One in a million

[Rob Oplawar]

Ok, here's the thing. I love life. I'm a generally happy and trusting person. I ride my bike to work every day because it is healthy and pleasant and laid-back and environmentally friendly. I smile and occasionally wave at everyone I pass. I'm courteous; I wait for pedestrians to cross, I ride slowly, I let faster bikers pass. The people I pass are nice back. They smile, they say good morning, they let me pass when I'm faster than they are.

I'm not an idiot, either. I always lock my bike up, I never leave it out when it's dark, and when I do park it for long periods of time I put it in a place where there are always people around. Like when I go to work, I park my bike in front of a bank in a pedestrian mall that never has fewer than two dozen people walking by at any given time during the day.

Imagine my shock and dismay when, after a long but pleasant day at work, looking forward to the pleasant bike ride home on this beautiful day, I discover my bike lock cut in half with a bolt cutter and my bike nowhere to be seen. On the forums I do like a good rant, but IRL I'm a very pleasant person. Upon seeing that my bike was stolen, I reacted quite calmly: I was mildly surprised (and readily communicated that surprise to the dozen or so people who happened to see me pick up my trashed bike lock), slightly upset at the loss of a bicycle that I quite liked, and disappointed that I would not get to ride it home today.


This is the first time I have been the victim of a crime that caused hundreds of dollars of property loss. It happens all the time to all sorts of people. The vast majority of people you encounter are nice people who, unless they are in a particularly bad mood, will try to be generally pleasant. All it takes is one complete asshole to fuck things up for everyone. You see, now I have to change myself. Now, because of this one person out of thousands, I am a less trusting individual. I cannot afford a new bike right now, so I will be forced to drive my car until I can get a new bus pass. When I do get a new bike, I will not ride it to work, for fear of it being stolen. When I do ride my bike places, I will carry around a bulky U-lock that will restrict my and others' bike parking options. No more waving to the people I'm used to seeing on the bike ride to work. This one person has made life that much less pleasant for me and those around me.


So, to whoever stole my bike: I'll have forgotten about this in a week, but this simple pleasure in my life has been reduced for no good reason. I am an atheist, but in this one instance I hope hell exists so that you can go rot in it. Fuck you.

[rossmum]

Nobody's ever stolen anything off me (touch wood) and I'm glad they haven't. I got mad enough when some little fuckhead keyed my car; if someone nicked my PC I'd be all kinds of fucked up. Sucks, man.

Going to pursue it? You never know, someone might have seen something. At the very least you can say you tried, and you may even end up seeing the prick get done for it.

[Dwood]

Nobody's ever stolen anything off me (touch wood)

Touching me does not reduce chance of something getting stolen from you.

[EX12693]

Lol funniest thinh I've heard all day...

I caught someone attempting to steal my bike. Sent him to the hospital, sent me to the courthouse. I am NOT a pleasant person when someone genuinely pisses me off.

[paladin]

My sisters car stereo has been stolen 3 times in 1 year. The first was in her work parking lot, mid day. Ive had people steal shit off my old truck before, but nothing really of value. It sucks. Its disgusting that there are people out there that have the nerve to take things you worked for.

Also, a few months ago, my cousins neighbor had a home invasion. It was scary, but they picked the wrong house. The guy shot one with a shotgun as the other fled. Link (http://www.king5.com/news/local/Two-injured-in-Tacoma-home-invasion-robbery-69418037.html)

[PenGuin1362]

Enter my house, I shoot you. Simple as that.

[Cojafoji]

Rob, I'm sorry to hear that your bike was stolen. It's a real punch in the gut to realize people are dicks like that, especially if you're a good person. On a small side note, I was teaching at a scout reservation back in 2005. I was down at scout craft (learn to build bridges, make rope, build shit etc), talking to another program director. I had a knife back then, a 5" buck knife with intricate patterns on the golden ends. Nothing gaudy, but it was ornate enough that it cost me when I bought it. I loved that knife, and here's the kicker: I put it down on a table, with my shit, turned around to help out the other director with some god awful dutch oven disaster he had cooked up, and when I turned around again, the knife was gone. There had been four scouts sitting there a minute earlier. Fucking boy scouts stole my favorite knife, that I had owned for years.

A real kick in the dick...

edit: raise a bike fund anyone?

[TeeKup]

Pettiness, Greed, Envy, Desire; the list goes on.

