Bloody Hell
I've been a bit absent b/c our household goods recently arrived. We've been madly unpacking to bring order back to our lives. I was going to wait for a break to post photos and such.
I decided to preempt my hiatus to report that B-'s new bike was stolen last night! What the fuck, man?? My apologies to family members reading this post, but I think you'll agree that two stolen bikes and a bicycle seat are worth cursing over.
B- had been riding around on a small fold-up bike. It was proving to be a bit too crappy for city commuting, so he picked up a new, normal-sized bike. No frills, this new one - ugly, orange grandma bike that cost almost nothing.
This morning, NO MORE THAN FOUR DAYS SINCE PURCHASE, the bloody bike was gone. Bastards!
Labels: life in holland
posted by akaijen at Wednesday, January 11, 2006
4 Comments:
It's like I've always said: the only think the Dutch love more than riding bikes is stealing bikes. Actually, I've never said that before, but I plan on saying it more often.
So what do your neighbors do to keep their bikes from being stolen?
12:22 AM GMT+1
Wow. Whose comment got deleted? What did they say?
As for the bicycle thief (by the way, the name of the movie i'll have to buy for you now), why not see if the Dutch have a similarly radical policy as they do for pot and hookers: just wait for them in the dark, and then kill them!
Either that or rethink the practicality of stowing your bikes on hooks from the ceiling in your apt or something.
4:11 AM GMT+1
The Dutch seem to do the same thing we do, buy the toughest lock there is and hope for the best.. I think other people have entryways where they can park bikes. Sadly, we don't have that.
Our next tactic is to really rough up the bikes beyond a crappy DIY paint job. We're going to add tape to the lights and such to make it look like they've been badly repaired. Basically, make them unappealling.
There's this new pink bike outside with handbreaks and gears. She uses the same lock we do, and barely locks the bike to anything. Generally, only the front wheel is locked to another bike. B- commented that either of us could easily steal that bike, b/c, hello! She has a quick-release front tire!
It's confounding why the keep taking our bikes and not that one. What makes my stomach turn is that we've more recently learned that they'll likely sell the bike on for only about $40! Grrrrrr....
There are two problems with keeping the bikes inside:
-- steep stairs, heavy bikes
-- two bikes already in the house
If my current bike is stolen, I won't bother replacing it until we move after our lease is up. If not for the fact that our stuff just arrived, we'd consider trying to get out of the lease b/c we're in a dodgier neighborhood than we were led to believe. It's not unsafe, but it's not quite what we'd hope for, and this is just adding to our discontent.
12:54 PM GMT+1
I think Doc P deleted his first post to make a correction. Eh?
12:55 PM GMT+1
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