Man Finds His Stolen Bike On Craigslist And Steals It Back

So the story goes something like this…

Danny Lesh lends his hybrid bike – which he originally paid $600 for – to a friend, who locks it up securely with a cable lock after arriving wherever it was he went. When the friend comes back for the bike, he finds the cable lock was cut (apparently with a pair of bolt-cutters) and the bike is gone.

Not too long after that Lesh finds his bike for sale (one assumes, by the thief) on Craigslist for $100. He’s absolutely certain it’s his bike, because of a particular identifying sticker he had placed on it in a prominent spot, as well as his own well-known signs of wear and tear. It makes sense, it’s his bike after all, he recognizes it.

Lesh calls the police, but they tell him they can’t respond right away, even though he’s already done all the work for them and caught the thief red-handed.

Not satisfied with the lack of response, and convinced that if he didn’t do something about it that day he’d never see his bike again, he responded to the ad as a potentially interested buyer, and arranged to meet up with the ~~seller~~ thief on the pretense of buying the bicycle.

When the man with his bike came out of an alley and met him, he took it for a “test ride” and never came back. He just rode off leaving the other man, who had expected to make a quick 100 bucks, empty handed – essentially stealing back his own stolen property.

The thief began calling Lesh, leaving messages threatening to call the police, but Lesh just laughed it off. I mean, c’mon, what was the guy going to say? The bike I stole from someone got stolen back from me?

Lesh then proceeded to put up his own posts on Craigslist warning other users about the thief, alerting buyers that other high-end bikes that were being sold cheaply could possibly be stolen as well.

He said, “Honestly, I couldn’t help feeling bad for all the other people he’d stolen bikes from.” Adding that, “I’m glad that, hopefully, his business is interrupted a little bit.”

Although D.C. police advise not to try to recover stolen property on your own, in this case Lesh succeeded with no incident, and appears quite happy that he was able to dish out a little payback and recover his rightful property.

I’m sure many people would probably think twice before attempting something similar themselves, as it could prove dangerous depending on the individuals involved, but in this instance we’re happy to see a little bit of vigilante justice pay off.

(Via NBC Washington)