We often don't recognize the folly's of our fellow man until it happens to ourselves, or we realize ourselves committing them.

Rob I'm very sorry to hear this. Not too long ago I found my car ransacked. All of my receipts which I kept in my car were thrown everywhere. Thankfully nothing of value (including the car itself) was stolen, then again I don't keep any valuables in my car in the first place.

Please don't entirely loose your trust for other people, despite what has happened to you, a good many people still act civil and polite.

[Sever]

I had my bike stolen once, but then I got it back. My bike repair guy, and also a member of my group of friends at the time, who had not only helped me get my bike into a working state when I received it, but had also ridden it a few times when we were just cruising around town (and, on one occasion, subsequently managed to burst one of the tires, which he willingly repaired free of charge), had seen someone who was NOT me riding it, hopped on his bike, chased them down, and confronted them, all while taking pictures with his camera for proof. The incident ended without conflict, and I got my bike back.

This goes to show that there's still hope yet. In your case, maybe one of the many that you wave to in your morning ride might have seen something.

[Sel]

you live in a place where most people are actually courteous?

shit man, you're lucky.

[annihilation]

I know how you feel, Rob.

Once we were moving out and we had everything in the garage. We locked it and went to bed.
When we woke up we found out that someone had broke open the lock and had trashed the place.
They had knocked over everything and stole some stuff.
I can't remember everything they stole though but they did steal my bike, a tv, a dryer. (We were going to get rid of it anyways but still)

It's a shitty feeling.

[Rob Oplawar]

Thanks for posting y'all. Yeah, Boulder is an incredibly nice town, which is why I want to stay here. That's why I was just so shocked to have this happen. But in hindsight, bike theft is even more common than Subarus around here. Funny that a town in which almost nobody litters has such a problem with people stealing people's primary mode of transportation.
I've reported the theft to the Boulder PD, I'll be heading into the bank as soon as it opens to see if they or their security cameras saw anything, and I'll be making an insurance claim on it (although the deductible will probably be so high that I won't get much out of it). Also I'll be checking eBay and Craigslist.

Well, now I'm going to work... by car...
(lol, poor me, I'm forced to drive my fun, expensive car to my nice job in a wonderful town)

[Limited]

Bad times man, sucks.

I completely agree, it can really change your whole attitude, even though its just a bike, like you said you feel like you cant trust people, it puts you at a real inconvenience. The person who stole it had no idea of the effect it would cause.

What gets me, is the fact the lock was cut with bolt cutter (or something like that), some fool had to be walking around with a pair knowing they were going to steal a bike. Its premeditated theft, not just "oh theres a bike lying around I'll nab it".

Try not to give up faith in humanity, there still are decent people out there. I would definitely try to pursue this, going into the bank explain your predicament and ask them if they've seen any thing.

[Llama Juice]

Thread made me think of this video.
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Found this one while looking for the first video.
P8qj4rkfINo

In survival classes they teach women to shout FIRE instead of RAPE if they're being raped because people don't like to get involved if there's a threat of them being harmed.... but if it's just fire, then people feel like they can be a hero.

[Rob Oplawar]

I found this one to be much more satisfying:
yCAK8ZuqyXc

[Llama Juice]

Haha yea, that was rather swell.

Dirty bastard got what's comin to him haha.

[jcap]

Watch:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/148098/what-would-you-do-would-you-stop-a-bike-thief

[Llama Juice]

So the thief was black.

I mean, the black guy in the video stole the bike like 3 times, the white guy only got it once.

Black people are more efficient.

[paladin]

props to that black kid for keeping his cool with a crowd of people

[SiriusTexra]

Dude, get used to it.

My boss had his entire house robbed in sydney in the 90's. All this guitars, amps, mics, computer, everything.

Then, in this town, before I was employed, the business got robbed of the computers.

I'm worried about my place here in town, as I'm never there during the day. From 9 till 6 I'm gone.


Seriously, a bike is fuck all. I had a bike stolen when I was 10, about 2 weeks after it got fixed from being bent out of shape, on account of me being hit by a car while walking it across a pedestrian crossing (the bike actually saved my life, true story, all about what side I was holding the bike on) after playing Magic the gathering for an hour after school.

Sucks, but expect worse, and be careful.

[Mass]

My friend's bike was stolen in the park like ten years ago, and my dad found our neighbor's daughter's bike with a couple of punks even earlier.

But are you telling me you weren't using a U-lock? Cause that is rather silly.