the story about the CCTV and speaking with the arresting officer is hardly 'documented', I wouldn't characterize it as proof either. I'd like to actually see a police report, or even a videotape of an actual theft or something. I too am skeptical that this bic thing is really such a big problem; but at the same time i won't tempt fate, and have gotten a new lock. The reason I'm skeptical, is because I tried to bic my own lock. I understand there's probably a knack to it, but I spent a good 45 minutes on the stupid thing. I guess a life of crime is not for me :(

But because there is no documented proof of an actual theft, I wouldn't argue that it's not a threat. At the least I've seen that it is possible (even though I can't do it). That is sufficinet for me to find a better lock.

I've been thinking on this one. My PitBull was this way the other day and I know I always stick the key in all the way. Maybe someone tried picking it and failed but did misalign the bits. When I stuck my key in it didn't go all the way. A little adjusting and bing OPEN. My Pitbull Came with a sticker stating to put the key all the way in and a big warning on the box and directions. So perhaps someone tried taking the OP bike and misaligned the bits?

To be accurate, nobody here has given any substantiation to their claim that, "there is no proof that any bike was stolen with a bic pen." Nobody has stated that they have read through every police report of a bike theft since the bic pen hoola a year ago. Nobody has claimed to have seen a report written by someone who has gone through all the reports. Nobody has claimed to have a statistically valid sample of police reports. Nobody has claimed to have read through any significant number of police reports even from a single town or university. In fact, nobody, to my knowlege, has claimed to have gained access to even one police report of a bike (other than their own) that was stolen.

As far as I can tell, the only valid claim that can be made is, "I am UNAWARE of any bike having been stolen through the use of a bic pen." Anything else seems like the tobacco companies stating that there is no scientific study that conclusively proves that cigarettes cause cancer.

If I am wrong here (and I concede that is a vey real possibility) then I would like to see some substantiation of why some people have been able to conclude conclusively that there is no documentation in existance of a single bike stolen with a bic pen. Just because the claim is made forcefully, doesn't make it true.

Prosecutor to judge: You honor, I'm prepared to produce the names of 5 witnesses that saw this man at the scene of the crime.

Defendant: I can provide a 100 who didn't see me there.

Not all police lack credibility and whilst there are some in the UK that do I am confident that the officer in question wasn't lying. In my experience he's a fairly upstanding member of society and a cyclist. Also, officers coming to talk about bicycle security on the invite of a local cycling group tend not to be selling fearmongering. The London Metropolitan Police have recently been working in conjunction with cycling groups in the city in an effort to reduce the amount of bike theft going on and increase the amount of bike theft actually reported.

Oddly enough the police aren't in the habit of hauling reports and footage around with them, even to cycling groups meeting in community halls. To do could be a potential breach of data protection laws without he proper clearances which are are a little too time consuming and difficult to obtain just for the purposes of showing around to people like some kind of kindergarten show and tell. However it suffices to say that I, and the rest of the people at the meeting, found the officer in question to be reliable and honest.

However, I guess that isn't going to be enough for some people and find this pervasive element of distrust whenever the police are mentioned quite saddening. I wonder how this would have been received if I had lied and said that I had personally witnessed the footage and the arrest report myself.

Raiyn's dad is a good cop.

A fair point really. I find the whole "I don't trust the police" mentality barely a step removed from that which says "I don't trust blacks/muslims" and so on. It's just an acceptable form of bigotry for the left-wing. I know my comments on the latest CM thread is less than respectful of the police but this is about the central office handling of CM rather than a sweeping generalisation.

I don't forget things. Ever. And yeah, that seemed to be a pretty important thing. There's a certain amount of respectability there.

I may be a bigot, but I'm not left-wing. Go ahead, ask a cop to tell you about any one time that he knows another cop lied to obtain a search warrant, a wiretap, or in testimony. If he tells you about one, then I would consider trusting him. Telling the truth is a conservative value. Isn't it?

That's quite an assumption you're making there... what if he honestly has no firsthand knowlege of such an event? I doubt that's quite so uncommon as you seem to believe.

So you would trust someone that says he knows someone else that lied, but you don't trust the guy that lied?