Originally Posted by
StanSeven
I had a bike stolen in Arlington so I understand your frustration dealing with the police.
On the other hand, Arlington police are extremely busy. The county is very wealthy while also having a high percentage of non-English speaking population and illegal immigrants. They deal with gangs, drugs, and petty theft while also unreasonable demands of weathly residents who expect immediate attention.
You mentioned the bikes are in the $100-$400 value range. All 20 together is the same as an old car. The police have to apply priorities so getting back to you in 5 days seems reasonable considering their workload. Besides they told me the chance of recovering a stolen bike is almost zero.
Yeah, I was expecting probably 5-15% chance of recover. I had one stolen at a Wendy's in Alexandria in 2005 never got that back. Even more bizzare than this one. The one stolen in 05 was a 650C tri-bike, but due a flat rear on that coupled with a broken chainstay on a recumbent, I had pulled the 20 inch rear of the recumbent and put it on the 650C. Had replaced the tube the night before theft on the rear wheel at work-but didn't have the tools at work to remove the Sachs 3x7 from the recumbent. Thought I'd swap the wheel out when I got to work. The local bike shops all remembered seeing my bike when I had ridden that weekend, and the witness who saw the thief take the bike noticed only because of the bizarre rear wheel configuration.
This one stolen was an old Peugeot that I sacrificed weight for reliability with 48 spoke Suzue tandem wheels, drum rear brake, thorn resistant tubes plus tire liners on 27x 1 1/4 tires, and went to heavy Schwinn Varisity steel handlebars to replace the lightweight French aluminum bars that had snapped. Had added over 10 lbs to the bike thus far, Was going to go further in the future by adding rear suspension via a Shockster and front suspension with a Ruby-which would have raised this 28 lb Peugeot to a 55 lb tank.