Fascinating thread and story.

I've thought of doing a public service video for college students about bike theft and it's prevention.

At Boston University, where my wife teaches, I'll meet her after work and sometimes get to the bike rack before her and I'll have time to scan the rack like a bike thief. I could walk away with at least 3 bikes without bolt cutters, liquid nitrogen or tools of any kind in well under 3 minutes.

How?

First off there are probably 100 bikes locked there on a nice day during the school year. Of that 100 at least 10 percent are poorly or inadequately locked. So, you find those 10 bikes and find one where only the front wheel is locked to the bike rack. Release the front wheel and you have a bike minus a front wheel. Then you find the bike where the rear wheel and/or only the frame is locked. Take that front wheel and now you have 1 complete bike.

Then you find the rack that is not securely bolted to the ground and the bike at the end- let's say a fixie with non-QR wheels so the owner just casually locks the frame to the rack and you lift the rack, slide the bike off the rack and bike #2 with a lock you can cut off the frame at a later time.

It's just a matter of mix and match of the above formula. Sometimes it's taking the rear wheel from one bike and substituting the rear wheel from another and on and on and on...

And to delude oneself into believing "someone would notice" or even "someone would care, if they noticed" is hopelessly naive.