well......lets just say he would be lucky to walk with a limp the rest of his life....if he could walk at all after I was through beating him within an inch of his miserable life! Its gone baby gone! I have moved on!
I would like to again thank you all for your support, your kind words and your generous offers! See you on the Ditch a week from Monday!!! |
There's two problems with holding the guy for the cops, Larry. First and foremost--you can't do it legally. You can't detain someone for the police in Mass or make a "citizen's arrest" for a property crime. Even if the value of the bike is more than $250. The guy can pedal away and there isn't anything you can legally do to stop him. He isn't in the act of stealing your bike, and you don't know whether he's the guy who stole it.
Secondly, the police have no probable cause to arrest him for anything, even if you can ID it positively as your bike. You can't prove he was the thief, and you can't even prove that he knowingly received stolen property. The Bourne Police Department will not arrest him based on that, and they may not even be willing to order him to return it to you. I don't think that they have that legal authority. You have no proof of ownership--can you prove that it is the exact bike you owned and not just one that looks identical?
Don't throw good money after bad by getting yourself into a legal scrape that will force you to hire a lawyer.
When you get your new bike, have your name, address and phone number etched onto the frame somewhere where it's not readily visible. This will allow you to prove ownership down the road if someone steals it and you see it being ridden somewhere. Some police departments do this, and most bike shops will do it.
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