Here's an update on this bike.
This bike was stolen during a house break-in in January 2014. It had been missing for ~1.5 years when I noticed it was listed on eBay. Someone also brought it to the attention of any interested forum members in this 'For Sale' thread (
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=99067), but no-one had noticed it was the bike I had reported stolen in this thread.
My friend, the original owner, contacted her local police, and they were very interested to recover it. They recommended not alerting the eBay seller by any direct contact or by posting anything on this forum. My friend also contacted eBay, and the police were interested to obtain the address of the seller from eBay in order to recover the bike. This proved to be a slow process and, when it became clear eBay would not have responded to the police by the time the auction closed, we decided to warn CTC forum members (which was condoned by the police), and I posted my warning in the 'For Sale' thread.
As a result of this warning, a CTC forum member contacted the eBay seller. The seller was apparently unaware it was a stolen bike, and said he would take the bike to his local police station when he returned from holiday. All credit to the seller, since he did exactly that.
So, the bike was recovered. However, since it was more than a year after the theft, my friend had already bought a replacement bike, and the actual owner of the stolen bike was now my friend's insurer. The insurer was also keen to recover the bike, so that it could realise some of the value. Therefore, I expect the bike will be sold by the insurer over the coming months, but I don't know where or when.
