"If you see it, please contact me."

[Queen K]

I don't know.

I see this line over and over and over and over again. "If you see "xyz", Please contact me."

If you see my F-150.
If you see the guy riding around on my newly stolen bike.
If you see my camper listed on Craigslist <insert all other buy and sell sites>
If you see my garden ornament being unloaded at the metal recycling place
If you see my stuff on some facebook site

Please contact me because I have no idea what I'm going to really DO. Sure there are fantasies of confrontation and Good Triumphing over Evil. These are the expections, no?

Instead, publish your police file number and say, "Definitely contact the RCMP" because now THEY have the power and authority to actually seize goods and contact you.

Interestingly enough there was a F-150 reported as stolen recently and it was found by hunters who reported the truck to the police. Truck and owner re-united shortly.

And the puppy. Dropped off by "someone". Does this give someone a free pass for stealing a live animal? No questions asked? Maybe if it's the owners wish. What about that HUGE red metal garden bell? Where is it? Someone has an easily identifiable object in their possession.

Theft has become the most unpunishable criminal National Sport in the Okanagan next to drugs and luring kids. (With a clear photo of his face, was facial recognition technology used to id him? Or did he get a free pass because the girl somehow got out of his car?) Nope, theft.

Number one Sport.

And no one is going to contact you personally. Seriously, I see your "thing" and try to message you through facebook? My messege sits in your "Messege Request" folder hoping you'll open it up in a few days once you realize there are messeges? Nope, RCMP FILE NUMBER published WITH your report of the object and details of when, where it was stolen and what it is.

If anything:

Stolen Bikes Kelowna
Kelowna Scammers and Thieves
Kelowna Alert

Are great facebook sites, extremely busy sites btw, to post in after you get that police file number. Seriously.
I also ask this, you, yes you posting the "please contact me" messege, are you the same person who doesn't answer the phone if you don't recognize the number? So you've just told Joe Public to contact you and you plan to now answer every text and phone call because it might the tip of the day to get your bike back? This is what you signed up for with the "please contact me". I also hope you have recent photos of your object, serial number and a way to get to the object when Mike phones and says, "I saw your bike in Lake Country" but misidentified it. That was awkward.

And if you are still in the mode of being contacted by Joe Public, what is your plan? Please outline your plan.

[Glacier]

Someone stole my bike at work out of the locked private parkade/garage. I posted on Facebook "if you see my bike let me know." Immediately, people started posting that they saw it like 5 km away at Fulton school. I drove over there, and sure enough, it was there, minus the front wheel and plus white spray paint. If I hadn't have posted there's no way I would have found the bike.

[Queen K]

A success story. Great, but seriously, how often does this happen?

I'd argue your story is the rare exception.

[Glacier]

A success story. Great, but seriously, how often does this happen?

I'd argue your story is the rare exception.

I totally hear you. Over the past few months I've had to really lock down my social media making everything private because I have been getting some pretty harassing messages. If I were a woman, it would be 10 times worse, I'm sure.

Example 1: I made a facebook post that went viral, not only did this result in 100s of friend requests, but out of the blue I had some dude in Egypt messaging me asking if I knew any nice women in Canada. I say, "yes, of course I do," not realizing what he was getting at. BIG mistake! He keeps trying to phone me on messenger and being very aggressive because he thinks I'm going to set him up with a Canadian wife. I should really block him because he keeps phoning even though I've never answered him. I've messaged him several times that I will not be getting him a wife, but he doesn't seem to get it.

Example 2: I was conducting an experiment for my blog. Basically, trying to disprove the theory that Donald Trump hasn't been suspended only because he's famous. I made a fake account and made outlandish Trumpian posts to see if I'd get banned, and stepped too far over the line with a comment (first mistake) which offended someone, so used my real name to apologize. Big mistake! The dude phones me 6 times at 3 am with threatening phone calls listing off details about my wife and daughter (birth dates and such). My daughter, who suffers from PTSD from witnessing a murder, wakes up convinced the guy was going to murder us in our sleep.

Obviously I've been a little too liberal with the personal info posted online, so yup, these days I'm VERY careful about making public appeals to contact me.

[Queen K]

I'd just delete my account.

The point is, you did a dangerous thing just by going to get the bike yourself. And I'm no one to talk. Pre-fb days I kicked a guy off my bike and got it back. Whole different story. But in the days of people being able to find you, sometimes easily, is it a good idea to have strangers messeging YOU about your stolen goods?

Again,

Proof of ownership.
Stubborn thieves don't always cough up what isn't theirs.
Method of retrieval?
Legal aspects if things go South.
What are you prepared for if things REALLY GO SOUTH?

And block block block. Blocking is your new friend.

[Sparki55]

A success story. Great, but seriously, how often does this happen?

I'd argue your story is the rare exception.

It's worth a shot. To not try is to admit defeat. No harm is driving around after receiving a tip to see if the idiot that stole your bike left it lying around after using it.

To give up and not do something for fear of failure is stupid, where would society be with that attitude.

Obvisouly if you find your bike and there are 15 people stripping parts off it, time to call the RCMP and tell them you found you bike and give a description of the people. No need to get beat up over it.

[Glacier]

My bike was found in the open field, and I went there during school hours so kids were walking around. The person who reported it to me says the wheel was on when she saw it, so probably a kid swiped the front tire. It was a homeless dude who stole it as a free ride across town.