Guy Writes Program to Scour Craigs List, 14 mos Later Recovers Stolen Bike

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On SF Bikes, Max posted to let everyone know the beautiful machine (detailed below) he lost more than a year ago was recovered. Here is how he pulled it off. Too Amazing:

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From:
To: SF Randonneurs , sfbike@lists.riseup.net
Cc: 
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:01:14 -0800
Subject: [sfbike] Re: Stolen bicycle: 66cm red Rivendell Atlantis

FYI, this bike has been recovered (one day short of 14 months after it was stolen).

When it was stolen, I wrote a simple script that scraped craigslist and ebay looking for potential matches. It ran hourly for fourteen months, reporting 2-4 false positives per week. Yesterday it found a very suspicious posting.
Another potential buyer contacted the seller before I managed to, but this buyer evidently remembered my stolen-bike alert, and he contacted me to check whether it was my bike, which indeed it was. I am grateful for his honesty and good memory. I then arranged a sting operation with the police, and the bicycle is now back in my possession.
Thanks to everyone who kept an eye out for the bike and offered words of support. I really did not expect to see that Atlantis again.
max
On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 8:38 AM, <max.,,,@gmail.com> wrote:

Someone broke into the garage of my home in SF, on Fell St across from the Panhandle, between 8:30pm on Wed 9/14 and 7:00am on Thu 9/15.

Main features:
– 66cm frame
– custom red paint job with cream head tube and lug details
– large black Ortlieb handlebar bag with QR mount
– black Tubus Tara front rack, with custom fork braze-ons
– black Topeak rear rack for Topeak baby seat (but no baby seat attached), with Planet Bike taillight
– Schmidt SON dynamo hub on the front wheel; DLumotec Oval Plus LED headlight
More details:
– 1980s Dura-Ace quill stem, 44cm Nitto “Noodle” bars with cream-colored handlebar tape
– honey Brooks B17 saddle on silver Kalloy seatpost
– Sugino XD triple crank (48-38-26); XT rear hub, SRAM 12-26 cassette
– downtube shifters (D-A) and Shimano 105 front/rear derailleurs
– Shimano BR-R550 cantilever brakes and Tektro R200 brake levers
– 36-hole silver Mavic T719 rims
– black Kenda 700Cx42 tires
– silver Planet Bike fenders with mudflap on front fender
– two water bottle cages
– black Jandd tool pouch under saddle
Major identifying marks:
– scratch on “A” of “Atlantis” decal on left side of downtube
– small scratches on upper part of left seatstay
– handlebar tape in need of replacement; missing handlebar plugs

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Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:35:16 -0800
Subject: [sfbike] Re: Stolen bicycle: 66cm red Rivendell Atlantis
Many people have emailed me in the last few hours asking for the script or suggesting that I make it available as a service. So:

(1) In the interest of full disclosure, the script is attached. But it’s not a standalone piece of code. It is a spider module for the Scrapy framework. See http://scrapy.org. Knowledge of Python required.
(2) Sadly I don’t have time right now to turn it into an easy-to-use service.
(3) But, as others have suggested, someone has already built such a service. Seehttps://racklove.com/. It’s pretty cool, and I don’t think it existed last year.
max

This is a large and unusual bike. If you see it, please contact me at or 415-xxx-xxx8.
Thank you.
max