Plaidophile

Argh. So, I keep my bike in a shared garage. There is nothing to lock a bike to in the garage but I keep a big u-lock on the front wheel and frame to at least stop people from riding off, in the rare case that someone leaves the garage open or whatever (which happens with alarming frequency). So of course, today when I went down to the garage to put out my trash, and I saw my bike helmet just sitting on the floor, well I was a little livid.

So while I was looking around the garage to see if any other bikes were stolen (one other was), some of my neighbors happened to come down and asked what was going on, and I said my bike was stolen. "Oh, you should have locked it to something," they said. GEE REALLY YOU THINK

Anyway it was stolen sometime after yesterday afternoon, since one of them had said my bike was still there yesterday. So I'm waiting for the police to arrive (so I can file a police report, which they don't do over the phone here apparently) and hopefully something will come of it. Meanwhile I've also posted to Craigslist which is the other thing SFBC suggested that's actually feasible.

If I'm lucky, the thieves will be stupid enough to take it to a bike shop which checks Cragislist and with the police in order to get the lock removed.

Also, of course this would happen right after I ordered an expensive lighting system for it. That wouldn't be quite so irritating except that the color I ordered was backordered, so I changed the color so I'd get it sooner. Now I have no bike to put it on. (Well I have my little folding bike but it sucks and wouldn't be easy to mount anything on it, and anyway my bike pump was in my big bike's pannier so I have no way of inflating the folder's tires, which are totally flat.)

I guess tomorrow I'll buy another pump and cheap lighting system for the folder (at least I still have an old headlight) and use that as my temporary for a while, seeing as how that's why I kept the folder after I bought my real bike.

3:22 Come to think of it, I may have actually forgotten to lock it, since I had stopped at Rainbow on the way home on Friday and was distracted with unloading the groceries. It would be pretty damn typical if the one time I forgot to lock my bike was also the one time that the garage got left open and someone came by to take advantage of it.

4:34 Yay, two SFPD officers just came by and filled out a theft report. Fortunately, since I had the serial number and a detailed description of the bike and its accessories, that greatly improves my chances of recovery. Plus, I have a case number so if something turns up via Craigslist or whatever, I can contact them and they'll take care of it. Hooray!