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Comment by stronglikedan

3 days ago

> Thieves often post stolen vehicles for sale on platforms like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist

That seems like a stretch. That wouldn't even make sense for them to do. Strange claim to make.

>The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is urging New York City residents to exercise caution when purchasing cars online, as they have recently identified a surge in the sale of stolen vehicles.

>As of Oct. 15 (2024), the DMV reports that it has recovered 228 stolen vehicles amounting to a value of $6.35 million. Of the 228 vehicles recovered this year, 149 were purchased by an unsuspecting victim after seeing a post on Facebook Marketplace or a similar site.

That is 65% of recovered stolen vehicles in New York was sold through online marked places.

https://www.silive.com/crime-safety/2024/10/stolen-vehicles-...

It's very common with bikes, it wouldn't surprise me if they do it with cars too. I found my own stolen bike for sale on Facebook but still wasn't able to recover it. They just use a stolen or anonymized Facebook account so you can't easily figure out who is selling it.

  • I once saw a story about someone who saw her bike on sale even before it was stolen. The thieves announce the bikes they see regularly in the same place in the street and only steal them if they have a potential buyer.

    That way they only take the risk when they need to, they don't need any storage area, and if they are caught it is only for 1 bike, not tens or hundreds.

  • When you or a friend show up to a public place to buy it, it’s usually pretty clear who’s selling it.

    • Tried that but I guess they got suspicious and didn't show up, or sold it to someone else before me.

      PSA for anyone with a bike: register it on https://bikeindex.org/. I registered mine there the day it was stolen and almost immediately got emails from several people who were monitoring a known bike thief's Marketplace account and saw mine listed.