Recently the news that a Slovenian found his stolen bike in Croatia caused quite a stir. The man was persistent; he never stopped looking for his stolen bicycle, and finally recognized it among the bicycles offered for sale by an unknown advertiser in Croatia. He sent an e-mail to the Virovitica Podravje Police Department, informing them of his discovery. He sent to the Police all the data regarding his bicycle, including the photographs, and gave them basis for action.

The user Enej, a keen mountain cyclist, shared with us his story, quite similar to the one described in the previous paragraph.

Enej's story
in the middle of April, Immediately after his bicycle was stolen, at one of the cycling forums Enej published the news that his bicycles Lapierre Froggy 518 and Focus Black Forest were stolen. Until the end of the month nothing happened, but then he received two private messages from Bosnia and Herzegovina, from two different users, informing him that one of the two stolen bicycles is being sold on their web classified service.

Enej, originally from Koper but living in Ljubljana, explains that he immediately recognized his "froggy" as the bicycle which was on offer for sale, since he had spent a year putting it together. He took all the pictures, the print screens of the website, and even the profile of the person selling the bicycle he had found on Facebook, complete with his address and phone number, to the Bežigrad Police station to which he had reported the theft of the bicycle.

Unfortunately the policeman told him that there was nothing they could do, as it was an international crime, and consequently it had to be resolved by the Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

To Bosnia to get his bike
"After considering the options, contacting all the criminal investigators I knew – directly or indirectly – it turned out that if I wanted to see my bike ever again, I had to go to Sarajevo, and ask the policemen there to go with me to the home of the person selling my bike – and keep hoping that the bike was still there," Enej said. One of the criminal investigators helped him organize everything –which Police station to contact, who would escort him... With the help of the policemen from Bosnia and Herzegovina Enej managed to get his bike back, and brought it home to Slovenia.

Cyclists keep their eyes open, and watch out for each other's bicycles
He explained for MMC that his case is far from being the only one. "For example, a week before my bicycles were stolen, a Giant Glory downhill bicycle was stolen at the Parmova street from a car roof bike rack; a Saturday later it was my turn. In the meantime my friend bought a new bike, and two weeks later somebody broke into his basement in Šiška and stole the new bike as well. After a couple of months he was also successful in retrieving the bike which had been stolen first, with the help of a citizen, while unfortunately he was not so lucky with the second stolen bike," Enej explained.

"Unfortunately the Police are not concerned with such things, as they have more important duties, and we have to fend for ourselves," he claims. So, does it often happen that the owner of the stolen bike manages to find it by himself? "If he does, he does it by himself. There is no other way. I don't know of a case where the Police succeeded in finding such a specific bike. They do find those who steal a number of bicycles from a garage, but 'our' kind of bicycles drop below radar pretty quickly, as they are very noticeable, and above everything else - expensive," Enej explains.

"Cooperation among the Police just as for other criminal actions "
The Police confirmed to us that in the past years a number of cases were recorded in which the stolen bicycles were taken to the Balkan region.

"But we can't consider it as organized crime. A lot of bicycles are being resold at the markets, through classified magazines, classified websites in Slovenia. Those more expensive bicycles are often resold abroad," they explained for MMC.

Stolen bicycles often land in the Balkan region, therefore we asked about the cooperation of the Police forces of the countries in solving bicycle thefts. "The cooperation among the Police forces is the same as for other crimes", they explained.

Tina Hacler
Translated by G. K.