The media release issued by the cantonal police on April 12 leaves a lot open. One thing is certain: In August 2020, the police caught a 25-year-old on a "possibly stolen bike". Further investigations have confirmed the suspicion that this man was trading heavily on second-hand platforms such as Ricardo with bikes that did not belong to him. The police discovered that the bikes in question had been stolen between summer 2019 and August 2020 in the Bernese Mittelland and Oberland. In January 2021, the law enforcement officers finally had enough in hand to take the 25-year-old into custody. A 24-year-old suspected accomplice was subsequently also "detained", according to the police report.

The note at the end of the report is interesting: "In the course of police investigations into bicycles that may have been stolen, it is sometimes not possible to substantiate a suspicion of theft due to the lack of a report." Anyone who lost a bike in the Bernese Mittelland or Oberland between summer 2019 and August 2020 would therefore be well advised to report it if it has not already been reported. You can do this from home via the platform suisse-epolice.ch. Of course, if you have already been reimbursed for the loss by your theft insurance, you will primarily incur expenses by reporting the theft. But to be able to hold at least one notorious bike thief responsible and hopefully deter a few more, it would still make sense to report it.