Matt,

Whether the police will return a stolen bike
depends on a few things.

Believe it or not, a lot of people whose bikes
are stolen dont file police reports. They just
get pissed and go about either replacing the bike
or doing without. Many think they will never see
their bike again and feel that filing a report is
a waste of time.

Police cannot randomly check a bike they "think
might be stolen". They must have reasonable cause
to stop some one and, if they do, they can run a
check on the bike to see if its stolen or not.

If the bike has no license sticker and is not
registered, police can impound the bike right
there. If it is registered and has no outstanding
theft report, police may let the person go or
impound the bike and contact the registered owner
to retrieve their bike from the impound yard.

Giving Aaron a stolen bike wouldnt do as much
good as you think.

If the bike has not been registered, he will be
unable to register it himself without a bill of
sale from the seller.

If he tries to register it and it had been
reported stolen, Aaron could be arrested himself
on theft charges!

If he tries to register it and it is already
registered to some one else, but not reported
stolen, he will not be allowed to register it
himself. The registration office will ask him for
a bill of sale and, if he cannot provide one, the
office may try to contact the registered owner
themselves. If the owner says that the bike was
lost or stolen, Aaron could also face theft
charges.

No sweet justice for Aaron. Just possible jail
time.

Chances are good that Aaron's stickers have all
been removed by now, anyway.