Danny Lesh noticed that his stolen bike ended up for sale on Craigslist. When police declined to intervene, Danny decided to take justice into his own hands (or feet, in this case):
After haggling over the Craigslist price, Lesh says, he asked for a test ride. The vendor agreed, and Lesh pedaled around the block back to the waiting cab. He tossed the Cannondale in the trunk and rode off. The vendor called about half an hour later, demanding Lesh return the bike and threatening to notify the police himself, though it appears that call never materialized.
The DCist has the story: Link | Video Clip over at NBC4 Washington
His guitar was stolen and a similar guitar turned up in the window of a secondhand shop a few days later. He went into the shop asked to look at the guitar and played a few licks. Satisfied that it was his guitar he asked if he could look at it outside the dingy shop to check the finish. The shopkeeper agreed and our hero(?) ran from the shop doorway to a friend's waiting car and took off. The friend received a visit from the police later that same day, obviously the shopkeeper had clocked the registration.
As a result of this the police paid a call to the main protagonist of this tale. Turns out it wasn't the same guitar. The shopkeeper could produce not only proof that the instrument in question had been in his shop for some weeks, but that he had all the paperwork for it including tags (with serial number) and the original sales receipt (with serial number).
Our hero did not know the serial number of his instrument and indeed when he managed to find the original sales receipt as evidence for the police he discovered that it was different from the one he'd stolen. Luckily for him the police and the shopkeeper were pretty understanding and he got nothing more than a stern talking to and had to apologize in person to the shop keeper.
Also Cops are useless.