Portland Man Reclaims Stolen Bike via Craigslist

While many use Craigslist to find used furniture, an apartment, or even a job, one Portland man found himself employing the online classifieds for a very different reason recently: to reclaim his stolen bike.

When 28-year-old Jake Gillum’s 2009 Fuji Team bike was stolen on August 3, hope seemed lost. But just four days later, while browsing through Craigslist, Gillum spotted his bike for sale in Seattle, for the asking price of $2,500.

Gillum’s quest to take back his property began shortly thereafter. As he told Digital Trends, he began to grow his beard out to look tougher and older. He would wear a thick sweatshirt to look bigger, as well as running shoes. With the help of the iPhone Burner app, which creates a private alias phone number for you, he could make it seem like he was out of the Seattle area, not Portland where the bike was stolen.

As his friends phoned the police, Gillum confronted the alleged thief about his stolen property, and caught it all on camera. The alleged thief, 22-year-old Craig Ackerman, claimed he bought the bike from Craigslist himself, knowing it was stolen. He went on to state that buying stolen property is not a crime, as he looked it up online.

The alleged thief was booked for suspicion of felony trafficking of stolen property. For more information on the story and to see how it all went down on video, click here.

What’s your take on this case? Do you think more victims like Gillum should become vigilantes? Should Craigslist take more precautions when it comes to the selling of property? Hit the comments below. 

Posted by Tyler Thurston on Aug 20, 2012