someone stole my bike ;(((((

[Popoki_Nui]

I'm calming down a bit ,but when I go into the garage ,and its not there I feel like I want to cry.. Im just soooooooooooo SAD !!!! Thanks again for all the sympathy. I need HUG. Ok , Ill quit whinnying.

You are NOT whinnying! You have every right to feel sad and violated. I empathize totally with you; my beautiful old Falcon was stolen right out of my (very private, enclosed) back yard many years ago. I rode that bike thousands of miles. I overhauled her, painted her, fussed and fawned over her, and one day she was gone. I was CRUSHED. And PISSED. I have never forgotten that feeling.
Big warm (((((hugs)))), and deepest sympathy to you. Yes life goes on, but the loss you feel is very real.

~Sherry.

[lph]

That SUCKS! I had my own beloved Trek stolen once, and went berserk. Luckily it was an "impulse theft" in a small neighbourhood and I guessed it, so I turned into Raving Mad Bike Police and tracked it down. I was sooooooo pissed!

Good luck getting over it. Don't channel it into road rage...

[Thistle]

Oh Suzie that sucks so much I dont even know what to say. Just sending you hugs.

[SouthernBelle]

Let me join in sending my sympathy.

[margo49]

Had my first bike stolen when I was 12 and have never forgotten the feeling or the bike.When I was messenger-ing in London in the early 80's I would leave it around at drops and pick-ups and nothing would happen to it. My touring bike too. They were both perfectly inconspicuous - perfectly maintained but that was only obvious to a fellow-biker.
I really feel for you because a bike is so much a part of us.
It will take you a few days to regain your emotional equilibrium, so be patient with yourself as you find yourself overcome by it all every now and then.

[mimitabby]

About a month ago, I was downtown, on my way to Elliott Bay Bike when I saw a guy holding a nice looking mountain bike and trying to sell it to a couple tourists for twenty bucks. I started yelling at him. Don't you try and sell that bike you stole from someone!!
He scudded away... and the tourists looked very relieved.


I am sorry about your bike. (all of your bikes, actually) We've noticed an unfortunate trend in Seattle. THere is less and less $$ for law enforcement, so unimportant crimes like theft are being ignored because there aren't enough cops to do the jobs. When my husband's laptop was stolen out of his truck
they didn't even want to come to the scene to make a report. They wanted to do it over the phone.

[hiker chick]

Sympathies for the theft of your bike. It is beyond infuriating to have something -- anything -- stolen or vandalized. I hope there is a particularly hot little spot in hell for those people. They are predators. They do not care the least bit who they steal from and the hardship they cause their victims.

Makes me long a little bit for a Saudia Arabian-style remedy in the criminal code. Perhaps if bicycle thieves had to fear having their feet cut off...

I'm from Hood River, Oregon, and appalled by what I've become accustomed to living with in DC for nearly 20 years. When I first moved out here, to northern Virginia, three juveniles tried to steal my scooter. A gallant neighbor chased them down, called the police and I gladly filed charges and cashed the checks (for damages) drawn on their parents' accounts that the court forced the kids to fill out.

My roommate's puppy was stolen out of the backyard. Two weeks, several search posses and hundreds of dollars later, we paid ransom to get her back (she lived 14 undramatic years after that, with me) and I never left her unattended, anywhere, ever again (except inside the house, guarded by a security system).

After moving into the city, I learned to never lock convertibles, removed the stereos every night, left the empty glovebox open and still three tops were slashed. One night walking home from work at 7:00p, one block from my house, I was attacked in an attempted smash-and-grab. Turns out I was attached enough to my purse to hang on until some good samaritans chased that creep off.

After a multi-year personal respite from crime, last month on a beautiful Saturday morning, I walked out to my car to head out and do errands, only to be greeted by a missing side window -- smashed to smithereens (nothing inside taken and nothing visible to take). The silver lining in that instance was that in cleaning out the car before taking it in for repair, I found the CDs I thought I'd lost months before. Since those were beloved roadtrip mixes, that was some compensation for the $300 window and half-a-day spent getting it replaced.

This year I've gotten into biking. Three new mountain bikes sit in my house (one for me, one for friends and one rigged for my dog to pull). I am mindful of their vulnerability to theft when transporting them or out in public. But I have not been careful enough. I'm more than a little concerned that I will be mugged for a bike one of these dark nights, which is why I carry pepper spray in a bento box on the top bar. If they don't stick a gun in my face, I plan on fighting them for the bike.

For me, the only salve for the pain of being robbed has been time elapsed and confidence that the criminals are miserable SOBs who likely will be caught someday, for some crime. And at some point their loser lives will catch up with them, if it hasn't already. I don't know how those people live with themselves. I am beyond sick and tired of living with them.

Thank you for sharing your story, which may spur others to take further steps to protect their bikes. And I hope you can get a new, even better bike, very soon. You've earned your anger and deserve a great new bike.