sop for thieves is to move the bike and leave it for a week then come pick it up if the owner hasn't come to get it.

I thought that organised bike thieves would quickly hand them over to have their parts stripped and then sold separately.

If they store the stolen bikes somewhere, then it'd be easy for police to set up a honeypot bike operation with a tracker inserted into the frame. Lock it up somewhere that's known for thefts and wait for it to be nicked.