Man uncovers bike thief by bidding on own bike in online auction

Cars are often advertised at auction, even though the seller does not own the car and has never seen it. They take pics off the web and then take people's money.

Thus I can imagine that the cops here needed to catch him in some act, in order to prove a) the perp actually had the thing in his possession, and b) a sale-of-stolen-property transaction was taking place.

What did the police do when he found his bike online?

Maybe it wasn't registered. The registration system is a get out of responsility card for cops. Registered? We can't find it. Not registered? We won't pretend to look.

Kingbasil asks: You want them to focus more on robberies and murders, or bicycle theft?

I would prefer them to focus on bicycle theft than bicycle parking. By the way, bicycle theft is robbery.

A guy sold more than 500 stolen bikes online.... if it was just one website he did all the selling at I think the website should be investigated also.

Hope somehow he gets the book thrown at him.

Failing that, that they throw the bike at him.

Hope somehow he gets the book thrown at him. P**cks like this need it, only a month ago one of them stole my 450,000JPY downhill bike too.

Great story! He should work for the police... or not, coming to think of it. They would lose face :-)

Does not matter where you are, there is only so much the police can do. You want them to focus more on robberies and murders, or bicycle theft?

Good on the guy for taking matters into his own hands like an adult, and not expecting police to play the role of papa for him.

So how much jail time for one bicycle? If it was just 2 months he would be in jail for the next 100 years!

Was this because the police asked him to or because they were doing nothing?

Same question. And could the victim get both his bike back and his money back? A friend got his attache-case stolen in Tokyo, an expensive brand. There was a serial number, a certificate of authenticity, plus the brand was keeping the list of owners that registered, precisely to prevent reselling. He went to the police to declare the theft. 3 yrs later, he had moved, but they called him : "We researched your new address. X brand did some controls on second hand stores, and they found a shop that proposes to sell your bag number XXXXX, and it's still registered at your name and you declared it stolen. Did you sell it ? No...it was stolen ? Well you should contact them.". He did, but the shop owner told him he had to pay to get his bag. Not only postage, but the price the shop had paid it to some thief + some %. The police said they couldn't do anything as the shop had a ryoshusho to show they had paid, maybe he should try to sue the shop... If that was nearby or even in Tokyo where he goes for business, he'd probably have been to take his bag, and tell them to try to sue him, but that was in the sticks, Aomori or Hokkaido. So he never got the bag back. Crazy.

Payback is a bitch!

MaitakeJan. 29, 2012 - 12:00PM JST

I love it too, cause we live in a country where before long (in all probability, even today) there will be headlines of a stabbing, or a police stealing, groping, peeping, or drunken incident, and speaking of "beating it", there will likely be a tale of a parent beating/burning/poisoning their child. Yes, I love that we live in this country too! And don't forget those hit and runs! oh yes, and the kids falling from balconies and people jumping in front of trains, and all of the other events that don't get reported.

@Maitake: 1) As the mods would say, this is an article about a stolen bike being found. Not about other crimes. And 2) If you're gonna start comparing the crime section from news websites around the world, then you're damn right Japan is a better place to be than most other countries.

"The man subsequently found his bike online and reported it to police. The man then made the winning bid on the auction and went to meet Sakai and verify that it was his bicycle, police said."

What did the police do when he found his bike online? Did they tell him that they could not prove it was his bike or something like that? It seems that he had to buy it back to obtain the proof. Was this because the police asked him to or because they were doing nothing?

Be careful when you buy from an online auction site. The site he used is Yahoo Auction Japan.

So this guy stole 500 bikes, and they cops never caught him. Then the owner of one of the bike saw his bike online, and the cops didn't arrest him? He had to bid for his own bike, and then go and meet the guy?

J-cops are the worst in the world.

Good on this guy.

true, a country with little crime, but what about crime of failing to keep records at the TEPCO meetings with the cabinet ministers about the unprecedented nuclear disaster.

NO notes about what the fnck they were doing. no audio, no videos, no cellphone photos, maybe they could get back their voice mail, but it seems they did not want to have records made.

Interesting to contrast this with the way bike crime is treated in the UK - in that case, the police would probably not be interested in the first place, and even if they found a pile of stolen bikes in the seller's back yard, he'd only have to say he didn't know how they got there and they would drop the case.

Thumbs up for the much-maligned Japanese police from me!

classic.

mitoguitarman

I love it! We live in a country where the only crime story in the paper today is a bike theft. Can't beat it.

I love it too, cause we live in a country where before long (in all probability, even today) there will be headlines of a stabbing, or a police stealing, groping, peeping, or drunken incident, and speaking of "beating it", there will likely be a tale of a parent beating/burning/poisoning their child. Yes, I love that we live in this country too! And don't forget those hit and runs! oh yes, and the kids falling from balconies and people jumping in front of trains, and all of the other events that don't get reported.

Haha, great work that man! This reminds me of Reno 911! when Jim Dangle does exactly the same thing, only to find his bike was stolen by Travis Jr.

Smart guy.

Despite 1000s of hours of bicycle checking activities by the police, the person to catch the criminal is the victim himself...

will he get arrested for receipt of stolen property?? Wouldn't put it past the J-Cops!

A rare show of Japanese initiative on the part of both victim and victimizer.

I am so glad this guy got caught. I just hate bike thieves.

Hee hee! Fantastic story! Bet the thief got a bit of a shock!

I love it! We live in a country where the only crime story in the paper today is a bike theft. Can't beat it.

With a lot of bowing, apologizing, and a hard-luck story, he'll get off with no time at all.

Good for this man, the victim! What should a scum like Sakai get for these crimes??