smasha

this is crazy...

there's a place where i do volunteer work a few nights a week. i lock my bike in front when i'm there, and i leave a couple of locks on the rack when i'm not there.

1- Kryptonite M-18 (Kryptonite's biggest & heaviest U-lock)
2- 8mm square-link hardened chain w/ Abus 82/70 Monoblock (the 82/70 has a brass body, but hardened steel rods in it make it hard to cut)

for wellington, i've always considered these locks to be stupidly on the side of paranoid... but i've got them, so i used them - i just don't carry them around with me. even my NY-STD is a ridiculously huge lock, by local standards.

last week i left the locks there monday night. i pulled up weds evening, and THE LOCKS WERE GONE

the landlord/property manager says it wasn't him. none of the tenants know anything. there are no security cameras in the area.

this sucks!
1- i'm feeling violated that someone took the locks.
2- it makes no sense. maybe someone cut the Abus lock and made use of the chain, but there's no way to remove the M-18 without destroying it.
3- i'm now paranoid about leaving my bike there.
4- i'm now paranoid about leaving locks there.
5- replacing these locks will not be cheap (in NZ).

with normal hand tools, someone would just destroy the tools. with "special" hand tools, it would take a few hours. with the right power tools, it would take 10-20 minutes, but consume at least $30NZ of cutting tools.

if someone stole my bike, it would suck, but at least it would make sense... stealing these locks?!?!? aside from sucking (see above) it just leaves me scratching my head.

i still think the landlord/property manager thought the locks were abandoned, but doesn't want to own-up to it, since he didn't talk to the tenants first. but, there's a retail shop that faces the bike racks, and no one there saw anything. so i'm thinking it was done at night, and i'm not sure if the landlord/property manager would've been out there at night.

the whole thing is just weird. and stressful. and costly. and sucks.

AusTexMurf

Keep us posted when you find out more info.
Mystery.

tarwheel 

Someone stole my Kryptonite New York lock but it was my own stupidity to blame. In my haste to leave work one day, I left the lock with key inserted on ground near the rack when I was packing up to go. When I got to work the next day, the lock was gone.

cooker

Maybe a wannabe thief trying out a cutting tool, to see how quickly he could get the job done?

cooker

Also does the rack belong to the building, or is it owned by the city? Maybe city workers cleared it.

PlanoFuji

I'd take odds that he was lying. This person (or one of their employees) would have the most likely reason for removing the items, and saying they didn't is an easy way to deal with someone likely to complain/rant about the removal.

Double0757

Blame China! They are buying recycle metals by the tons, someone made a few bucks on recycle metal??

imi

Do you have home insurance that may cover the theft?

PatrickGSR94

Seems like that would be a hard case to make to an insurance company. "uh yeah, I left my bike locks on a public bike rack, and they were stolen. Can I get that covered please?"

spare_wheel

a portable angel grinder or portable plasma cutter will do the job in a minute or two.

Matariki

What did the rack look like. I have seen so many racks that could be disassembled or removed in a tenth of the time you could cut through the lock. But the question then would be: why would someone take apart a rack to get locks that could not be used.

JoeyBike

As with any crime, who stood to gain the most from the actions?

Random acts of knucklehead? Or the owner of the rack cleaning it off?

Nothing is safe out of sight for more than one minute. Now you know, and you didn't have to lose a bike to learn the truth. Your stuff was NEVER safe, but probably safe enough during normal business hours.

David Bierbaum

What a sad day, when one must remember to lock up one's locks, lest they be stolen.

