I locked my 1986 (Tom) Richey "Outback" and my helmet with a fairly heavy cable to an 8-ft tall signpost in front of a nice restaurant in downtown Portland, lunchtime on Tuesday 8/22/06. The bike, helmet, cable & padlock were all gone an hour later.
On Wednesday I filed a Police Report & sent details to Jonathan Maus for his bikePortland.org webpage listing of stolen bikes
On Thursday I got a phone message at ~10:45AM from a fellow named Bryan who said he'd "seen" it on the website (I was surprised to find later that it was just the text description and the photo I'd sent wasn't there) and that he'd just spotted some guys with the bike at a west waterfront bench near SW Oak on his way to work.
I called the police and arranged to meet them there in 5 minutes. See my photos below for the pictorial story. The 1st 2 guys had a fairly believable story. The guy on left had removed the rack, which was lying there. He promptly put it back on for me. The basket, light brackets, toeclips, spare-tube & patch-kit bundle and the helmet were just absent. The guy on right spotted the suspect, Glen, who they'd been describing and claiming had "dropped off" the bike for work. I wonder what kind of payment may have been involved.
More serious questioning shifted to Glen who had admitted to dropping off the bike but had a very flakey story about how he'd aquired it, and a serious criminal record. Glen finally walked away. I was given paperwork that describes him as "adult suspect - no arrest - police report filed" and instructions about calling the DA the next week to see what could be done to help prosecute him.
Officer Jim was impressive in his sympathy and desire to help me follow through on prosecution. The DA, after 3 weeks said the case isn't strong enough to prosecute. We wonder what it takes!
Brian showed up at the scene, said he's had (as least one) bike stolen. I managed to get him to accept a $20 reward for his effort.