nans

So we woke up one morning to find that the stop sign my wife's bike was locked up to had been removed by unscrewing two bolts at the base of the sign. The bike was attached with a U lock so the thief just slipped it off the sign post and took off.

Of course i went cray looking for it all around town to the point my wife was trying to tell me to relax cause she could see that the whole situation making me go raving mad. After searching for hours I then gave it a rest.

Later that night I went on a walk to the store and saw the bike behind a ten foot fence and someone sitting on a chair right behind it. I just kept quiet and continued to walk on. This was two blocks from my house. This guy was a total idiot stealing a bike and having outside on the same day it was stolen. Since it was dark at night and it was behind this huge fence i decided not to try to climb it like an idiot while he went inside his place and got whatever weapon he could find. He was on his turf, right in front of his place, so i was at a total disadvantage.

I called the police out and told them i just had the bike stolen this morning and had given a description of the bike on the police report. I also told them about the adjustments that i made to the bike and the name of the non stock components I added to it. The cops didnt seem to care and just wanted me to give them the serial number to the bike which i never took the time to record with the police department. I told them for sure that it was my wife's bike and was describing it even more. The one cop said he doesn't care if i had my name and date of birth engraved on the bicycle and that if i never recorded the serial number with the police that there is nothing that proves that the bike is actually mine. He explained that I could be some guy that saw a bike on the street and took down all the details of the bike and was now trying to get the bike stolen from someone courtesy of the police. After screaming at the police a little more i just gave up and said my good bye.

A week then passed and as i was driving to a dentist appointment . I saw the bike locked up to bike stand in front of a major grocery store. My wife was with me and we decided to wait it out and after we would see him unlock the bike that I would rush in and scare the hell out of him with threats of calling the police and demand the bike back. My wife had a can of mace with her in her purse as well in case things got sour. We waited for a while and I decided to go out and get the serial number on the bike in case he would get away later on cause who knows what could happen . At least I can then go back to the police and tell them i found the serial number that I had wrote on a piece of paper and i finally found it -Total bullcrap but if i can add the serial number to the case I will have a better chance of getting it back on another day if I happen to see it two blocks from my house again.

We waited for a long time and then I told my wife to go home and get the other U lock I had for my bike and i will just wait to see if the guy comes out. He never came out so when my wife returned with the lock I locked up the bike with my lock and wrote a note on it that said " This is a stolen bike if you want the lock taken off call the police" I wrote my case number on there as well to make it seem more official. Again this is total bull**** but it would scare the hell out of them and they will back off the bike even though i really didn't have the serial number and had no official proof it was my bike.

We then went to a hardware store and bought a pair of the biggest bolt cutters. I told the store guy that my wife lost the key to her bike chain and we needed to cut it off. He gave us a demo as well on how to cut the chain. Which was kind of funny. We then went back to the bike and in broad daylight i took out the bolt cutters and snipped away at this chain. Some people came up to me and asked me what i was doing and i just explained that this was a stolen bike and i was taking it back. I handed them the note i had left as well with the case number on it. Realizing that anybody with a cell phone on the street can call the police I had to get out of there quick. It was right in front of a busy grocery store and there must have been like 15 people that saw me stealing this bike back. After cutting up the chain 4 times cause he had it double wrapped. I told my wife to ride it home quick and that was that we got her bike back. Miller time. It was a really satisfying

Its pretty messed up that i had to go though this situation and the police didn't step in the first time. If i did get arrested I don't think it would hold up in court due to all the testimony of friends, pictures i had of my wife on the bike and honest police report i had filed earlier with the color make and model of the bike. There's not too many bikes in town here that you can only order online and have it shipped out, along with velo orange handlebars that you have to order online as well and have shipped out with black vintage grips that are not in production anymore as well, but according to the police thats no proof at all and i how could i be so sure its really my wife's bike, someone could have the same bike shipped out with the same components and same crappy plastic handle grips