This summer my Cannondale M500 was stolen from my house. It was odd because the Kryptonite was intact and so was the post I locked it to. Last week I'm "walking" down the street from my place and I see my bike. Its top tube had been cut with a plumber's tubing cutter. I immediatly flag down a cop and we comfront the scumbag. The cop asks me if I have a reciept of ownership. The bike is like 8 years old and it's been around the world. No, I says. So the cop takes down the scumbag's info and tells me that without documentation there's nothing he can do. I'm pursuing this through the DA's office. But I wanted to ask you all out there if there's a way for me to get documentation for my bike. It was bought at a store that is no longer a Cannondale distributor, so they have no records. I called Cannondale and they have no records. This bike was bought with a credit card and registered with Cannondale roughly eight years age. If anyone has any helpful legal hints or knowledge concerning manufactorer registration I'd love to hear from you.
Have you tried the credit card company, maybe they have a record of the purchase?
Regards Steve
P.s. Just for future referance me and my wife both bought a radar which will track your bike via GPS tracking if stolen. radarprotected.comhome.htmlOpen ↗
Just for future referance me and my wife both bought a radar which will track your bike via GPS tracking if stolen. radarprotected.comhome.htmlOpen ↗
I've just gone through that website and it doesn't say anything about GPS tracking. That would mean it'd need to use active technology, which would require a power pack - which would use up some bulk - which would make it a bit tricky to hide the thing on a bike... To me it looks like a transponder-tagging system, an improved version of the ID-chips some vets use to tag animals. The obvious advantage would be that with a handheld scanner it's easier and faster to determine an object's identity than finding and reading a serial number.
I just went through this with my insurance company. It's a good idea to keep all your receipts, owner's mannuals and pictures of anything you might want to report stolen. Without proof, they don't have to give you anything. The scumbag usually sells your expensive belongings to a pawn shop for pennies on the dollar and goes out and rips off someone else the next day. The pawn shop guy has to send in the ser. # to the local cops, but if you don't report the # the they both get away with it. And make sure you copy down all the letters and numbers, including the 0000000s. Trek and Schwinn know what the letters mean but the cops don't. Better luck next time...
That's why when I was in business(which was relatively low volume) I recorded every serial that passed my wrenches, pics and all. That way I knew what they were and the customer could reference back. There were a few times I caught someone having me work on a hot bike that way. I took his info down and told the original owners. On my personal stuff, I put unique numbers in. A serial inside the seat sube, under the BB and one on the inside face of the dropout. Not really easy to spot, but that is the idea. Some thieves will alter the original serial if they are smart. It wouldnt have to be an authentic number as long as it didnt match the one in question. Fortunately a lot are not as scheming as this, hence a tubing cutter to the top tube. Really nice tactics. My best wishes on your quest. I would be needing the police escort to keep me from strangling the guy.
