A Special Place In Purgatory For Bike Thieves.

[Damien Lee]

As someone who has both a bike and motor vehicle stolen in the past, I'd have to agree with you about thieves. They really should spend their time doing something productive rather than stealing other people's property. Nevertheless, because of these negative experiences I've become very vigilant about protecting my car and bikes from thievery.

 

[BikeBikeBikeBike]

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.

They probably just stole the lock itself from a store.
But yes I would not bother with the police, I would just take the lock off myself.
Or wait nearby with a few friends and confront the poor SOB who decided they wanted to take my things.

 

[dblanch]

I'll never understand the mentalities of people who steal bikes. I mean, you're a thief, I get it. Wouldn't you want to take something that's much easier to get away with and that won't screw someone over if that's their only means of transportation? It's ridiculous.

 

[Djordje87]

I already mentioned here but I will repeat in short. Last summer my bicycle was stolen and I reported to the police. I love my bike. Some few days ago I bumped on man riding my bicycle. HE bought it but still I recognized it. He went in some bar and left it unlocked. I could have taken it but it was out of the question to steal my own bike. I would feel bad to steal anyway but even though this was my bike and it would not be stealing I couldn't. I called the police and now I have the bike with me again after six months. In police station I asked about numbers and the inspector said they find maybe a bike a year and the number of stolen ones is over 500 a year!!!

 

[SirJoe]

I have heard about that technique were a thief will put on a pad lock onto your bike and then steel the bike later. Fortunately I haven't had a single bike stolen but have friends that have.

 

[BikeBikeBikeBike]

I already mentioned here but I will repeat in short. Last summer my bicycle was stolen and I reported to the police. I love my bike. Some few days ago I bumped on man riding my bicycle. HE bought it but still I recognized it. He went in some bar and left it unlocked. I could have taken it but it was out of the question to steal my own bike. I would feel bad to steal anyway but even though this was my bike and it would not be stealing I couldn't. I called the police and now I have the bike with me again after six months. In police station I asked about numbers and the inspector said they find maybe a bike a year and the number of stolen ones is over 500 a year!!!

You bring up a very interesting moral dilemma.
Is it stealing if it was your property to begin with?
See I would not feel bad, since I was the true and proper owner.
I guess the guy might not have known he was purchasing stolen goods.
I would have at least asked the guy more information as to who he purchased the bike from.

 

[Keyan]

There are people who can think of tactics like this one and I must say that is clever. I just hope they use their cleverness in a good way. I seriously had not thought about that although I had seen quite a few tricks from bike thieves.

 

[Djordje87]

You bring up a very interesting moral dilemma.
Is it stealing if it was your property to begin with?
See I would not feel bad, since I was the true and proper owner.
I guess the guy might not have known he was purchasing stolen goods.
I would have at least asked the guy more information as to who he purchased the bike from.

You are right about this. I saw the person on the bike and I realized that he didn't steal it. That was one of the reasons why I didn't want to just take it. I know how it feels when you see your bike is missing. On the other hand he didn't ask for an ID when he bought it because he knew it was stolen. The guy selling it was a gypsy thief but I forgive this old fellow because I could see that he was pretty much broke and the gypsy thief sold it to him for 15 Euros. The other reason was the bad energy that I do not want to have around my bicycle. Maybe it is stupid to think like that but I believe somebody would see me taking it and it could be a problem and this brings me to my third reason. I already reported it stolen and with the description it was easy to confirm that it is mine so I wanted to have this in civilized fashion.

 

[ZXD22]

It is crazy how people are stealing bikes left and right. I have seen a bunch of bike prank videos on youtube but it seems like people just take the bikes and run off. Its actually really sad...

 

[sharkantropo]

Such creativity wasted in petty Bike thievery. It's like they enjoy doing. Well I t can't be helped when a bunch of sociopaths put their minds into it.

 

[pwarbi]

In the area where I live there was a spate of bike thefts that never got solved and as far as I'm aware none of the bikes got recovered. The only reason I knew was because there was that many that must have gone missing, the police sent officers door to door asking if anybody had seen anything, and also to give people leaflets as to how to secure the bikes.

They weren't being taken randomly from outside shops though, these were being taken from locked sheds and places that you'd think the bikes would be secure, so there was obviously a gang intent on stealing a certain number of bikes no matter what, for whatever reason they had.

If they'd had stolen mine and I'd have caught them I'd have chopped their hands off. Can't stand thieves.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

My friend got her bike stolen in Germany, because apparently it's normal to leave your bike unattended at train/bus stations. I thought, why can't a thief just go there and take it, since you don't even lock it to something? She said that people there trust other people to do the right thing, apparently. And guess what, a few weeks later, it got stolen, and she was moping around because her parents wouldn't buy her another one. I guess she learned her lesson too, as she became more cautious afterwards.

 

[pwarbi]

I think even if it is the done thing I'd have locked the bike up anyway to be honest, I wouldn't care what other people said.

At the end if they day they might feel offended because you don't trust them, but I'd rather them feel offended than me be missing my bike, and that's exactly what happened in her case.