Teen 'stunned' as police find his stolen bike - then say they can't return it to him

David Lloyd is Hertfordshire PCC.

I've alerted him to this on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/hertspcc
Awaiting reply.

Police error? I don't think it was an error. The PC probably had instructions to record certain incidents of 'theft' as 'loss'. If the incident wasn't recorded as a crime, then it won't show up in the crime statistics and whoever is at the top can claim he/she has 'reduced' crime in the area.

Most stolen bikes would never be recovered, so no one would notice. Now they've found the bike, they're just making up excuses to cover up.

A similar thing happened to me about 15 years ago when I was a teenager, but with my motorbike. The police found some boys wheeling it along. The number plate had been ripped off. The police did a search, but because I hadn't reported it they let the kids carry on pushing it. I discovered this had happened when I went to report the theft that evening after returning from work/uni to discover the bike gone. The police must have been aware the boys were in the act of stealing my bike when they stopped them but were powerless to stop them or just couldn't be bothered to have stolen bike on their hands. Surely confiscating goods they believe to be stolen is a better idea. If they turn out not stolen then they can be returned with an apology.

British bureaucracy at its best!! Well done the Fuzz.

This is the triumph of bureaucracy over common sense. OK so the paperwork doesn't tally but what most people/organisations would do would be to correct the mistake with the paperwork to reflect the reality of the situation, not make the reality conform to the paperwork.

Surely the Chief Constable or even a local Sergeant should be able to cut through this crap, give the bike back to its rightful owner and make the paperwork right.

"Computer says no" is not good enough.

Even for their own sakes the policy of having a 101 number to save people calling 999 takes a hole in the foot on this. And what numpty thinks a stolen bike isn't a crime. A stolen anything is a crime. The Chief Constable ought to be hunting this person down and asking wht the bloody hell they think theft is if it ain't a crime.

When I had my Cinelli bike stolen from outside a shop many years ago I made strenuous efforts to find it, calling in to all the bike shops I knew & alerting them. It was very distinctive for many reasons. It was identified by the very one I had recently had it re-enamalled in when brought in for adjustments a few days later! But when I informed the police they took it and insisted on keeping it for several months "as evidence". Yet nobody was ever charged with a crime! I had to buy another bike just to keep on cycling to work.......

Well what did he expect he's a cyclist and therefore not entitled to the benefits that the law can provide, now if he were a motorist.

Running for cover.

"....it was not crimed through our system."

The real offence in this story is right there.

Its simple enough - if someone reports a crime, unless there are major concerns over the legitamcy of their account which is obviously not the case here, then it is a crime and gets recorded as such.

If its occurred overnight then i imagine its gone from a garage or shed because you dont leave a £900 bike outside do you and that means its a burglary or burglary otd which should be attended by a cop for forensic purposes and h2h.

Its not often i criticise the Police but on this one they have got it way wrong. Why massage the figures just so the Govt look good

Difficult one for the police... Almost...

If this teen reports his bike missing ( stolen or lost ) then a record would have been made. It looks like this is the case here. A loss report instead of a theft report was made otherwise they'd never have been able to identify the bike and it's owner.

Here's the foolish police fatal error. They find the bike and a "suspect" however because the bike isn't reported "stolen" they didn't take it.

The Police had a few simple option, arrest for "theft by finding". This means if a suspect finds an item and doesn't make reasonably expected enquiries to return it to the owner or the police they commit an offence. The test used is reasonableness. For example, you find 20p on the floor at a packed football stadium. Is it reasonable you will not find the owner? You are permitted to keep the 20p. You find a wallet with a name and pictures in it at the same football ground, is it reasonable the owner could be found by handing the item in? Then to not commit theft you MUST do so at the earliest opportunity.

So a £900 BMX shouldn't be too difficult a task and therefore the offence is complete. Arrest and seize the bike.

The other option, if the bike was reported lost, would have been to arrest the suspect for "handling stolen goods" because once again if the item was reported lost and someone else has it then a crime has been committed.

And finally, now they know it is a stolen bike, they have details of the suspect, they can return and arrest them for the original offence and seize the bike. If the suspect has rid themselves of it already then further arrest them for obstructing police / perverting the course of justice.

Either way the bike should be returned to the owner ASAP.

I've been a UK PC for 7 years. Its not difficult.

There's something very wrong when Police can find a bike they *know* is stolen, but won't return it, regardless of a paperwork c**kup, yet will confiscate bikes that they merely suspect *may* not belong to the person riding it, (has happened in Oxford and other places around the UK).

Old Bill doesn't seem to always take bike-related incidents as seriously as he should.
Hit by a van last week, and after being taken straight to hospital, it subsequently took two emails and three phone calls to get the relevant details from the police so I could make a claim on the driver's insurance for my brand new bike. One phone-answerer even told me it wasn't worth it as the 3rd Party insurance didn't apply to bikes as they weren't "vehicles"