Kind man helps stranger fix his bicycle handlebars only to discover that it was his own stolen bike

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Originally published at: Kind man helps stranger fix his bicycle handlebars only to discover that it was his own stolen bike | Boing Boing

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SDPD notified me last Winter they found my bicycle, after 5 years. It was just the frame, minus the front forks and any of the gear. I passed on that offer, and the po po dude got pissed off, said I wasn’t being a good citizen and come and take it away. You can imagine my response to him…

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And that’s why they don’t bother most of the time. No victim, no crime. I used to work at a pawnshop and got tons of free bikes just by flipping them over and writing down the serial number. Crook would ask why I would say I have to check and see if it’s stolen and they would run. Cops never would even take a report.

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It’s your bike. Why wouldn’t you take responsibility for it?

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A Glasgow kiss?

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15 months for stealing a bike?

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And carrying a knife.

Also, fuck that guy!

Here in Dublin bike theft is rife. I don’t know why but I’m curious why there are so many bicycle thieves when many other antisocial behaviors have been curbed, and why there is little initiative by authorities to tackle the issue.

When my own bicycle was stolen from my parking basement, my reaction was to build another bicycle that would be resistant to theft. So I tack-welded on all the hardware and painted it to look like it had been burned out and then abandoned for years in a saltwater canal. It looked absolutely skanky but rode really nicely.

I never used it myself, but gave it to a friend after her third or fourth bike had been stolen.

And the skanky bicycle ruse worked a treat. She could park it (locked of course with a custom skanky motorcycle lock I made as an accessory) anywhere and it was always there when she came back. The acid test came when she left it locked in the city centre for about three weeks for whatever reason. Even I was convinced it would be gone after three weeks, but no it was still there when she went to get it.

She rode it for a couple of years until she one evening she stopped off in a convenience store, turned her back on it for a moment and… it was gone.

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Because the thief had seen her ride it and realised that it only looked like a piece of skanky rubbish.

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Most of western Europe won’t execute you except for espionage or treason; so I suppose their hands were tied.

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15 months seemed pretty steep for stealing a bike. In the states 15 months is a life sentence for future employment.

We had another thread shut down here a few days ago about whether someone should be incarcerated for shoplifting.

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