Stolen Bicycle Registry DEVELOPED_BY Bryan Hance
Bryan says he started the Stolen Bicycle Registry as a free database for stolen bicycles.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“So, I started this site called Stolen Bicycle Registry.”
Episode
07 January 2025 Official episode · Official transcript
cybercrime research
The episode describes Bike Index, a nonprofit stolen-bicycle registry, and Bryan Hance’s open-source investigation into a cross-border network selling stolen bicycles through Facebook and other online marketplaces.
Topics: Open-source intelligence and public-source investigations, Visual geolocation of photographs, Image metadata and metadata stripping by social-media platforms, VPN-based access to region-restricted content, Social-media and online-marketplace abuse, Cross-referencing stolen-property registries with online listings, Digital evidence preservation through screenshots and archived listings, Identification of suspects through public social-media and business information, Online fencing and cross-border movement of stolen goods, Platform moderation and reporting failures
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Stolen Bicycle Registry DEVELOPED_BY Bryan Hance
Bryan says he started the Stolen Bicycle Registry as a free database for stolen bicycles.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“So, I started this site called Stolen Bicycle Registry.”
Bike Index DEVELOPED_BY Bryan Hance
Bryan says he and Seth joined forces and iteratively built Bike Index into a better system.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“So, we joined forces, and it was just — from day one after that, it was just, pew, just success, success, success, and we just iteratively built it into a much better system.”
Bike Index DEVELOPED_BY Seth Herr
Bryan says Seth Herr joined him in building the system that became Bike Index.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“So, we joined forces, and it was just — from day one after that, it was just, pew, just success, success, success, and we just iteratively built it into a much better system.”
Ricardo Estrada Zamora ASSOCIATED_WITH Constru-Bikes
Bryan identifies Constru-Bikes as the name of the business associated with the Facebook page used by Ricky Zamora.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“It’s just the name of this guy’s business, which is called Constru-Bikes.”
Ricardo Estrada Zamora USES Facebook
Bryan says Ricky Zamora used a Facebook page to advertise and sell bicycles, including bicycles believed to be stolen.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 153 Details
“He continues to sell stolen bikes on Facebook.”
Ricardo Estrada Zamora USES Region locking
Bryan says the seller region-locked the Facebook page so that only people in Mexico could view it.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“He region-locked it to Mexico.”
Bryan Hance USES OSINT
Bryan describes using open-source intelligence to identify the seller, his contacts, locations, and supply chain.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“I refer to this guy as the OSINT pinata, ‘cause the minute you poke at him, literally everything falls out.”
Bryan Hance USES Facebook
Bryan and the investigation team examined the seller’s Facebook page and listings to identify stolen bicycles and associated people.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“We’re looking at this guy, and we’re looking at his web page, and it’s tons and tons and tons of bikes.”
Bryan Hance USES Instagram
Bryan says investigators examined the seller’s Instagram account and obtained access by posing as someone else.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Jack Rhysider EP 153 Details
“One of the guys was able to sneak into his Instagram by pretending to be somebody else.”
Bryan Hance USES VPN
The investigation used a VPN connection into Mexico to view listings that had been region-locked.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 153 Details
“someone got the idea to use a VPN, connect into Mexico, and see if they can still see the listings.”
Bryan Hance USES Visual geolocation
Bryan and the investigators inferred whether bicycle photographs were taken in the United States or Mexico from visual details in the images and surroundings.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“We would see a place that just looked like an American setting.”
Bryan Hance USES Bing Maps
Bryan says investigators used Bing Maps to compare the suspected San Jose staging location with visual details in the bicycle photographs.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“Then we went to Bing Maps, Google Maps, and we’re looking at this metal, shitty corrugated siding.”
Bryan Hance USES Google Maps
Bryan says investigators used Google Maps to compare the suspected San Jose staging location with visual details in the bicycle photographs.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“Then we went to Bing Maps, Google Maps, and we’re looking at this metal, shitty corrugated siding.”
Facebook AFFECTS Image metadata
Jack says Facebook removes image metadata from uploaded photos, including potentially identifying information such as camera details and GPS coordinates.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 153 Details
“Facebook learned pretty quickly to scrub all the metadata out of photos to avoid stalking.”
Bryan Hance USES Facebook Marketplace
Bryan says Bike Index investigators and victims use Facebook Marketplace listings to identify and report suspected stolen bicycles.
Explicit Confidence 92% · Bryan Hance EP 153 Details
“OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, and then there’s a whole sort of crappy constellation of knock-offs of OfferUp”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T08:32:37.168768+00:00