I have a funny one about living in LA. I came home from riding my Trek full suspension bike and I was in a hurry. Chained it up on our balcony which I normally didn't do and me and my son went to a Dodger game. Came home and the bike was gone. A guy up the street who used his garage as a paint studio said a homeless guy was asking him to borrow tools and he refused. He saw the guy a bit later ride by on a bike, while carrying a bike. Great my bike is gone. Likely never see it again.
I had the seat off the bike from when I got home and I had the owners manual with the receipt that had the serial number info on it from when the dealer sold it. I traded a camera to a coworker for the bike. I got the camera on clearance for like $50 bucks, it was worth about $200. Luckily I got the paperwork from the trade. I carried it my car for a while while looking for my bike. After a few months I still hadn't seen my bike so I stuck the seat and paperwork in the closet box of bike stuff.
Two years later and a neighbor asks me for a ride to Centinela Feed on Robertson for supplies for her cats. She is around the store and I am mulling by the registers. An elderly guy comes riding by and locks a bike up out in front of the store and comes in looking for something. They didn't have it and the guy is about to leave. I tell my friend that this guy is on my bike. She thinks I am crazy but the bike had a different seat, still had my bar extenders and my Cateye mount for the light that I had at home.
So we exit the store and follow the guy to the area east of Robertson between Pico and Olympic to his house. I see what apartment he goes into and we call the police. They come out, take a statement and confiscate the bike. The elderly guy said his son had bought it downtown two years ago and it had been in the garage and it was the first time anyone had ridden it since.
I went to the police station the next day with the paperwork and the entire police station knew the story and a bunch of the officers came out to meet me. They were amazed at the story that I spotted my bike in mint condition two years later after it was stolen. They verified my serial info and I was off with my bike.
Now this bike was only a 3-400 dollar bike at the time it was new. I cleaned, washed, waxed, lubed it up and put it on eBay as I never really liked it. For some reason this discontinued fairly basic model was in demand, and I ended up getting 700 dollars for it. Turned around and bought a 2000 dollar Titanium Airborne Hybrid on sale for 700 before they closed up shop and sold to Huffy.
I still have that bike and it has been in storage for three years. I retrieved all my stuff and will be setting it up this week on a new Fluid2 trainer that has been stored nib too.
So this can be either a story of an amazing theft recovery or how to get a 2000 dollar Titanium bike for 50 bucks.