Cycling UK Forum

I just bought a second-hand Brompton in London, and in the process came across several very suspicious ads on eBay and Gumtree -- likely people selling stolen bikes.

Gumtree, in particular, had several ads that raise red flags.

Check out 'Jamie's' ads, for example -
http://www.gumtree.com/sellerads/1010675493

'Jamie' is selling several bikes, and for each one he has some excuse, e.g., 'ive got a brand new brompton fold up bike for sale brand new only drove it acouple time i bought a hybrid bike cuz i like the drive better soo i want tjis bike gone out my hands soo call me.' Yeah right.

And here's one on eBay that got my attention -

brompton M3L
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281069855946?ss ... 1423.l2649

The seller says he's 'selling the bike for a friend.' Two weeks ago, he sold another Brompton 'for his dad' -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bormpton-M3R-Fo ... 1059370951

Anyone who's lost a Brompton to theft recently might want to check out these ads, though the difficulty is that the photos are (purposely, I think) blurry, and the ads give no details about the bikes.

More importantly, the bike community should put pressure on eBay and Gumtree to require sellers to post the serial and/or frame numbers of the bikes that they sell. There is a petition on this question that all bike owners should think about signing: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/e ... n-listings.