Colorado Woman Spots Stolen Bike on Craigslist, Steals it Back
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Kathryn Lucas, 25, took matters into her own hands when her bike was stolen from outside of a Boulder sports bar. (Photo credit: ABC News)
A Colorado woman took matters into her own hands when her bike was stolen from outside of a Boulder sports bar. She tracked down her stolen bike on Craigslist, pretended to be an interested buyer and stole back her own bike.
Kathryn Lucas, 25, parked her bike outside of a bar where she went to watch a University of Colorado football game on the night of Oct. 4, according to ABC News’ Denver affiliate KMGH.
When she left the bar to head home, she discovered that her black Trek 1.2 road bike was missing. After filing a police report, she and her roommate began searching Craigslist to see if the thief was trying to sell the bike.
Sure enough, Lucas found a posting with a photo of her bike. She immediately recognized her bike’s red handle-bar tape and her water bottle holder.
Lucas responded to the Craigslist ad, pretending to be an interested buyer. Minutes later, a person using the name “Lance Robinson” responded with his phone number and instructed her to text him so he could send her his address.
On Sunday, Lucas went to the man’s apartment complex and asked if she could test ride the bike.
“I started riding it and knew it was my bike, so I just kept riding it,” Lucas told KMGH. “I rode it to my car and then threw it it in my car and then drove away.”
Lucas said she had not been planning on getting the bike back that way, but took advantage of an opportunity and made a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“They were a lot bigger than I thought they were,” Lucas said. “I thought it’d be like a little person that stole bikes and I’d be like, ‘Hey, I called the police and that’s my bike and you’re trying to sell it to me,’ but I just took it for a ride and went with it.”
After she had recovered her bike, Lucas called the police and gave them the thief’s address. “Lance Robinson” turned out to be 18-year-old Denzel O’Neal Crawford, who did not have a prior police record.
Crawford was arrested, confessed to stealing the bike and was released on bond. Police also told Lucas that, though her recovery mission was successful, it was not a tactic they recommend, according to KMGH.
“They told me for future reference that I probably would not want to do that by myself,” Lucas said.
”Nightline” report on how to recover stolen items from Craigslist
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Good for her!
Posted by: Janis Joplin's twin | November 9, 2011, 12:18 pm 12:18 pm
Good for her!
Posted by: Jenn | November 9, 2011, 12:23 pm 12:23 pm
You go girl!!!
Posted by: AJ | November 9, 2011, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
I don’t care who you are, that’s funny!
Posted by: Buck | November 9, 2011, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
i did the same thing to a neighbor who stole some clothing items. Lesson learned by neighbor: If you’re going to steal from someone, make sure they don’t have the key to your place (I looked after her pets, on occasion), and can tell when you come & go. Criminals can be incredibly stupid….
Posted by: Christine | November 9, 2011, 12:41 pm 12:41 pm
Good Woman! I would’ve done the same thing -Ya don’t take another persons ride .
Posted by: PcRides/runs | November 9, 2011, 12:53 pm 12:53 pm
I think that it borders on journalistic fraud to include a picture with the article which has nothing to do with the story being reported. I don’t know if y’all got the same thing, but there was a picture of a pink bike with green tires accompanying this story online, but it was not a photo of the bike involved! To me, that is straight mis-representation and fraud.
Posted by: Bob Hamilton | November 9, 2011, 1:15 pm 1:15 pm
RE: BOB HAMILTON | NOVEMBER 9, 2011, 1:15 PM 1:15 PM
No I did not get the “same thing” Get a life dude!!! great story, we need more people like Kathryn in the world.
Posted by: jimbob | November 9, 2011, 1:21 pm 1:21 pm
If you steal back your own property, could you be charged with possession of stolen goods?
Posted by: Nick77 | November 9, 2011, 1:29 pm 1:29 pm
I HOPE HE STEALS IT BACK
Posted by: DODO | November 9, 2011, 2:06 pm 2:06 pm
FYI….He has a FB page.
Posted by: Diane | November 9, 2011, 2:07 pm 2:07 pm
Yeah, right, if she hadn’t done it the cops certainly wouldn’t have. They didn’t bother looking into the theft of my car until the junk yard guy that stole it had already trashed it. If you want something done at all, you have to do it yourself because unless you are found in possession of weed, the cops aren’t interested in you.
Posted by: boer | November 9, 2011, 2:17 pm 2:17 pm
I love picturing the thief’s face when she steals the bike. He obviously didn’t know that it was the owner so he must have been angered that someone stole from him. But then the cops come to call! Perfect!
Posted by: Librarian53 | November 9, 2011, 2:45 pm 2:45 pm
Wait a minute now….. I don’t recall people saying the same “Good for h…. ” “Cool…” when OJ Simpson did the same thing. 8/
But it just goes to show you if you steal something and plan on selling it make sure you know who you stole it from. Lol!
Posted by: Greglh | November 9, 2011, 3:08 pm 3:08 pm
I was stabbed almost to death less than 100 ft. from where the picture of that young lady and her bike was taken. Boulder is a dangerous place, take it from me.
Posted by: Mark | November 9, 2011, 3:19 pm 3:19 pm
I did the same thing when I found a kid riding my son’s stolen scooter. I stopped him and he said it was his friend’s scooter and his friend claimed it was a gift from his dad. I took the scooter, gave the kid my address, and told him to send his friend over to retrieve it himself. Obviously, the thief never showed which was too bad since I was looking forward to having a little talk with him.
Posted by: kron | November 9, 2011, 3:24 pm 3:24 pm
GREGLH: “Wait a minute now….. I don’t recall people saying the same “Good for h…. ” “Cool…” when OJ Simpson did the same thing.”
