Good old Plod ;-)

Here's a tale to brighten up your day....
Nearly 2 years ago my son was mugged and had his dream bike stolen...It was
a MTB that he'd saved, scrimped, sweated blood 'n' tears and done deals to
build. Based on a very distinctive Planet X Jack Flash metallic red and gold
frame, he knew every component intimately and had only completed it about a
month before it was stolen. It was his pride and joy and he hadn't yet used
it in anger, i.e. off-road.
It was duly reported to the police and an insurance claim was made. £500 was
forthcoming to cover what was, in effect, a £1200 bike. I did the parental
thing of cruising the local area where it was stolen, looking for the
scumbags and ready to become 'The Law' in an instance if I came across it,
all to no avail. My sons view was that it was such a distinctive bike, that
it would've been shipped out of the area that day and he'd never see it
again. He was heartbroken!!
Fast forward to last week. We were returning from my fathers funeral to the
wake at our house. My son suddenly pointed out that we'd just passed a lad
riding his bike. I know my son knew this bike intimately and aside from the
frame, it was made from a very readily identifiable components. I believed
him but we were on the way to my fathers wake and I had to get there first
to let everyone in and supply food and drink, so there was no way I could
stop. - Ah well, he'd had the insurance and a couple of years out of a
replacement Trek.
Fast forward to Tuesday night. He had been out on a bit of an epic BMX'ing
day with friends. Whilst riding back to one of their houses he saw the bike
again, resting against the front of a house. He called me for assistance. I
was about to go charging in "a la cavalry", when I thought it might be a
good idea to pop into the local constabulary on the way over.
They advised that I went and waited with my son, made no move on it and they
would get someone over asap. I stated that it was a couple of years ago and
an insurance claim had been settled. They said that this made no difference
and we should progress with recovering the bike!!
Upon arrival, my son and his friends were getting very excited, working
themselves up in to a right old lather about raiding the house and
recovering the bike. I said that the police were on the way and we should
just hold back and wait. I eventually managed to convince them to go as it
was getting a bit embarrassing, and just leave my son and I to wait for the
police.
The police arrived after an hour and a half, took a detailed description and
crime report number that they'd issued us with. They sent us on our way and
approached the property.

They have since called and asked us to go and identify the bike at the local
police station on Monday - HURRAH!!!
My son is very philosophical about it and realises that he may not get the
bike back as strictly speaking it now belongs to the insurance company. He
reckons it was worth it just to ensure the scutters that had it no longer
have it.
I hope the insurance company will be impressed by his belligerence and allow
him to buy it back for a couple of hundred quid, if that. After all, if it
wasn't for him, it'd still be AWOL and they wouldn't be any better off.

The cop who came to rescue it said he'd never heard anything like it, a
pushbike after 2 years!!

Personally I am absolutely gobsmacked. Don't see hide nor hair of it for 2
years then twice within a week, on opposite sides of town....c'mon, really,
what are the chances of that??
I don't believe in all dat dere afterlife stuff, but I can't help feeling
Grandad was involved in it somewhere along the line ;-)...RIP Dad...and
thanks.

Dave.

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 10:56:58 +0100, "\(t'other\) Dave"
wrote:

Here's a tale to brighten up your day....

That's really good news, fingers crossed it goes well with the bike ID
and the insurance company. It surely wont be as shiny as when he lost
it, but it will be great for your son to have his bike back.

I'm not sure I'd have been as generous to Old Bill in my choice of
post subject though. Good old plod? They didn't recover your lads
bike, he did that himself. The extent of their efforts was probably
filing the report sheet in some dusty box or hard drive somewhere.
There are certain justifications for this I'm sure, but all the police
effectively did was send a bloke around to collect it once you'd done
the important bit yourselves. They even made you wait an hour and a
half standing guard over your own stolen property. Hardly worthy of
praise in my book.

Anyway, ignore my moaning, the important bit will be the big grin on
your lads face if all goes as it should on monday.
--

"Bob"

'The people have spoken, the *******s'

Email address is spam trapped.
To reply directly remove the beverage.

(t'other) Dave posted ...

Here's a tale to brighten up your day....

Nice one .. and well done.

I hope the insurance company will be impressed by his belligerence
and allow him to buy it back for a couple of hundred quid, if that.

I hope so too. Nothing worse than losing something you love, and that
you've put blood, sweat and tears [1] into, no matter how much or little it
cost.

[1] I've also built a bike up with exactly what I wanted on it, it ain't
always an easy task ..

--
Paul

(8(|) Homer rocks ..

