Bike stolen in the Netherlands? What to do, step by step

First check: stolen, or removed?

If your bike is no longer where you left it, it has not necessarily been stolen. Dutch municipalities, including large cities such as Amsterdam, regularly remove bikes that are parked in the wrong place. Those bikes are kept in a fietsdepot, a municipal bicycle depot. The Dutch government's information site Rijksoverheid.nl and the ANWB, the Dutch travel and motoring association, both say this is the first thing to check. The ANWB refers you to verlorenofgevonden.nl (Dutch for "lost or found"). The government site advises checking the website of the municipality (gemeente) where the bike went missing.

Rented bike? Contact the rental company

If you rented your bike, contact the rental company straight away, ask what they need from you and follow their instructions.

Reporting the theft to the police

If the bike is not in a depot, report the theft to the police. In Dutch this is called aangifte doen: making an official report. There are three ways to do it:

• Online, via politie.nl. The online form may ask you to log in with DigiD, the Dutch digital identity. If you do not have DigiD, call the police or go to a police station instead; politie.nl has the current procedure.
• By phone: 0900-8844 from within the Netherlands. If you are calling from abroad or with a foreign phone number, use +31 343 57 8844, according to the police contact page.
• At a police station. The ANWB mentions phoning to make an appointment if you would rather report the theft in person.

Give as many details as you can: make, model, colour and, above all, the frame number.

Why the frame number matters

That number is the key. According to the government, the police can only return a recovered bike to you if the frame number or chip number is in your report. The frame number is usually on the proof of ownership (eigendomsbewijs) you get from the bike dealer. Check your receipt as well, and the frame itself, where the number is stamped. If you have no number, give as many distinguishing features as possible. Whether that is enough to get your bike back later, neither source says.

The theft register and StopHeling

After your report, the bike is entered in the fietsdiefstalregister, the Dutch bicycle theft register. The government writes that the police use it to find the owner of a recovered bike. The ANWB adds that bike dealers, the police and you can all search the register, and that the bike also ends up in the database of StopHeling, where anyone can check whether an item is registered as stolen.

Buying a second-hand bike yourself? Look up the frame number before you pay. Rijksoverheid.nl explains how this works (in Dutch).

Telling your insurer

If your bike is insured, also tell your insurer straight away. The ANWB writes that many insurers want to see a police report first. Some insurers also set a deadline for reporting a theft. Whether your bike is covered, and what the insurer needs from you, is set out in your policy terms.

Prevention is easier than recovery

A good lock lowers the risk. Keep your receipt with the frame number, and take a photo of your bike and of the number. It takes five minutes and saves time if you ever need to report a theft.

What we don't know

This article is based on Dutch-language pages from Rijksoverheid.nl and the ANWB, and on the contact page of the Dutch police. We could not establish whether you can report online without DigiD, so we do not claim that you can. We have not checked what rental companies require, or in which languages you can make a report. We found no reliable source on how likely it is that a reported bike comes back, so we make no claims about it. Rules and forms can change: always check politie.nl for the current steps.

Sources

• Rijksoverheid: what to do if your bike is stolen (in Dutch)
• Rijksoverheid: how to check whether a bike is registered as stolen (in Dutch)
• ANWB: reporting a stolen bike (in Dutch)
• Politie: contact (in English)