I caught a thief!

Something that I never thought would happen to me, happened to me: My bike was stolen. Well ok, I’m living in Berlin and I know that bike theft is a common thing here. But my bike was super-old (I already bought it used on a flee market) and I had it for over 3 years without any problems… But then, one day, it was gone. But let’s start from the beginning:

The shocking moment

I was on my way home from work. So I arrived at S-Bahnhof Nikolassee and wanted to take my bike from the bike stand in front of the station building. But it was gone. I couldn’t believe it. Especially because I had just colored the bike frame with a bright yellow and red colors a few weeks ago and even put some new tires on it. I was so angry and sad at the same time. The following days I was looking for my bike everywhere, but my hopes were pretty low. But then…

The lucky catch

Friday evening, three days after the incident, I forced myself to take a last look online to see if I could find my bike. My hope was that the thief would try to sell it on eBay or something like that. And yes indeed, I was lucky. On eBay Kleinanzeigen (now renamed into kleinanzeigen.de) I found my bike. I couldn’t believe it. Instantely I wrote the seller a message and asked him if I could come by and take a look at the bike. However, the thief kept me waiting. Then, Saturday morning a message came in. “Yes, the bicycle is still available. When would you like to come by?”

What now? - The plan

I was so excited. This was my chance to get my bike back. But how exactly? Should I just confront the thief? Should I take my bicycle back by force? Should I take friends with me?

But responsible as I am, I decided to call the police. Yes, the police. And they agreed to help me. Morever, they told me that I should not go to the meeting point alone. Instead they would send a whole undercover team to come along with me to catch the thief. And that’s how it happened.

The police and me

It was just like in the movies:
I was standing at the meeting point, prepared to meet the thief and to get my bike back. Yet, I was not alone. Eight undercover agents were there for my support. Some of them were hiding behind a corner, while others were watching the scene from a distance (sitting in a café on the other street side, no joke!). Then, the thief came with my bike, I was pretending to be interested in buying it. At some point I wanted to know from the “seller” some details about the bike when suddenly the undercover agents came out of their hiding places and swarmed the thief.

“Keine Bewegung! Polizei Berlin!”

He was caught, pushed to the ground, handcuffed and taken away. I was astonished. I had not anticipated that the police would act so quickly and decisively. But I was happy: I got my bike back.

I'm a celebrity

Apparently, the story was so exciting that the BILD newspaper wrote an article about it. I was interviewed by a journalist and a photographer took some pictures of me and my bike. My article even ended up being displayed in the print version of the newspaper. But most excitingly I ended up in the “Berliner Fenster” (the displays all over the U-Bahn wagons in Berlin).

I made it into the Berliner Fenster (U-Bahn)

You still don’t believe me?
Check the article in the BILD newspaper!