A Special Place In Purgatory For Bike Thieves.



BikeBikeBikeBike

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May 19, 2015
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http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/don-t-be-an-easy-target-for-bike-thieves-police-warn-1.2381337\

Watching the news and they are talking about an increase of thefts.
This journalist suggests having two locks.
I also have heard of a new problem where a thief will attach a lock to a bike.
Then the owner is forced to leave it there and the thief will come back after dark when they can work on cutting your original lock. Terrible.
Imagine if they spend this much brain power on solving problems and not causing them!
I personally have been lucky and never lost a single bike to thievery.
 
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Its amusing how people can even think of such ideas. I can't even solve a maths problem on my own :p
Anyways, if you do find that your bike is locked by someone else, I think it would be quite foolish to leave it alone. Your best bet is to break the lock as soon as possible, since the lock has no business being there.
 
I find it really sad, how at the beginning of time there was just man and what he had. Somewhere along the line, guns, crime and greed became a basically normal part of human life. It is ridiculous how people just gloss over the fact that stealing is considered a normal threat. To take from someone what is rightfully theirs is honestly disgusting, and I hate people who do it. The thing is sometimes, it is not so black and white, as people steal for medicine, or to feed their kids.
 
I think there is more to it than that. As population increased the demand increased. The supply wasn't enough, and unemployment increased. Its all a result of cause and effect. People had to resort to stealing in order to have food.
 
I'm in no way condoning it but that is some pretty smart thinking. If only they could put that thinking to good use instead of using it for thievery.

My bike was stolen from the garden shed some years back and I'm still pretty annoyed about it. The bike was not worth anything, but I loved that bike. I saw it a few weeks later outside a shop sprayed red. Couldn't do anything though because it would just have been my word against his.
 
That's a new one for me, thieves leaving a lock on your bike and then returning later to take it away. It's damn low. Every bike is precious to its owner, but imagine if you live in a place where people are poor and depend on their bikes for their livelihoods, and one day their bike is gone!
Here in Colombia people usually have their bikes custom built. They acquire the various parts for a bike over a period of months, as many can't afford to buy an entire bicycle in one go. It's not uncommon to first buy a frame, and then in the next month the tires and pedals, and so on. It might take up to 6 months before you have an entire bicycle at your disposal. Unthinkable, what it must feel like to get it stolen after all the hard work.
 
Stealing to eat? Well, maybe in developing countries. In the US, we are awash in food, and obesity is highest in poor areas - plenty of food, but not good nutrition. Property crimes - plenty of those - because there will always be an underclass of socially maladjusted people who aren't willing to work for themselves.
 
There are SO many bike thieves where I live. I live right next to the skytrain station, so bums are always coming from downtown to steal stuff.
 
I have never heard of someone doing that, kind of smart to be honest but I'm so thankful I haven't come across this problem yet and really hoping that I don't ever have to deal with theft.
 
Two locks doesn't fix the problem. Sometimes you can do everything right & still get your bike stolen. It's just true. A lot of time people will just walk past someone trying to steal a bike because it's not theirs & they want to avoid the confrontation. This is a great What Would You Do segment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiZ2LzJbyRQ
 
I can't stand a person who steals. Thieves need to work and get their own stuff and stop stealing everyone else's items.
 
Couldn't agree more. You've worked hard for something that you've earned, and then comes along some lowlife who snatches it from you. Just really disgusts me.

I read a story a few days ago by someone who lives in an apartment complex that has a basement carpark with a storage place there to put bikes. Some thieves broke in and took all the bikes they could, apart from his because it was chained up. Now because they couldn't take it, they decided to wreak it beyond repair instead. Why?
 
Has anyone ever took out insurance on a bike? After posting this I remembered an old friend had his Giant Iguana stolen, but was able to claim it through his parents house insurance and ended up getting more than he paid for the bike (well minus the deductible so I think he worked out about the same)
 
That's a similar situation to the result of when I had my bike stolen from the garden shed. I was able to claim back on the house insurance and get another bike.

