Bike hunt in Vienna: Like a James Bond-style Mission

Gerold owns a magnificent Racemaxx XXL Pro XT SLX, RH 3XL (CT 60cm), with extended XT brakes at both the front and rear. He affectionately nicknamed it “Black Beauty.” Read how, in a fleeting moment of inattention, it was stolen. Gerold recounts his emotional quest and describes the intense chase after the bike thief through Vienna.

Recovered Stolen Racemaxx XXL Pro XT SLX, RH 3XL (CT 60cm) with BikeFinder GPS Tracker

“It was just another Tuesday morning 07:15 and I was heading down to my bike cellar to fetch my bike… I opened the door and BOOOOOM…. The spot where my bike is usually locked with a special wall mount was EMPTY…. A first big wave of adrenalin was flooding through my body and nervous system…. What the heck… It seemed impossible for someone to steal my bike from a locked cellar, secured to a special wall mount.”

Shortly after, the next wave of adrenaline hit my system. I started recalling the previous day, riding my bike to a GLS parcel shop to get some things for my van. Then, as I reached my van with the parcel, I just leaned my bike against a tree, put the parcel in the van, was distracted with a few other things, locked my van and just went home by foot – around the corner. I was apparently thinking that I did NOT come with my bike… Meaning my bike had been unlocked at a tree since the previous day at the tree. It was obviously gone the next day.

This felt like being betrayed by myself. So I tried to refocus to the here and now and remembered I had a BikeFinder GSM/GPS tracker built into “Black Beauty” – that’s my bike’s nickname ;-). Luckily the battery was charged to 65% as I could see in the app. But the position was fuzzy and pointed to a house around the corner where I couldn’t find my bike.

Time to call the police

The police arrived within 10 minutes with 3 people. Unfortunately, they couldn’t help because they are not allowed to enter any apartment until there is a clear indication. So, I filed a theft report in the BikeFinder app, which gave me some tips on detecting if my bike was potentially hidden in an apartment: by standing shortly in front of every door and checking whether a Bluetooth connection was established. We asked a guy in the base floor to get access to the cellar. But no success in this house. So the police filed a theft claim for me and left the spot.

BikeFinder tracking mode

Next, I created flyers that I posted around the neighborhood, hoping that someone honest might just have saved my bike from being stolen. With that, I felt I couldn’t do anything more and drove to work with public transport, keeping a close eye on the BikeFinder app in case something happened. Soon my bike was on the move, changing location to another house within my hood. So I headed back with another adrenaline shot. New address, same game. I got access to the bike cellar, etc. but again, no success. So I decided to increase the tracking precision using the tracking mode of my tracker, even though this drains the battery quite fast; but what could I do?

“I’m so thankful for my investment in the BikeFinder tracker because without it my bike would 100% be gone!”

– Gerold, BikeFinder Customer

I was not giving up, so I went to the office building that is next to the tree where I left my bike. I told my story to the facility manager who checked their surveillance camera. Well, he did find the exact sequence, after midnight, where a guy carried my bike away. Haha, yez, I’m 2 meters tall, so not many people can sit on my saddle.

Then, suddenly my situation jumped some gears up. The BikeFinder app notified me that my bike was in continuous movement – it suddenly popped up on the map as a moving red line, roughly 500 m away from my current location. I ran to my van, started my engine and began to chase the signal on the app.

The chase was on

The chase was on and I felt like being in a James Bond movie. On the map my bike was now around 3 km away, heading south of Vienna. It was not easy to focus on the road and on the moving target from the map simultaneously. Also, it was the worst time for traffic jams during this time of the day. I never thought about how long red lights could feel in such a situation. The chase went on for about 15-20 minutes, until the bike stopped at a precise location which I could see on the map. It led me to the parking lot of a supermarket. I parked right in front of the supermarket’s bike stands where I recognized my bike, locked with a foreign lock.

I decided not to move from this place until I had it back! I had another adrenalin shock as I imagined how the thief would soon come back from the supermarket, ending up in a direct confrontation with him! I went into “combat mode” fighting for my bike. But after a while, I realized no one was coming back. First, I called the police to help me release my bike from the thief’s lock. Unfortunately, they couldn’t help as breaking the lock would be property damage. So, I decided to call the ÖAMTC (Austrian Car and Mobility Club), which I am a member of. They came within 20 minutes and cracked the lock with a flex. Finally, I regained control over my bike, mounting it on my van and heading straight to the office, bursting with energy. I am so thankful for my investment in the BikeFinder tracker because without it, my bike would 100% be gone!”

A big thank you to Gerold for sharing his story and most importantly, Gerold got his Black Beauty back in perfect condition! Regrettably, the thief is still on the loose. We’ve observed that thieves increasingly use temporary storage to clear the bikes from any potential active trackers. This was most likely the case with Gerold’s bike.

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