"Coppers lost my motorbike!"

[Mad Dave]

Well, not mine, a bloke on VisorDown. I just wondered what the resident BiB's on here thought of this situation - did the Police act badly, or is the guy harping on about nothing?

Visordown Bloke said:

Parked up at g/f's only to find my pride and joy gone when i got up yesterday morning. Gutted but understand the rules that you must not own anything and if you do then chances are it will be stolen by some scrote. Anyway called the police, gave em the details only to be told that they had found the bike at 0330 and even arrested someone for the theft of it. Briliant thinks I, 'so where is it now then, which compound should i collect it from?' i ask. Whoa there hoss, its not in a compound,they left it where we found it, on the edge of a council estate in lower sydenham/catford, oh and its been hot-wired. Now I'm no electrical genius but surely that means that all soemone needs to do to start it is push the starter button and they've got themselves a shiny gixer to play with? Of course i legged it strait down to where the cops told me it had been and guess what, it had gone! I was a little 'exasperated' to say the least with the boys in blue at this stage and spoke to them again. i asked why the hell the bike had been left in such a stupid place and why if they were going to do that didnt they get in touch to tell me. The response was to ask if i'd requested police recovery service when i'd reported it stolen? Now considering I only knew the bike had gone 6 hours after they found it I kind of resented this line of enquiry, gggrrrrrr ! Anyway to sum up this sorry tale just had a call from Lewisham police because i said i want to put in a complaint about how this has been dealt with. I've been told that the reason the bike was left was that the PC made a judgement that the value was not sufficient to justify removing it. I find this amazing and it really makes me mad that some jumped up little shit who more than likely knows all about bikes decides that it is ok to leave my (£4000) bike on a scummy council estate. Anyway I asked her to pass on my congrats to this clown as his decision means that i will now not be able to ride for the next 5 years (2nd theft) and I'm writing to the Chief Super which i'm sure will help! Please enjoy your bikes, you cant imagine how much you miss them when it looks likely your riding days are over ing gutted and fuming

[Tonyrec]

Just going on the facts here, its a pretty poor response and a bad idea to leave a stolen vehicle in these circs.

When it was reported stolen, the owner would have been asked if he wanted the vehicle recovered when it was found. If the answer was no, then thats why its been left.
If the answer was yes then thats disgraceful.

However, taking all of these things into account, the bike should not have been left in situ because as you say, it was easily stolen again....this time it could have been involved in a pursuit resulting in loss of life.


Whatever tho, it warrants further investigation .

[Mad Dave]

Thanks Tony - as stated, he didn't get the opportunity to ask for Recovery as he only noticed it missing 6 hours AFTER they found it (and left it on a council estate!).

Cheers for the comments - ill pass a link to this thread on to the guy if/when it gains a few more responses.

Dave

[Tonyrec]

Sorry, got the wrong end of the stick in relation to the original theft.

The sad thing about it is that some Divisions have strange policies which are based around financial aspects instead of good old common sense.

If it was my bike, i would be livid....but sadly, the guidelines on this occasion seen to have been met (even if they were not based on sound judgement)

[edc]

So what happens when the bikeis eventually reported stolen? Do the police then go looking for it? I can't see the logic.

[Tonyrec]

edc said:

So what happens when the bikeis eventually reported stolen? Do the police then go looking for it? I can't see the logic.

Thats exactly why the bike should be recovered at the time, saves a lot of hassle afterwards.

[edc]

Nothing like being proactive; at least they know where it was last seen!

[Raify]

Put up a massive poster outside the police HQ:

Motorbike Stolen!

Last seen in the custody of Officer XXX

retires, having lit blue touch paper

[streaky]

Tonyrec said:

edc said: So what happens when the bikeis eventually reported stolen? Do the police then go looking for it? I can't see the logic. Thats exactly why the bike should be recovered at the time, saves a lot of hassle afterwards.

The bike had not been reported stolen when the scrote was arrested. Presumably, though, the arresting officer (had) determined that the scrote did not own the said bike ... so there was a reasonable presumption that the bike was stolen (just not reported as such). It would be interesting to learn when the scrote was arrested and for what.

If the scrote was actually arrested in possession of the (stolen) bike at the time of arrest, it does seen unusual that the bike was not taken as evidence.

After all, if a scrote was arrested in possession of a stolen car radio (value, say, £200), would the arresting officer leave the radio on the pavement (thereby complying with force policy)? If the BiB forced open a lock-up and found it full of stolen items (with a total value of, say, £3,000), would they leave the door up and walk away?

I strongly suspect that the answer in both these cases is ... "No!"

A complaint appears justified.

Streaky

>> Edited by streaky on Wednesday 21st July 12:12

[z1000]

I narrowly avoided exactly the same thing , Rd 400 stolen overnight.When I reported it they said they had already found it abandoned in a bush ( why didn't they contact me ?) I said I'd pop along to pick it up.
" Its not here" they said
"Where is it"
"Still in the bush"
I rushed up with my wife and found the bike to be out of petrol , thats why it was there I suppose.
We went to the nearest petrol station and bought a petrol can and a gallon of fuel.
" Thats a coincedence " says the cashier
" I only just sold one of those 2 minutes ago !"
Alarm bells ringing , we rushed back to bike ,relief,still there.Fuelled up.Five seconds into the ride back home two (what were chavs and scrotes called in the mid-eighties) drove the other way at about 5 mph . Their jaws were on the floor , and their heads nearly span off as I went past !