TampaRaleigh

Pedaleur

This made me laugh.

tcs

I fear you have been misinformed as to the level of deterrence your security solution provided.

smasha

+1
i can't imagine anyone other than the landlord/pm, or one of his well-intentioned idiot employees/contractors, putting in the effort.
but he denies it, and the manager at the place where i volunteer says he's honest... i say she's naive, but that's another story. as long as he denies it, i can't push too hard without stepping on toes that i'd rather not step on.

i did file a report of theft, with the police. the form asked if there were any suspects, and i listed the landlord/property manager. the police say they don't have enough evidence to follow up the complaint
i know it's not the crime of the century, but i was hoping that maybe a call or visit from the police might help the landlord/pm "remember" something.

in NZ, there's "contents insurance" regardless of whether one owns or rents. it probably would pay out, but i keep a $1000 "excess" (NZ-speak for "deductible"). i'm insured against catastrophe, not inconvenience. ultimately, it's cheaper that way... as long as i don't make a habit of having a few hundred dollars worth of locks destroyed/stolen off a rack.

from what i've heard about NZ contents insurance, it would be a payout... if i didn't maintain a high excess/deductible.

it would take two cuts to get the U-lock off the rack. a gas/petrol powered grinder with a large wheel could probably go through through it in about five minutes, total. with an electric grinder, it would take extra time to change wheels, at least once. a plasma cutter probably could do it quicker, but overall it's not nearly as convenient... and i didn't find any slag on the ground.

single piece of steel pipe, about 2-3"/50-75mm diameter, bent into an inverted U, set into concrete.

1- bolt-cutters won't chop an M-18, so it's likely that an angle-grinder was used.
2- the chain was shrouded in an old inner-tube, wrapped around the top of the rack, and twisted to remove the slack. it would've been difficult (not impossible, but time consuming) to push the chain down to where a bolt-cutter would be useful.

the rack belongs to the building, not the city. nonetheless, it won't hurt to follow up with the city.

Medic Zero

The fact that you didn't find any slag (or apparently any metal shavings or anything else like that) leads me to believe it was someone who works for the building. Maybe the manager honestly didn't think that anyone there did it, but found out after he told you they didn't that his handyman proactively did it or something like that.

Unless the bike is particularly desirable I can't imagine someone going to the trouble of destroying your locks in the hopes that you'll lock up there with weaker locks and they can get your bike quicker.

xlDooM

Is it the same rack? Maybe a truck hit it and they replaced it

Also, aren't there "interesting" ways to destroy a lock, say with liquid nitrogen or something to make it brittle? I can see some students doing it for kicks that way, but I don't know if it actually works.

urbanescapee

I just learned about this today from a dude I sold a bike rack to on CL. After he told me about it I came home and looked it up. You don't even need liquid nitrogen. It's as easy as keyboard blower and a hammer. The idea is that when used accordingly the keyboard cleaner canister can produce a very cold spray (similar to a quickly spent co2 cartridge just much colder) that can be used to freeze the lock, then you simply take a hammer to it. The sub-zero temps make the steel in the lock more brittle, then the impact of the hammer does the rest. From the videos I've seen, it's like the lock is made out of glass and it take less than a minute to do. I'm not trying to train thieves here...just educating fellow cyclists about what we're up against.

Although, all the demonstration videos I've seen show the lock being hammered against a hard surface i.e. concrete or a steel table. But I have a hard time seeing this method work on a NY Fahgetaboutit when it's on the bike and up off the ground. If you took a hammer to a lock in that position it wouldn't absorb the full impact and would just bounce out of the way (at least I hope).

smasha

same rack, unless someone replaced the pieces of weather-worn sticker that were on the old one

for locks like these, and lacking melted concrete or blast damage to the surrounding area, the most "creative" ways to cut them would be a plasma torch, a thermal lance, or a gas/petrol powered grinder. any other creative methods that i know of (keyboard cleaner, ball-point pens, tennis balls, etc) just won't work on these locks.

oh, and i'm the only one with keys, and all of the keys are accounted for... so the locks weren't removed with a rubber-hose.

giantcfr1

This happened to my friend here. At least the city leaves your lock for you.

locolobo13 

Dumb question. How hard are these locks to pick?

I ask because I can think of only 3 basic reasons to do this. First to just plain meanness. Second the rack owner, landlord or municipality, didn't want the locks on their rack. Third to steal the lock. If you want to steal the lock for value picking it rather than cutting it would seem like a good idea.

David Bierbaum

With locks that thick, maybe they have value as simple scrap metal? Stealing copper would be more valuable though.

baron von trail 

A pound or two of expensive scrap metal can feed a crack habit for a few hours.