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- DCMacHead, on 10/10/2007, -1/+48I thought the the conclusion was pretty lame. It woulda been better if the theft victim had a friend who was a Navy SEAL and they caught the guy selling the bike, castrated him, stuffed his testicles in his mouth and left him for dead at the corner of M and Wisconsin.
- vroom101, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19The article on one page:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/25/AR2007082501363_pf.html - Korbels, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14"You steal someone's bike, and God have mercy on you if they ever find you," he said. "It's something so insanely personal. People have a more personal connection to their bikes than their iPod."
This is so true, at college my bike got stolen. I looked for it for a while and gave up. About 4 months go by and I see it parked outside one of the foodcourts and it still had my lock attached to it... I thought to myself no way someone is THAT stupid to leave the same lock on it. So i go over, and take out my key for it which was still on my keychain and *click* lock pops open. At this point I go into a rage and call the campus PD. Campus PD shows up and tell me we are gonna wait to see who grabs the bike so we can 'take him down'. That was their words o.0, I was pissed off so i was hopeing to see someone resist arrest and get some whoopass opened up on them. So we are waiting 15-20min finnaly guy comes out and hops on the bike cop gets on the radio and says 'Thats it, take him down' *boom* guy is surrounded just like that! (makes me wonder if campus pd are bored...) Anyway cop takes me over to him and I just am giving him the evil eye the whole way up to him. He is looking at me in a very pleading 'don't hurt me' way. Cop starts our coversation asking me if i know him etc, i say no. Guy admits he stole my bike etc. I am satisfied because the guy was humiliated in front of his friends but than the unthinkable happened: cop asks me if i'm willing to press charges against the guy. I look at the cop quite puzzled at what that means but think a second, look at the guy who is allmost in tears and think about how i had to run to some classes because the campus is several miles and as many people know... none of your classes are ever in buildings near eachother. So after my rage built up a few moments i give the guy another stare and than say 'full charges' without even really thinking about it. The cop is overjoyed at this remark and lets out a 'oh ho!' which puzzled me a little bit. So the bike stealer gets thrown into the back of the cop car and than the cop got really excited and kept saying 'we got him' 'we got him'.... i was laughing because i just made this cops day with this whole thing. than he gets to asking me how much the bike was worth and i was like i dunno ~$300 and he mutters 'he's gone'. I look at him and am like excuse me? cop explains that if you get caught stealing anything over $100 there is 0 tolerence and you are instantly expelled. True to his word the guy was expelled in the second semester of his junior year...
long story short: don't friggin mess with someone's bike, it's not valueable enought to bother with insurance and it's not cheap enough to not want justice when you can take it. - SteelChicken, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Misleading and lame as hell. I was looking for vigilante-ism, none to be found. This is front page? WTF
- BobOki, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13The sad part of all this, is the underlying message that seems to be getting missed.
Have something, ANYTHING, stolen. Unless you have them on camera doing it, 99.9% the police will let them get away with it. Keep your thefts to under 5k, and no one really gives a damn. Kind of makes you rethink the "crime doesn't pay" rhetoric. - MicHalpin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10"You steal someone's bike, and God have mercy on you if they ever find you," he said. "It's something so insanely personal. People have a more personal connection to their bikes than their iPod."
Well if I had a $3,000 dollar iPod I think I would have a pretty personal connection. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9I love ***** who make broad, encompassing condescending statements about the chioces made by others. Therefore I love itfive. Many of us also consider a $40 bike disposable. Because it's a piece of *****. Go ride a Canondale as described in this article and then suffer your ass off on your 1990 Huffy. You deserve it.
- Dysarthria, on 10/10/2007, -4/+12Wow.
What a totally lame article - let me give you the ending so you don't waste your time. The guy got his bike back a year later from a guy selling it who said he had bought it at a pawn shop months earlier and had no idea it was stolen. Apparently the guy was telling the truth, he was never charged after he gave his statement.
Dugg down as misleading. - deanimate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8vigilante was pushing it a mite.
Still, we can always hope the thieves develop cancer and some strange fixation with drinking acid - silence7, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Because a $40 bike doesn't do what other people need it to do for them. $40 worth of bike might be all that YOU need but others need more. You really do get what you pay for when buying a nice bike.
- rolf, on 10/10/2007, -5/+11Because they're passionate about that activity? I don't know why people bitch about how other people spend their money.
