Stolen scooter

[Lao Jia Hou]

Here is another question, an important one at that ( if anyone knows) If you overcome your assailent and beat him up because he drew a knife or other kind of weapon, and you win this fight , then what happens if the police are involved ? is it self defence if you beat the crap out of a would be theif, an interesting thought

A very good question ... the simple answer is "hide the body."

[Robeta]

lmao, JEEZO where to hide them all........:)

[braillce]

I have no first-hand evidence, but it's said that there are rings of thieves here in Shanghai who target valuable bikes in the field, then follow the rider to find out where the bike lives. then they can plot their strategy for nicking it. it's also said that some of these thieves, operating out of scooterville in Jiaoji Lu, will steal bikes to order.[...]

Yea, makes me think I should take the subway next time I go there...

More about the place:

5 years ago:
I saw a blue and white pick up loaded with scooters driving on Xin cun towards Jiao ji.
Cause sitting on an illegal ride at the time, I took off & didn't see them unloading the payload, so they maybe were just passing by...

2 years ago:
A friend of mine found his scooter there the day after it disappeared while "secured" front of a bar, he knew where to look...
But once there in front of the thing, he could say nothing, cause if he's big, he's just one person while there was many people selling his scooter.

-

[...]If you overcome your assailent and beat him up because he drew a knife or other kind of weapon, and you win this fight , then what happens if the police are involved ? is it self defence if you beat the crap out of a would be theif, an interesting thought

Hmmm, u don't want to murder (or cripple) some1 in China, self-defence surely doesn't apply, especially to u foreigner, unless u're rich and willing to share.
U also don't want to try to disarm him, and fail.
And in the case u're a martial arts instructor and can disarm anyone in a blink, do u think they just saw u for the 1st time when they decided to introduce themselves? Do u think they'll respect your in-the-blink-of-an-eye move and that they'll never come back to u with further comments about how arrogant it was from u to not let them try your bike.

Seriously, they show a blade cause they want my bike, I show a smile and I give the bike.

I love my bike, but it's just metal & plastic nicely put together.

Still, chapeau bas to graphs111 for the Jackie Chan move, but I'd keep those risky moves for when they want to take me and not just the bike.

Peace.

[Robeta]

Interesting, never thought of it like that, will be more careful too......


Robeta

[Nuhaus]

2 years ago:
A friend of mine found his scooter there the day after it disappeared while "secured" front of a bar, he knew where to look...
But once there in front of the thing, he could say nothing,

Why could your friend not call the police and have them come down? Did he not have a fapiao for the bike? Doesn't matter if the bike is registered with legal plates or not, it's his as long as he can prove ownership. I've seen people bring in cops to argue with mechanics about repairs for unplated bikes at Jaoji Lu. The matter at hand being the complaint about the repairs, not the legality of driving said bike on the streets of Shanghai.

[braillce]

No fapiao.

: (

Cause he bought it there for 1500RMB... Probably stolen already.

Were those people foreign or local, the ones u saw bringing cops there?

I'm surprised some1 would do that, if the matter is the repairs, cops can ask questions about what matter they like.

[Nuhaus]

No fapiao.

: (

Cause he bought it there for 1500RMB... Probably stolen already.

Yes, I believe that would make proving ownership somewhat difficult.

The person I saw arguing over the price of repairs was a Shanghainese woman. She spent 5 minutes yelling at the owner of the shop by herself, then she went and got two cops to come in and spent another 10 minutes yelling at him. One of the cops then took the scooter for a spin around the block. Last I saw of it (and that was difficult because a crowd had formed), the shop owner was counting out red 100 RMB bills and handing them to the woman.

[Rwnauli]

Yes, That is something very sad thing happened with you. I think you have to care with it everytime. It is true that this is being common. I hope police would be helped you.

[DrDustCell]

I've had a small e-bike stolen before, I parked it in the main gate of my university campus beside the entrance toll booths thinking it would be safe there.

A 1700 RMB mistake.

[xiaofei]

My story:

Black R9 scooter (illegal and everything...) parked in gated compound underground parking in a spot where it didn't obstruct anyone. Yeah, I was too stingy to pay 600 RMB per month for a car parking space, considering that the scooter was only 3,300 RMB new. The underground parking had cameras and security guys on both floors. My scooter was in the 2nd floor and only people from two buildings would get to see it on their way home - and of course the workers who illegally live in the cheap basement rooms, which are not meant for residential purposes. (I'm just happy they have the opportunity to rent something cheap close to their work.)

Friday night I come home from work, park the scooter, 8.00 pm. Saturday morning 9.00 am, it is gone. I looked up the 物业 and the video room. Of course, after a few nervous discussions I found out that most of the important cameras (e.g. entrance to underground parking) are useless because of bad lighting or even broken. The video admin had no idea how to operate the cameras and videos. With the help of a friend who went downstairs to the parking lot and waved in all the cameras, we managed to figure out the right ones, of which we should check the footage.

At 5.00 am there were three young men walking towards my scooter, parked behind a column. At 5.22 am two of the guys leave on foot, while the third drives away with the scooter. They avoid showing their faces to any of the cameras and they know exactly where to get out of the maze of the underground parking. The security guy is not on his post or he is sleeping. This was an inside job.

They leave nothing but a cigarette butt and a cut cable tie. I had the standard alarm system (very sensitive), a big U-lock and the steering lock - 22 minutes... while smoking a cigarette (the red pagoda ones, forgot the name - I don't smoke).

I realize that the scooter is lost, but I still want to do something about it. My idea was: although I won't get the scooter back, I cannot let them get away so easy. If I do, they might come back for my neighbour's bike or - even worse -for my dirt bike. I call the police. A 老头儿 kind of guy and a young 2m-帅哥 soon turn up in the compound. They get the footage and ask me to come to the station. Yeah, my first ride on a Chinese police VW Passat. Although an unusual experience, I don't need a second.

They let me wait for an hour, until they tell me that I have to wait for an expert to come. Appearently for any incident with a foreigner involved they need to bring this expert. He is mainly a translator. Not that I would need one, but I figured it would be wise to play the innocent and stupid foreigner role, not speaking too much Chinese, as I didn't have registration or insurance. My excuse: my Chinese friend did the registration, the papers and the 发票 were in the box under the seat. My friend did the paperwork, then went to another city for work. His phone number changed. Unfortunately I could not remember the license plate. "京B... something... I forgot. The yellow one." After a few more questions, which won't lead anywhere, I could leave the police station.

Back at home I went back to the video room and got the footage on USB drive (together with an old version of the Conficker worm).

God, I love this country.

Lessons learned:
- Dirt bike and new scooter are now parked in the hall. Since I started that, the other residents joined in. It's getting packed now...
- R9 is too popular, even in the outskirts of the city. Everybody knows it and knows how to dismantle it with a toothpick. The parts are available everywhere and they are cheap. A new key set and speedometer are less than 100 RMB. I changed to an unknown Yamaha fake with a smaller engine. It fits into the elevator and is therefore sometimes parked in my living room. Another benefit: the smaller engine encourages cruising (= less noise, less gas consumption, less accident risk => less trouble).
- Chinese locks are useless, due to the thieves having all the spare keys / lock picks for these brands already. Will buy a non-Chinese brand, when I am home in 2 weeks for a short trip.
- A bike cover was a good investment: if you never see the beautiful bike, you will never think about stealing it.

- Another lessons learned could be the legal bike with registration and all. But I bet, this also won't keep them from taking the bike, if it didn't even encourage them to. Also, I am still too stingy. ;-)