Stolen/recovered bike help needed

It is a bit annoying, I've spoken to a few different people including an ex traffic officer and they've all just said that's how it works, they think of it as keeping it safe for you so no more damage is done. Might give them a call though because what Red Herring says seems a lot more fair. To be honest I'm just glad to get it back because I wasn't going to get any insurance money because the excess was so high it wasn't worth losing my no claims for the small amount I'd have received. No, it doesn't have an alarm and stupidly I hadn't put the disk lock on because it was only there for a night, really stupid, I know.

[littleoldman2]

RH is a serving police officer, just do as he says.

Thought I'd update you all on progress. I spoke to the police again and they said that the bike was not only seized for forensics but also to stop further damage being done. Other than this police have been very helpful and kept me updated. Picked the bike up yesterday and realised the thieves were more stupid than I had imagined. Instead of ripping the wires from the back of the ignition barrel, they ripped them from the plug at the other end and then stripped the wires and tried to hot wire it using the wires attached to the ignition barrel. Serious, serious deficiency of brain cells but it did make me laugh. Other than that the damage is minor, they also tried to start it with a screwdriver so the barrel's pretty chewed and it's been dropped but no real damage.

Lol muppets.

[Red Herring]

Originally Posted by benparker

... I spoke to the police again and they said that the bike was not only seized for forensics but also to stop further damage being done......

Ummm. Someone was quick thinking! They are entitled to charge you for reasonable steps taken to safeguard your property, and most forces ask you if you agree to this at the time you report it stolen. However if they found it close to your property it is reasonable to expect them to make an attempt to contact you to see if you could recover it yourself before incurring unnecessary expense. The words "reasonable" and "necessary" are important here. If they recovered it near to your home and didn't make any attempt to contact you (their control log will have all the information re this) then you are in a strong position to negotiate the recovery cost.

Thanks very much for that RH, big help, I'll give them a call Monday. They did call me when the bike was found, think it was about 10 oclock at night, but didn't give me the option to collect it, I think it had already been recovered. I expect most people don't challenge it because it's claimed on insurance but when you have to pay yourself it's a lot of money, especially considering van hire aswell, costly week.