Why would you buy a PS3 for $600 over a NES Nintendo over at the local fleamarket for $15? It's much cheaper, and either way, all you end up doing is sit on your ass staring at the TV. - retral, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Unfortunately the story lost my attention when it went from how he got it back to like 6+ paragraphs worth of whatever about how police respond and how ebay has turned bike theft into a somewhat 'organized crime'.. meh.
- williamdyer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5If cops were responsive to what real people regard as the problem, rather than patrolling for seatbelt scofflaws, you could ride a $3000 bike to work if you wanted to.
- billizm, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Unfortunately, thieves that are reasonably careful can get away with it 9 times out of 10. If they are not caught on the scene, they are probably home free.
- lieutenantmudd, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Bike theft is rampant in DC. At this point, I would never ride around a bike that cost more than $400. Given enough time, it is going to get stolen. Get two bikes, an expensive one that you keep indoors and only ride when working out or going for long rides, and a cheap hybrid or used bike to ride around the city.
- sakuraz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I think Hollywood wants to buy your script, turn it into a trilogy, and then animate it, then make a prequel trilogy.
Then make a drama - MrTeQ, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3***** stole my bike!
- dattaway, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3This is good news. People who catch a thief may effectively prevent many other bikes from being stolen.
- lispy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Yup. Same strategy here in munich/germany. I lost two nice bikes due to high intoxication. I rode one in the river and hid the other one in a bush but couldn't recall the place next day. Always have two bikes ready, one for sports the other for transportation home after a long night.
- secondimpact, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Wow thanks for killing this meme.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Probably wouldn't work. Most thieves have no balls.
- protogenxl, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2This Looks Like a Job for BICYCLE REPAIR MAN!
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2so wait, he had a key to your lock? how does that work
- beerden, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Cell phone activated exploding bicycle seat.
- sodade, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"I don't understand why people spend thousands on a bike" add "for commuting" and I'd agree, but you would be hurting bad if you went on a ride with me on your 40$ bike. Have fun riding on a technical trail or a 4000 foot road climb. I own 3 bikes and the total cost is more than a cheaper new car.
- ronaldinho, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2My laptop was stolen once and I saw it got posted on craigslist. But if they do sell it on the cheap, by the time you contact the police, I'm sure it's pretty much gone, because the stealers are quite aware that the original owner would look for it on craigslist and may attempt to call the police. That's what happened to me: once I talked with the police to arrange everything then I talked with the poster again, the poster told me the laptop was already gone.
Since someone broke into my place that time for the laptop, I only have myself to blame. I guess for bike-riders, my advice is first to lock your bikes securely. Stupid advice, yes, but I have sometimes done it myself when I thought I did and I didn't. Be as extra careful as the potential thieves; 9/10 times you are likely to not have it stolen. - fashiontrot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Living in NYC is partly why I limited my bike's price to ~400. Any more than that would be a devastating loss to me.
The best thing you can do is keep your bike indoors whenever you can, and lock it up smartly while in public. Use two different kinds of locks - for example, a nice U-lock for your front wheel and frame, and a cable that runs through your U-lock, rear wheel, seat, racks, etc. All you can do is hope that a potential thief will decide your bike isn't worth the effort and move on to the next bike with a single cable looped around the top tube. - SnuKs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yes. I want to see you bomb a technical downhill on your $40 bike. Tell me how it feels falling into a jagged rock garden ;p
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I have to agree. My boss had his gym locker broken in to at his health club, and his credit card was stolen. He reported it within an hour, but the thieves had already racked up $10,000 worth of purchases at a nearby electronics store. He found out the electronics store had a security video of the thieves, but he couldn't get the police to look at it or get the store to show it to him so he could ID the person who took it. (He figured it was someone who was also a member at his club.) Everyone seemed to think that since the charges were covered by the credit card company it was no big deal. What we need to do is make property crime punishable by making the thieves pay the victim back and pay the police a matching amount. As it is, I guess they were more interested in giving me a ticket for an improper left turn the other day (at 5:00 in the morning on a deserted street.) Just call me Dillinger.
- manicallday, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This is why I never use bike racks. Most of the time they just unbolt the rack and take off.
