People walking by doesn't help either. I once saw a video of a guy testing to see if anyone cares if a bike is being stolen... He locks his bike up to a bike rack.. comes back with a saw and starts sawing away... cops pass, people walk by, no one cares. He then tests it out with drils and huge loud grinders throwing sparks everywhere.... this is in NY, NY by the way.

People walking by won't care if somebody is cutting your lock or stripping it, they just assume it's yours.

Ever see that episode of cops where they were doing a bust on bike theives?
They put the bike somewhere on a corner and when a guy started to ride off on it a cop came out of a blind corner DECKED HIM OFF THE BIKE like it was nothing, pulled a gun to his face and 5 other cops ran out yelling GET ON THE F****** GROUND NOW!!!!!!!!.... best episode ever.