Agreed, threads about this guy keep coming up over and over again, I've seen this guy's ads and he claims he's got over 150 bikes at the moment, so a few questions seem to stick in my mind:
How can someone who advertises 150 known stolen bikes for sale in Coquitlam not be partnering in some way with the Coquitlam RCMP?
Does each bike come from a different source? Or do the same people keep coming to him with bikes? Cause I'm sure the mounnties would be pretty interested in speaking to sellers who sell multiple bikes to this guy.
What happens if I come across a bike that has been stolen from me and the rider says he bought it from Bike Rescue? I'm not gonna give a shit and I'm taking my bike back. Where does that leave his customer, cause I'll have no sympathy for him/her?
And on and on..
I just don't think buying known stolen items to create business revenue is right.
Weather not you agree with what he does is open for debate, but he is not shady. There is no reason he couldn't just buy and sell used bikes and ignore the fact that some of them are cheaper than they should be or appear to have been stolen. He would still have to give them back to their owners, but in his case he actively seeks out the owners so he can give them back. I talked to him at length about it and I believe he does more good than bad because the bike would just sell to someone else and they would not be trying to return it. The cops are not out there actively trying to find your bikes by checking out suspicious ads either. If you register your stolen bike and they find it in a raid then you will get it back, but that is about it and the raid may have been triggered by bike rescue reporting the crooks in the first place because he does speak with the police on a regular basis. He also gives you a reciept, so if you buy a bike and find out later who's bike it was and return it to them he will refund you your money.
When my bike was stolen the cops basically told me that it was gone for good, so I don't see that what he is doing is negative, and who knows, maybe he will find mine some day.