Advice needed: How do you get GRPD detectives to actually follow up on stolen property found online?
My expensive bike was stolen from my garage last year so we had the police come out and filed a report. My bike has popped up on FB Marketplace in Grand Rapids. After six weeks of back-and-forth, GRPD is stalling. First it was a jurisdiction issue, and now they claim they "can't use Facebook", even though they did at first, and want me to message the seller, get their address, and set up a meet. In the beginning they were willing to do that until they saw it was in another jurisdiction and now I’m expected to do that.
The seller is a felon who likely knows where I live if they were the one who took the bike. I have a baby at home and refuse to put myself or my family at risk doing police work. I don’t want to press charges, I just want the bike back.
Has anyone successfully escalated a case like this through GRPD leadership or found a way to get them to step in without putting yourself in danger?
I understand that this is petty theft and not murder so it’s not as fun of a case but seems like this would be pretty open and closed.