Okay, so on one hand this is such a petty thing that it's almost not worth reporting but it weirded me out.

I park my bike in a high tech bike room- you must swipe an ID card to enter, it has automatic doors, a sloping floor, emergency alarms and video surveillance at both ends of the room. It is only used by a small group of people (esp at this time of year).

Because the room is secure I lock only the frame to my assigned parking space and don't lock the wheels and occasionally don't bother to strip it of the front lights/cyclometer, which I would normally do when locking it anywhere else.

Today I rode in and left my two front lights (2 separate units) attached to their holders on the bars. When I got back to the bike at the end of the day I notice that the wall is lit up in front of the bike by one of the headlamps- and it's not very bright at this point because the battery is pretty run down- but it's very noticeably on. I check the other headlamp and the battery is completely dead. Both lights are really bright and I know they weren't on when I left home (it's dark where I store my bike), I know they were off when I parked the bike last night again because they are so bright and it's dark where I store it, and I certainly didn't turn them on purposely or accidently (too hard to do- esp both of them) when I got to work.

So all I can guess is that the guy who parks his bike next to mine (I'm way down the end of the room) turned my lights on to deliberately run down the batteries. A kind of strangely hostile passive aggressive move IMO. I'm sure the cameras captured whoever it was in the act but it's not worth bothering checking .
Was this a bit on the odd side? I'm not upset about it or anything but just find it such an strange thing to do.

Any thoughts?

I think everyone is too envious of your parking space to feel sorry for you.

I've been known to turn people's lights off, but I can't imagine turning them on. Maybe he thought it was a joke? This would really bother me, I would probably ask the suspect if he noticed your lights were on.

No kidding,ignore the indoor part, assigned parking space?

That puts it into perspective!

I would want to know who it was. Check the camera and politely confront him.

+1. At least to let him know that he's being watched.
Ernest

You can make 3 assumptions about your neighbor:

1. The guy maliciously turned your lights on in order to run down your batteries.

2. Out of curiosity, he was fiddling around with your lights to see how they worked. He either didn't notice they were on when he left, or he couldn't figure out how to turn them off and didn't know how to contact you.

3. You left them on accidentally, despite what you think.


If it were me, I'd assume 2 or 3. Life is calmer that way.

watch the tapes then bring out the chain whip...
Well, at least confront the person. This time of year there is enough light when I leave work, but in the winter being without light would be uncool.

I don't know about the guy being passive aggressive or not, but maybe the guy just wanted to check out your set up and forget to turn the lights off? I'd probably try to ask the guy in a nice way if he touched your setup, but I wouldn't come accross as accusatory.

At my job kids and other staff always look at my bike and touch things (especially the lights). I usually lock it up in a secure room once I get settled. I can't speak of your case, but I've never had anyone that I can think of intentionally leave the lights on are anything. You know your coworkers better than anyone else though.

But those lights can be so much fun to play with. I often turn them on in a dark room (I work at night) and with the strobe effect it looks like a party is going on . The dancing red and white lights can be hypnotizing.

Messing with a cyclist lights is a serious safety issue. I would watch the tapes and make sure it never happens again.

Sad that another cyclist would do such a thing.

I'd check the tapes the second time it happened. Keep back up in case. Then check tapes.
Maybe place a sign on it.

If this was on a city street, I can *almost* see turning on your lights as an un-friendly reminder to take then with you lest they get stolen. If the guy's a jerk or just plain stupid maybe he was thinking something along those lines when he left yours on.

+1 on this advice. One incident is not a trend; there was no loss of property, so security staff might not be able to justify searching video archives.

Would security feel justified in searching video archives if somebody disabled the
headlights and taillights on a parked car?

i would highly doubt it was an act of malice, if this guy parks in the room he has to know that A) if he messes with your stuff, you are more apt to mess with his stuff, and B) he must know there is video surveillance in the room, doubt he would risk such a great privileged parking location just to mess with you.

maybe next time you bump into him he'll be like "i was checking out your light set up, and i couldnt turn them off, let me buy you new batteries/ a beer/ whatever" i wouldnt assume the worst just yet.

I have a habit of unplugging the light lead from the battery pack.
Part of the intructions with the Cygo lite lion and the Dinotte I use.
To help conserve the battery.
Personally, I can see a couple of work place maroons tittering
over my lights and walking away for multiple reasons allready listed.

With that kind of calmness and rationality, you should be run off the boards and banned for life. Don't you know this is an online forum and we will only tolerate ill-informed, rash, knee-jerk, and violent reactions!

Oh, and +1.

Enjoying this thread. Reminds me of a recent one about tire pressure sabotage. Which got me thinking about possible motives.

Are you now, or have you ever been involved in some sort of love triangle at the office?

My take? Stuff happens. Suck it up and move on.

Surrounded by titterers? I heard that Prozac helps.

I have a couple practical jokers in my office. Perhaps someone was just trying to be funny and didn't realize the safety implications?

Makes no sense. I'd ignore the incident.

What if this happens again? Check the camera video. No biggie but then again, it wouldn't hurt to see who did this.

You're not kidding about the high-tech parking space. I can only assume this is an early April Fool's post! It sounds like you're parking next to the Hope Diamond or something.

Sorry about your problem at work, and I hope it doesn't go any further, but you have a high tech bike room at work? Were you aware that Mayor Menino and the City of Boston had invited businesses and organizations to apply to become part of the Boston Bike Friendly Business program, but the applications were due in February?