OJ didn’t steal back something that was stolen from him. He stole items that he had sold. And he did it by force with accomplices and guns. (And people tend not to like people who stab other people to death.)
Posted by: Fred | November 9, 2011, 3:45 pm 3:45 pm
Way to go!! Good for her!! =)
Posted by: Rick | November 9, 2011, 4:24 pm 4:24 pm
A few years ago, I was in a store with my purse in a shopping cart, a woman asked if she could squeeze in between me and my cart to get something off the shelf, and with her back to me, she stuck one hand in my purse and reached for the item with the other hand, and just like THAT, my wallet was gone. I immediately had a feeling of something wrong, and looked into my purse to see my wallet was gone. I followed the woman around the store while my husband checked the car, and made sure I had not accidently left it there. When he said it wasn’t there, I watched as the woman leave the store, as I dialed the bank to stop the bank transactions. When I got through to the right department, the woman had driven out of sight, and I asked the bank to stop the debit card and all account withdrawls. My bank asked me if I was at a certain gas station, because the card had just been used to get $25 in gas. I told her that wasn’t me, and I went straight to the gas station. There at the counter was the same woman, holding my card and arguing with the clerk because the card had been denied for beer at the counter. I approached her and ripped the card back from her hand, as I announced that she was a thief. She ran out the door and wasn’t caught that I know of, but at least she can do me no more harm.
Posted by: A Mom | November 9, 2011, 4:57 pm 4:57 pm
Good for YOU !!
Posted by: Eddie | November 9, 2011, 6:27 pm 6:27 pm
As an attorney I can assure you that the law is clear that you cannot ever get good title to stolen property, no matter how many hands it goes through. Furthermore you can’t steal your own property unless possession of it was lawfully given to another. So technically she didn’t steal it back, she just recovered it using self help.
Posted by: Marvin Coston | November 9, 2011, 7:06 pm 7:06 pm
Now that’s true Karma! an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth- no less or no more. In this case she got her eye back!Although, I guess she is lucky since the thief could have tracked her down by car. It’s not uncommon for people like this to become aggressive when provoked.
Posted by: jonathan t | November 9, 2011, 8:01 pm 8:01 pm
I’m totally 100% glad that she did this….you call the cops and then they mail you a paper to send in….if you are not getting killed they could care less!!!! She reported it and did her homework to find her bike…why didn’t the cops find it on craigslist??? Because they can care less!!! You Go Girl!!!!
Posted by: mary | November 9, 2011, 11:44 pm 11:44 pm
Stupid headline. If the bike is hers she didn’t steal it back she took it back.
Posted by: Shane | November 13, 2011, 4:51 pm 4:51 pm
My son did this two years ago. His snowboard was stolen up at Breckenridge and every day for 2 months, we checked Craigslist. Sure enough, we found it listed–snowboard on one post, bindings in another. He called up the guys selling and arranged to meet them. Two high school kids showed up to meet my 6’4″, 200 son. He showed them pictures of his board, told them he KNEW that was his (he had the serial number engraved on the bottom), and they handed it over. Cops arrested them later that day.
Posted by: Carol Anne | November 13, 2011, 8:15 pm 8:15 pm
Awesome, Kathryn. Now I think you need to step up your locking system, or get a beater bike to go bar hopping. Yeah, you shouldn’t have to, but that’s the reality we live in.
Posted by: BrianW | November 14, 2011, 10:19 am 10:19 am
What a bunch of heartless responders! The poor guy needed the money to pay for food for his three kids by three women. Now that he is in jail, they”ll grow up to be thiefs like him. See what you did?!!
Posted by: Dope grandpa | November 14, 2011, 10:47 am 10:47 am
Good for her. I hope that creep spends some “quality time” in jail.
Posted by: thomas | November 14, 2011, 12:13 pm 12:13 pm
Why do you throw rocks at a black guy riding a bike? Because its yours!
Posted by: mr.rite | November 14, 2011, 12:41 pm 12:41 pm
As far as the cops “for future reference”….yeah whatever! They never would have given a rats ass about her bike or taken the time to help her get it back. She really didn’t “steal” it back – she just took what belonged to her in the first place! You go girl!!! Great detective work!!!
Posted by: Laurel | November 14, 2011, 1:23 pm 1:23 pm
Good for her. Of course had she got killed for her bike, it wouldn’t be quite the same feel-good story. She looks pretty prosperous, too; someone much less so could be using that bike for good instead of riding it to get loaded at a bar. Ridiculous the folk heroes we create.
Posted by: William | November 14, 2011, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
“Kathryn Lucas’s Big Adventure”. I love you!
Posted by: Chris | November 14, 2011, 1:58 pm 1:58 pm
Awesome – quick, simple, and to the point. Lucas FTW :)
Posted by: Ben | November 14, 2011, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
Why didn’t the police do that/ When someone used mu ATM card & stole $600 the police didn;t even bother to look athe ATM’s camerea. The store wouldn’t let me see rthe tape
Posted by: Tom | November 17, 2011, 9:12 pm 9:12 pm
Everyone that get the opportunity should do this no matter what the risk. It needs to be a point that it gotten across to the criminals and wrong doers that it will not be tolerated any longer.
I know the police try their best, but notify them about this would not have guaranteed a prompt action or any action at all. The police at there to assist and, well, police that current laws are being followed. That’s all, otherwise they become a security or military force.
Posted by: DougBob | November 19, 2011, 1:13 pm 1:13 pm
because she used a cable lock. If you have a bicycle worth protecting, get a decent lock. Hardened steel bolt: Either Kryptonite or OnGuard. Now stop getting your bike stolen!
Posted by: Ben | November 28, 2011, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm