Stolen bike for sale on Leboncoin: how to spot yours
A stolen bike often ends up in a listing. If you recognise yours, keep the listing, tell the police and set up the meeting with the seller in agreement with them. Never go alone.
How is a stolen bike resold?
Like any ordinary second-hand bike: a listing on Leboncoin (the French classifieds site), Troc-Vélo, Facebook Marketplace or another site. Cases reported in the press show three things.
- Fast. In 2019, bike thieves near Geneva wrote their listings on the train home. Some found a buyer before they arrived (Lyon Capitale).
- Far. Those bikes were brought back to Saint-Étienne, via Lyon, to be resold. In 2024, electric bikes stolen in Grenoble were found for sale near Lyon (LyonMag).
- Disguised. In Nantes, in 2025, a bike found on Leboncoin had been disguised: serial numbers painted over, parts changed (Le Dérailleur).
So look far from home, and do not judge by the colour alone.
How to recognise your bike
Make and colour are not enough: many bikes look alike. Look for what only yours has:
- a scratch, a chip, a repair
- a sticker, a saddle, pedals, worn bar tape
- an accessory: bottle cage, mudguards, lights, bike computer
- a part you had replaced
Look at the frame. A marking number has to stay readable when the bike is parked. If one shows in a photo, compare it with yours. A scraped or repainted patch at that spot deserves a closer look.
The price, the town and the text of the listing prove nothing: they can be made up.
Put your photos next to the listing’s. Looking alike is not enough: what counts is the details that match.
Should you contact the seller?
Yes, to set up a meeting. But as an ordinary buyer, and in agreement with the police: they are the ones who assist you at the handover.
The seller is not necessarily the thief. But reselling a bike while knowing it is stolen is handling stolen goods (recel), an offence punishable by five years in prison (article 321-1 of the Code pénal, the French criminal code). It is for the police to step in.
What not to do:
- tell the seller the bike is yours: the listing can disappear, and the bike with it
- set up the meeting without telling the police
- go to the meeting alone
- report the listing to the site, which could take it down
- pay to get the bike back
What to do with the listing
- Keep the link. Take a screenshot of every photo and of the text. Note the date and the name on the seller’s profile.
- If you have not done it yet, file a complaint. See reporting a bike theft in France.
- Go to the commissariat (police station) or the gendarmerie (France’s other police force) the same day, with the listing, your complaint reference and your proof of ownership.
- Set up the meeting with the seller, in a public place, on a date agreed with the police. They assist you at the handover.
In Nantes, the owner told the police before the meeting. The seller was arrested on the spot for handling stolen goods.
If the bike is seized during the proceedings, you ask for it back with your proof of ownership: invoice, procès-verbal (the police’s written record of your complaint).
Watching the listings without spending your days on it
Listings appear on several sites, at any hour. Retrace compares the photos of your bike with the listings on the sites it covers and alerts you when a bike for sale could be yours. For each lead, it prepares a file you can take to the police. Retrace never contacts sellers.