gmm213

I had my Fuji Feather stolen from inside my work Sat morning. This is the first time I have ever had a bike stolen. This sucks.

Moe Zhoost

My first time was in 1970. My newish white Schwinn Varsity was released from it's pitiful cable lock and ran off. That was the last time I ever let that happen. Still miss that bike.

memebag

My first stolen bike was in 3rd grade. My sweet BMX Huffy was stolen out of the school bike racks. I've hated humans a little ever since.

Juan Foote

^Yup, got my first bike stolen as a teenager, a rather nice Patterson Factory BMX. It got taken by the neighborhood white boy version of Debo. I valued my future health more than the bike.

WizardOfBoz

A Raleigh Competition from outside my fraternity house in 1978. Sigh. Hard to replace a lavender colored bike.

Scooty Puff Jr

That does suck, sorry to hear it happened. Anyway your works insurance will cover it ?

locolobo13 

The last time my bike was stolen was around two years ago. I checked CL for 6-7 weeks then one day it was there. I met with the seller to look at the bike and confirmed it was mine. I felt that if I told him it was my bike he would just ride off. So I told him I was going to look at some other bikes and would let him know. Then called the police, set up another meeting and brought the police.

Long story short watch CL for your bike. It might show up.

GeneO 

Sucks, sorry.

canklecat

Yeah, well, even Debo got KTFO.

rekmeyata

Yeah but watch a much wider area than your local CL area.

gmm213

I talked to my boss and the increase in premiums wouldnt justify it even if it did cover it. He is helping me out though giving me odd jobs to pick up some extra cash for a new one.

Searchtempest.com searches CL up to 400mi plus Im watching offerup, letgo, backpages etc.

jefnvk

That sucks.

What do you mean by "inside"? Seems like it would be hard for a random person to take if it were stored somewhere inside of a building.

Juan Foote

Where the movie version of the situation was how we all would have liked to see things go down for all "bullies", and all the rhetoric about "standing up"....

I watched this guy get in a fight with another school badass. He threw one punch that no one even saw coming, just pulling back from and the dude he hit was missing every front tooth, top and bottom, eye tooth to eye tooth. No bike was worth risking that.

Karma has it's way with him later on.

drlogik 

Yep, a stolen bike is a terrible thing. My first stolen bike was a blue 1973 Schwinn Stingray 2-speed. I still miss that bike...

Leebo

Inside your work? Like somebody there? Was it locked? Cameras around? Details please.

texaspandj

My only bike to get stolen was a schwinn clunker that was given to me. I started training on it in 85. I looked for that bike every time I saw someone riding a bike on the street. I'd already had a panasonic dx 3000 In 1986 in lay away when it was stolen and got it out the next week. So some positive came out of it. But still Sucks though.

Cougrrcj

My first three-month-old Fuji Special Tourer (S/N F9B18529) was stolen out of my high school bike rack in Sept 1974. It was the first bike to EVER be stolen from the school!

It was locked with one of those cheap plastic-covered chains with the 4-barrel-tumbler combination locks. I went out to the rack after an after-school event and found the lock in pieces on the ground.



I replaced that bike with the identical make/model (S/N F9B18546) with the insurance money - my parent's homeowners insurance covered it! AND I got a 'better' lock - one of the 3/8" coiled cables and Sesamee marine padlock. (Cheap boltcutters from China were not around yet- Ha!)

gmm213

I work at a hotel. It was inside a set of double doors. Theres a blindspot by the front desk and a guy was creeping around but I couldnt see him. I went in the back office and he must have looked and saw no one was there and he dipped in and then out real quick. It wasnt locked because its a well lit spot inside 5 ft from me. It had to take some massive cajones. We have cameras everywhere and theyre quite obvious.

indyfabz

A week before Christmas of 2010 we accidentally left the door unlocked when we got home from shopping and dinner out. Later that night, while we were awake in bed watching the 11 p.m. news, someone came around checking doors. The guy stole my irreplaceable, custom bike racks along with the Surly LHT they were attached to. We only realized that someone had been in the house when he shut the front door while leaving (what a kind fellow). We heard the noise, and the pressure caused the bedroom door to swing a bit. Fortunately, the dude left the two custom Independent Fabrications behind. I figured he took the Surly because it was the closest to the front door and was pointed that way. He also took my cheap-o cell phone. He was clearly just looking for items he could unload for a quick buck. When I finally went downstairs I could smell his funky crackhead ass.

corrado33

Unfortunate, sorry for your loss. However I think leaving your bike unlocked, even if it was 5 feet from you, takes large cojones. It only takes seconds to jump on a bike and ride off. The guy could have stolen it with you watching and you'd not be able to do anything.

Lesson learned. But at least you get to get a new bike to fall in love with now!

I've personally never had a bike stolen. Anytime the bike is out it's locked with a chain and a U-lock. Overkill where I live, but my bikes have never been stolen! The habit is from when I lived in a bigger city. It only takes a few extra seconds to use a good lock, and a few seconds more to use 2 locks.

However if someone ever broke into my house I'd be very unhappy when I got home. My only saving grace is that it's hard to ride more than 2 bikes at once.

travbikeman

Hate, or greatly dislike bike thieves. My son's bike was stolen earlier this year right in front of a friends house. He insisted he went inside for just 2 minutes to get his friend, they go outside and no bike. Well, no bike for him, his friends Wal Mart bikes were still there.

About a month later, we found the bike laying behind a gas station damaged. Someone took it to have their fun with it.

rmfnla

Poor thing...

kevindsingleton 

If you can't lock your bike, and you're going to be nearby, leave it in the highest gear combination, so a thief can't zip away, quickly. You can, also, drop the chain off the chain rings, so it can't be pedaled until that's resolved.

Sorry your bike was stolen. I'm not sure how I feel about your boss "helping" you by letting you do more work to keep his premiums from going up.

gmm213

Were a small franchise hotel. Even if the bike wasnt stolen he'd give me the extra work knowing I could use the money. It also puts me into overtime. In all fairness it wasnt locked and if I wasnt so lazy Id clean out the maintnence closet and keep it in there like hes said I could do. Plus he paid me upfront out of his own pocket for the work Ill eventually do.

My boss is a righteous mofo. I cant count how many days hes "needed my help" outside the office just cause he doesnt want to go out to lunch alone and literally yells at me if I pull out my wallet

Stadjer

Just like most of my fellow countrymen I own about 10 bikes, but I can only find 3 of them. To be fair, some of them I just parked somewhere and forgot where, so they were stolen or removed by the council after I lost them. But bike theft is just a fact of life, the worry is not to have the wrong one stolen.

In general is the handler of a stolen bike that I feel most contempt for. The thief is generally a junk who needs money for a fix, or a drunk student. Both could get caught and suffer the consequences, and getting caught by the police instead of the owner could have the least severe consequences.

But these junks sell the bike a few minutes after for 10 euro's to someone too cowardly to break a lock himself. Buying a stolen bike like that is very easy and almost risk free. If you want to ride a stolen bike at least have the guts to steal one. It's not just the cowardness but also the moral vacuum around bikes, like normal values concerning other people's property doesn't applie to bikes. At least it used to be like that, it's restoring a bit but riding a stolen bike is still quite normal for people in their twenties. And even if it's just an old beater of hardly any value, you're still robbing someone of his or her means of transport to get home that night. "I've had so many bike stolen myself" is the usual excuse, but it really isn't one. I've been 20, I've been a student, I've been low on cash, but I always managed to have and legally own a bike for little money.