flattie, is it possible you were actually returning the bike for someone else? Maybe someone didn't dock it properly before you took the bike out.
I suppose that's possible. I met another citibike user at a light and he asked if I had issues getting a bike this morning. I told him yes and he said he had to walk to another bike dock to get one. I asked him which one gave him issues and it was the same one I just had the problem with. When I docked the bike at my destination I called bikeshare and gave them a run down - they thanked me. This afternoon I had relatively speaking a much easier time. At drop off the light stayed orange for a long time. I finally resolved it by using my key to unlock it - despite never the light staying orange the whole time - and then I really slammed it into the dock. That got me a solid green indicating a successful return right away. So in short upon returning the bike the light turned orange but never went to green. I could not remove it from the dock. I tried for a minute or two and finally resorted to using me key again to unlock and re-dock the bike.