I'm not sure if all house insurance policies will cover stuff that is stolen from a garden shed though. I know some are a bit funny about that sort of thing.
 
Quote by MBB:
"...because there will always be an underclass of socially maladjusted people who aren't willing to work for themselves."

This.

Drug abuse and generations of ghetto rats and white trash with no family history of adults that actually worked for a living are responsible for thievery. NOT hunger. Families with no father raising the five kids with four different baby daddy's and a welfare mother that never made an intelligent choice in her life are responsible for property crimes (among all other crime). NOT population increase or a lack of some moronic 'resource'.

A lack of being raised with morals and values is the root cause.

America has bred a large criminal class to whom crime and mayhem and abuse are a way of life. And I'm OK with deporting bike thieves and forcing them to fight ISIS for 5 years.
 
You hit the nail on the head about not being raised with morals and values.

I grew up in not the best of neighbourhoods but my parents taught me what's right & wrong and to value your things, as well as everyone else's. If I would have stolen someones bike, or anything else for that matter, my dad would have beaten me for a week. And quite right too.

The place I lived became a dumping ground for single mums in the last 10 years with multiple kids by equal number of fathers and far too often it seemed the mum would have a kid by some guy and then forget about the kid while another guy had a ride on her. The kids did whatever the hell they wanted and with no repercussions because the mum didn't give a toss. Actually quite depressing when I think about it
 
BikeBikeBikeBike said:
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/don-t-be-an-easy-target-for-bike-thieves-police-warn-1.2381337\

Watching the news and they are talking about an increase of thefts.
This journalist suggests having two locks.
I also have heard of a new problem where a thief will attach a lock to a bike.
Then the owner is forced to leave it there and the thief will come back after dark when they can work on cutting your original lock. Terrible.
Imagine if they spend this much brain power on solving problems and not causing them!
I personally have been lucky and never lost a single bike to thievery.

d4rk3n said:
I think there is more to it than that. As population increased the demand increased. The supply wasn't enough, and unemployment increased. Its all a result of cause and effect. People had to resort to stealing in order to have food.

MotownBikeBoy said:
Stealing to eat? Well, maybe in developing countries. In the US, we are awash in food, and obesity is highest in poor areas - plenty of food, but not good nutrition. Property crimes - plenty of those - because there will always be an underclass of socially maladjusted people who aren't willing to work for themselves.
1. If someone attaches a lock to your bike and you cannot cut the lock, time to call the police.
2. Theft is one of the oldest known crimes, although increased population may contribute.
3. If you think for one moment that there are not hungry, desperate people in this country you need to open your eyes. True, many places have food programs (but even in the U.S. there are cities where it is ILLEGAL to feed the poor or hungry), and many people can get food stamps, but many people CANNOT. Many people cannot get health care or afford medicine (such as 800,000 people here in Florida being denied health-care because of politics).

Anyone who puts a lock on a bike so they can come back later and steal it is probably just a theif, not someone who is desperate.
 
Its just scary to think that if you leave your prized possession for even just a minute, it could be gone in as little as a second without a good lock. Keep your bikes close to you at all times, never leave it out of your sight.
 
I don't know why bikes can't have an alarm system fitted or an immobiliser like a car has. There must be a way of inventing an alarm that is part of the bike and is thief proof. It only needs to scare the thief off with a loud sound if the blke is meddled with and could be switched on or off by the owner.
Failing that how about booby trapping the bike so that it gives the thief an electric shock!
I really think there is a gap in the market for these items.
 
thomas pendrake said:
1. If someone attaches a lock to your bike and you cannot cut the lock, time to call the police.

Edit:
1. If someone attaches a lock to your bike and you cannot cut the lock that theif has somehow invested more money in stealing your bike than it would cost to buy thier own.

If someone attempted to lock my bike with their bike lock they can pick up the pieces of that lock where I have destroyed it thoroughly.
 

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