Found what I think is a stolen bike - ideas?

[Alapeno]

So, I've found a fairly nice bike that's been left since the weekend behind the bins in my alleyway. Guesses are it's stolen and I know if it was mine, I'd like to think there was someone decent enough to try and return it.

But, returning what might be a nice bike to it's owner is proving quite difficult. The police don't want anything to do with it and the council are sending me in circles. The police sent me to a website with no actual way of listing found items, only paying a fiver to submit a stolen item report and I'm not getting much in the way of info from Council, who they also said to phone.

It's a lovely bike and obviously I've had thoughts about keeping it if it was unclaimed but know it's not mine. I just want to make sure I've done everything I can to return it, one for my conscience and two so that it doesn't come back to bite me in the arse.

I don't really fancy knocking on everyone's doors on this and the next street but no idea what else to do.

Any ideas?

Yes, I know you'll take it off my hands for £20.

[Alapeno]

Alex@POD said:

My bike is on the register (required for cycle to work), and it can be identified by a serial number under the bottom bracket. Nothing like that on this one?

bigandclever said:

Check if it's been put on here https://www.bikeregister.com/bike-checker and/or https://checkthatbike.co.uk/ and/or http://www.bikeshepherd.org/

You might find an owner that way.

To be fair, I've told Plod about nicked bikes I've found a few times, on 101, and they've come round to pick them up from my house.

Nothing on it that I can see. There was a white sticker with code on on the underside but a quick Google turns up that it's the item code. It's worth about £6-700 new, which I guess isn't astronomical but still not cheap.

[Alapeno]

Been a busy couple of days, I did mean to reply with a less than totally vague answer.

Yes, it's a Specialized and in South Manchester.