So where is the bike now ? Have you got it ? Do your insurers know it has
been recovered ? Are they still your insurers ? Make them an offer - £100.

"MSeries" wrote in message
...

So where is the bike now ?
At the local copshop - waiting for the right person to be on days next
Monday...

Have you got it ?
Not yet..

Do your insurers know it has
been recovered ?
Don't think so


Are they still your insurers ?

Not sure, through my ex-wife, I'll ask

Make them an offer - £100.

Will do. Think they'll accept £50? ;-)

"Call me Bob" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 10:56:58 +0100, "\(t'other\) Dave"
wrote:

Here's a tale to brighten up your day....

That's really good news, fingers crossed it goes well with the bike ID
and the insurance company. It surely wont be as shiny as when he lost
it, but it will be great for your son to have his bike back.

Thanks, absolutely.


I'm not sure I'd have been as generous to Old Bill in my choice of
post subject though. Good old plod? They didn't recover your lads
bike, he did that himself. The extent of their efforts was probably
filing the report sheet in some dusty box or hard drive somewhere.
There are certain justifications for this I'm sure, but all the police
effectively did was send a bloke around to collect it once you'd done
the important bit yourselves. They even made you wait an hour and a
half standing guard over your own stolen property. Hardly worthy of
praise in my book.

My son expected it to be 3 weeks before they turned up and I did wonder if
we'd still be there at midnight with me reassuring my son, "they'll be here
in a minute mate, I'm sure of it..."...coulda been much worse. It was during
rush hour and there's all those manic cagers to police ;-)
...and I know they were only doing their job, but at least they did it, knife
vests and all. It was a well dodgy address and personally I wouldn't have
liked to knock on the door and accuse 'em of nicking my sons bike, or being
in posssession of stolen goods etc., without at least ma baseball bat ;-)
The bike will be returned (I hope) and we will still have the moral high
ground of being on the right side of the law.

Anyway, ignore my moaning, the important bit will be the big grin on
your lads face if all goes as it should on monday.


Priceless (hopefully - and without a Mastercard in sight ;-)
--

"Bob"

'The people have spoken, the *******s'

Email address is spam trapped.
To reply directly remove the beverage.

"Paul - xxx" wrote in message
...
(t'other) Dave posted ...

Here's a tale to brighten up your day....

Nice one .. and well done.

I hope the insurance company will be impressed by his belligerence
and allow him to buy it back for a couple of hundred quid, if that.

I hope so too. Nothing worse than losing something you love, and that
you've put blood, sweat and tears [1] into, no matter how much or little
it
cost.

You can say that again. One of the down sides of being a parent. The
suffering of your offspring that you feel powerless to do anything about. A
hug always seems to help though (that's the upside ;-)


[1] I've also built a bike up with exactly what I wanted on it, it ain't
always an easy task ..

He was 16 at the time and did it totally independantly of anyone else. I was
most impressed to say the least (and a little proud!)

--
Paul

(8(|) Homer rocks ..

(t'other) Dave wrote:
"MSeries" wrote in message
...

So where is the bike now ?
At the local copshop - waiting for the right person to be on days next
Monday...

Have you got it ?
Not yet..

Do your insurers know it has
been recovered ?
Don't think so


Are they still your insurers ?

Not sure, through my ex-wife, I'll ask

Make them an offer - £100.

Will do. Think they'll accept £50? ;-)

I have no idea of the Polices procedure, I assume they are satisfied you are
the rightful owner, will they simply hand it over to you once the paperwork
is done ?

Do the insurance company need to know ?

Good news to here plod has been supportive.

Sorry to hear about your Dad - sincere condolences.

helen s




--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove fame & fortune
**$om $

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off--

"MSeries" wrote in message
...
(t'other) Dave wrote:
"MSeries" wrote in message
...

So where is the bike now ?
At the local copshop - waiting for the right person to be on days next
Monday...

Have you got it ?
Not yet..

Do your insurers know it has
been recovered ?
Don't think so


Are they still your insurers ?

Not sure, through my ex-wife, I'll ask

Make them an offer - £100.

Will do. Think they'll accept £50? ;-)

I have no idea of the Polices procedure, I assume they are satisfied you
are
the rightful owner, will they simply hand it over to you once the
paperwork
is done ?

Do the insurance company need to know ?


Been wondering about this one.....
Presumably they've effectively bought it by paying out on it, albeit at a
greatly reduced rate (b'stards!!), so if we don't hand it to them then we're
'handling stolen goods'....
In order to keep it all above board I'll check with them and see what they
want to do.
Any advice from anyone in the insurance biz.??
Dave.