So I leave the house at about 6: 50 this am to get coffee about 1 block from here.

[Smarmie Doofus]

As I stagger onto the street I notice there are two bikes on the sidewalk. Loose. Not locked to anything. Just kind of propped up against telephone poles or whatever.

I pay no mind. I get the coffee and return 10-15 minutes later. A van is stopped in the street, opposite bikes. I look again at the bikes.They look familiar. I go to back of the house, where I keep our bikes ( mine, son's, upstairs neighbor's). My son's bike and my bike are not there.

I go back to front of house. Man is rolling one of the two bikes to the van. (Someone else is in the driver's seat of the van.) I approach man and van. "Hey."

We make eye contact. He says "garbage". I say "NOT garbage; *stolen*."

He says "sorry". He puts bike back on sidewalk.

Closes door to van. I commit license plate # to memory. I call 911.

Police come within 10 minutes.

To be continued.

[darkangel218]

1. Your bikes?

[hrmjustin]

2. Good thing you were there and stopped him. And good that you got the plate.

[jollyreaper2112]

3. repulsive

This is the sort of sting the pigs should be doing, not drug busts. GPS on the bikes, put them out as honeypots. Find out where they're taken, bust the thieves.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Bike theft is often an organized, intercity crime, many bikes are worth hundreds and even

thousands. Bike theft is a successful form of crime in part because people think of it as 'kid's stuff' not like theft. How many bikes already in that van?
An example with an internet twist
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/05/bicycle_theft_ring_100000_craigslist_facebook_san_bernardino_angeles.php

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. It disturbs me that they made no effort to conceal the license plate # on the van.

Suggests a level of organization and raises other questions.

Example: Are they unconcerned about police follow-up?

If so.... why?

[hrmjustin]

6. Did the police come?

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. Yeah... w/in 10 minutes.

Less... probably.

Might even have been able to find the van... if they were of a mind to. But in my experience things don't work that way around here.

Police took a description, etc. Said a detective "might" get back to me... if there were any leads.

I asked if the the license plate # was a "lead". ( "Oh yeah. Sure.&quot

That was the extent of my "pushing" the issue.

We'll see what develops. Hopefully it won't be a house break-in or a brick thru the window.

I locked the bikes together and returned them to the shed. Gotta go out and get a new lock for the shed, now, I guess.

[hrmjustin]

8. So sorry this happened! At least you saved the bikes.

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. Thanks. Nearly identical thing happened about four years ago when I lived 3 blocks from here.

In that case I had no place to "keep" the bikes so I just "hid" them from view in a bushy area on the side of the house.

This time they were in a gated shed behind the house, which is surrounded by a gated fence. They opened two ( unlocked) gates to get at 'em.

[hrmjustin]

10. Is it a high crime area?

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. All of my borough is a high crime area...

... but this is a very low crime area w/in the borough.

[hrmjustin]

12. Graham was just ppr'ed. Just happened in the host forum.

He posted a lot in the NY group.

[Smarmie Doofus]

13. "ppr'd"? Short for.....? (Doesn't sound good.)

Graham 4 Anything?

[hrmjustin]

14. Yep he was just sent packing from Du.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=280518&sub=trans

Notice the 172 ignores.

Posting privileges removed

[Smarmie Doofus]

15. That's too bad. Harmless eccentric.

Wrong about almost everything but sometimes it's fun to have someone around who's reliably and consistently wrong. One knows quickly what NOT to think.

And... he didn't seem to take himself too seriously. That's always a saving grace.

[hrmjustin]

16. He was a member before and it looks like from what I am reading in the hosts forum he was banned

before. He made problems today in the host forum.

[hrmjustin]

17. Did you ever hear back from the cops?

[Smarmie Doofus]

18. Yeah. Someone ( officer) came by that afternoon to NOT dust' em for fingerprints.

He said they were "outside" so they wouldn't yield good prints.

OK. (?)

Next day i was called down to look at mugshots. A lot of people who resembled the guy I spoke to but no dead ringer.

Detective traced the van thru the plate. (He didn't say anything else to me about the ID of the owner which i thought was significant and slightly disturbing.)

He said if it went to court that they would say they thought the bikes were garbage and that might fly since no one saw them actually removing the bikes from the back of the house.

Thats the end. So far, anyway.

Perhaps unrelatedly: about two nites later someone entered my car which was parked in front of the house. They left the glove compartment open and pulled a few things out and dropped them on the floor.

I never leave anything of value in the car and it is possible that I left the door unlocked.

Unrelated? Who knows. I didn't report it to the police as nothing was taken. But since I was half-way expecting a brick through the window for reporting the attempted bike theft , the car "break in" is a little unsettling.

I think now I'm waiting for further word from the det.

[hrmjustin]

19. So sorry to hear this.

I am not surprised the police did not want you to press this. Would not look good for crime stats I guess, oh and the paperwork as well they would have to do.

I hope things get better in your neighborhood.

[Smarmie Doofus]

20. I know they play all kind of games w. the stats, but...

...I'm assuming since they called me down it's at least in the system.

The local paper comes out tomorrow. If there's no mention in the police blotter of my heroic intervention in breaking up this theft I'm gonna call the editor and ask why not.

[hrmjustin]

21. Glad to hear you not letting this go.