Stolen in Colorado

General
1

My friend Shaun got his unicycle stolen last Friday. A brand new KH24, maybe 3 weeks old. It took me a while to convince him to buy one, to spend the money, and he loved it.

He left it overnight on the side of a house, behind a pile of wood, unlocked, and the next morning it was gone (go figure). This is supposed to be Fort Collins, one of the best cities to live in the country, with very little crime!

So, if anybody around CO hears of a KH24 for sale, and it sounds a little fishy, let me know.

Jorge

2

Ouch. No more MUni. In Colorado.

[I]Now he walks in quiet solitude the forests and the streams
Seeking grace in every step he takes
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand
The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake

And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky …[/I]

3

The worst part of that is that it sounds like somebody saw him actually try to hide it there, and the jacka$$ that took it probably doesn’t even know what he really stole.

There are always at least two words that don’t go well together in a full sentence. For example…

  1. Stolen, KH

  2. House, fire

  3. Broken, Porsche

  4. Kick, Balls

Sorry to hear of the loss…:frowning:

4

Well, happy ending to this story:

Last Saturday night i received an e-mail from Osmundo (from this forum) telling me that there was an ebay auction for a KH24 from a Pawn shop in Fort Collins. I looked at the auction and had no doubts that it was the same uni.

So I called Shaun and told him and of course he was excited, he started looking for evidence and he found the cut out piece of the seat post, plus pictures and the receipt.

The pawn shop was closed on Sunday so he managed to get there with the cop today, Monday. After a few runs back and forth to the police station, trying to convince them that they had to hurry and do it today, etc. In the end he only needed to show that the part of the seat post that he had matched the unicycle and the cop and pawn shop employee / owner were satisfied.

The auction for those interested: http://tinyurl.com/3czofm It was a great deal at the time, $305, $30 shipping. Sorry if someone here was bidding :smiley: . Also a great deal for the pawn shop, that paid $120 for it.

The police has all the information for the thief: ss#, home address, Phone number, driver license number, and I don’t know how much of it is real and how much is fake. I am sure that the pawn owner knew that it was stolen, for sure once he paid only $120 for a brand new (used one week) uni, and for sure after checking online for details about it. He did a pretty good job with the description though.

So big thanks to Osmundo for spotting the auction, just 2 days shy of it being closed, and I guess the moral is that if yours is gone, always keep looking, and go to the pawn shops, and ask around, it might eventually show up.

5

I had actually been looking at that auction, I thought about bidding on it too.

thats such great news that he got it back!

6

Oh man this is better than a fairy tale. :slight_smile:

7

Great

8

That is good news. And a big thanks to osmundo for keeping an eye out.

It is a problem though that unicycles aren’t serial numbered. You had to use a cut off section of seatpost to verify ownership. My bikes have serial numbers and I have those serial numbers written down so I can ID the bike later if necessary.

What is a good way to ID a stock unicycle?

I suppose you could engrave a number on the frame and some of the parts. But that will chip off the paint and takes some motivated effort (most people don’t have an engraver or a stamping tool).

Some bike folks hide little cards in various components on the bike with their name and a short note on it. Have the note say something to the effect of “if this bike was brought in for repair by someone other than me then it is stolen”. Hide the cards in areas where a normal user wouldn’t find them but a bike mechanic would. Possible areas would be in the handlebar behind the plug, inside the headtube of the frame, stuffed up the seatpost, etc.

I suppose you could do the same on a unicycle. Hide a card under the foam of a Fusion seat, stuff a card up the seatpost. But there aren’t many other areas you can hide a card on a unicycle.

Might be time for KH, Nimbus, and others to start serial numbering frames so they can be more easily identified and also more easily reported when stolen. If the unicycle was serial numbered and reported to a bike theft registry the pawn shop owner might have checked such a registry and found out that it was indeed stolen.

9

hmm
the torker DX has it, possibly the others.

10

That auction was in my watch list and I wondered why the sudden, unexplained ending. Glad it was returned before the sale.

11

You could put a piece of masking tape or piece of paper on the inside of your tire with your name, info, etc. Since its such a pain to get those tires off and on I don’t think a thief would be looking around in there.

12

Congratulations on getting the stolen uni back! :slight_smile:

Now scratch off Ft. Collins, CO from the dwindling list of places where you can leave valuables lying out in the open. I’ve certainly never lived in one. :frowning:

I’ve had three unicycles stolen over the years, and recovered two. The first one (back in 1983) was stolen along with this car, and never seen again. You can see it inside the back window.

Retrieving the other two involved calling local bike and pawn shops. The pawn shop people were dicks. “We never accept stolen merchandise!” They were reluctant to even talk to me beyond that. Why? Oh, because it isn’t true. How do they know it’s stolen or not? Fortunately in my case the thief brought both unicycles in to a local bike shop to have the (splined) cranks removed from one. I was very lucky.

$120 is a lot for anything from a pawn shop. It’s not like they give you market value. They’re in business for people who need the money now. Of course people in those types of situation are never thieves… :roll_eyes:

13

That’s a damn good idea.
‘Shaun’ is one very lucky guy.

14

When Scott Wallis did the brake mods on my Wilder, I asked him to engrave my driver’s license number into the bearing holder that is welded to the frame. A cursery glance won’t turn it up.

It’s there, just in case…

I hope I never have to use it.

The unicycle community is a small community and we look out for each other. Touche’ Osmondo

15

This will be good to know if I decide to steal your Wilder.

16

Chalk one up for the good guys!! Congrats!

17

Yay! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

speeking of wich I’m going to go and take a photo of my uni