- krisscofield, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1WOW. This is exactly why I never, ever bring my bike to D.C. anymore. That place is seriously nuts with bke-theft. And it doesn't matter at all how sophisticated your bike lock is--someone, somehow will nab it. Even if it means taking your bike-tires like mine and leaving the frame! :(
- ddaug4uf, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't even own a bike, but anyone who ridicules someone else for how they spend their disposable income is wasting keystrokes. It is worth it to the people buying them. If it wasn't, they wouldn't own it. (Unless they picked up a stolen one on craigslist for 25% of the price).
- charlietuna, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You mean "don't friggin mess with someone's bike" ... IF you care about getting expelled from college, 'cuz it seems to me it's still a money maker for your typical meth cooking thug in the 'hood.
- KamelJockey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Crime in general is rampant in DC.
Having two bikes seems counterproductive. Even if you ride the more expensive bike around less frequently, you still may have to park it somewhere and risk getting it stolen. Inevitably, you end up letting the more expensive bike gather dust because you are too afraid to use it. - dbzer0, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Frankfurt/Main is the same *****. Everyone is running a bike and bike theft is rampart. They are so shameless they steal it in front of the damn Police Station.
Here's something that may help you though
http://www.victoriapolice.ca/news/Protectyourbike.htm
Or maybe bicycle heavy cities should start planting bait bikes
http://my.opera.com/gisuser/blog/show.dml/204821
I agree, Having your first bicycle stolen is immensely infuriating but after the first, the second one is easier to cope with - vondur, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Dude, I have three $3000+ mountain bikes. Granted, my commute bike was only like $500, but I have a place where I can lock it inside my office.
- protogenxl, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Get a Razor Scooter with a Shoulder Strap or a pair of Heelys. They can't "Borrow" your conveyance if you have it with you at all times.
- tomz17, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Or a ballpoint pen...
- snotrokit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I could do without the Nancy Grace headline. But, as someone who owns 2 $2000+ bikes, (I used to race em) I can feel your pain, but ya know what, they don't leave my garage. I don't ride them on the street, when I take them out, I ride em and put them back. I do not ride them out in the street, or chain them to a pole. I live in Chicago, the odds of that bike being there when I get back are slim to none. When I do ride downtown, I have a sub $200 knockaround parts bike that doesn't hurt so bad if it gets knicked.
- SnuKs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1After I bought my pretty pricey moutain bike I thought of selling my old noob one, but i thought to myself I might as well keep it as a around the town/cruise bike. My new one is now locked up, while the old on just lays around... true beater bike status.
Honestly if someone stole my bike and I found them, nothing will stop my from draining the brake fluid while it's parked before the next time the thief rides... - ddaug4uf, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1As previously stated, I don't own a bike, but I work in I.T. at a logistics center and we are assigned work tricycles to zip around the 1.2 million ft² warehouse. It is immensely frustrating when someone "borrows" it without asking. So, I can just imagine if someone actually invested their own money into a bike only to have some jerkoff cut the chain and drive off on it.
That said, I can also understand, in SOME cases, why it wouldn't be at the top of the local police's priority list. As infrequently as these crimes seem to be solved and the fact that they are stolen from high traffic commuting areas, most people probably don't even notice Bob the Crackhead cutting a bike chain and riding off. Leads are probably at a premium when investigating these cases. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yeah, but it also has climate control, a radio, built in cigarette lighter, and most importantly, a motor. Also, it can be locked so people don't steal it. And, I paid less than $3000 for it... And it's nice not smelling like sweat after going anywhere.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1that trick has been changed on new locks. most lock company's (kryptonite) now use straight keys.
- skyteria, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Dude! Your $40 bike was hot.
- williamdyer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1What do we pay cops to do? Rebate 30% of my property taxes, and I'll ride beater bikes. Until then the donut munchers can ***** earn a living.
- bwhite, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5And how much did you pay for that thing w/ 4 wheels you ride around the streets on? ... you probably got robbed when you bought it. $3K is a small price to pay for a high-end bike... but low-lifes like you don't realize that.
- screamingstone, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0www.screamingstone.com
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Brake fluid?
- iluvgossip, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Yeah, and a criminal ring that focuses on stealing expensive bikes could steal a million bucks in goods a year easily. But to the cops that isn't important. Now, giving me chicken S tickets so the city can take more of my money. . .Yeah, that is serious business. Expensive red light cameras that cause more accidents from people screeching to a stop? It makes money so it's top priority. Cops don't care about property crimes. One guy in the story had the bike's location for 55 HOURS because of a tracking device!!!! Cops didn't do anything.
- kenvsryu, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2That's die hard 5.
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