I got woken up last night at about 1am, by someone reversing a van down the drive to the car park for our flats.
Loads of taxis turn round in the drives especially on friday and Saturday nights so initially I was just annoyed that I'd been woken up and nothing more.
But this was unusual, because the driver was there for ages and kept the van's engine running (Most drivers if they're dropping off, stop properly and if they're turning round it's pretty quick) and the revs pretty high, but was just sat between the houses.
No lights.
Then I heard someone get out, and Then I heard something I've heard quite a few times before- My bike is chained to the metal support to the stairs- and it's the only one there now- I heard the metal-on -metal noise of my bike chain on the post (It's a length of steel chain with a plastic coating- it would be more suitable for a motorbike, the "weak" point is the 4" Squire padlock).
My bike is pretty old, and it probably has a scrap value, I think you'd struggle to sell it on because it's just so unusual and because it's quite rusty. Even so, that hasn't stopped it taking someone fancy.
So, I'm lying there, in bed, listening to my bike being pulled about and thinking "Well, there goes another bike then, The same way as the last one".
And then I realised, The last few days I've come home from town, my bike has been pulled away from the stair support- as if to check it's locked or to test the strength of the padlock (haha, yeah, good one). I hadn't seen it like that, I just assumed someone wanted to check their gas meter or that it had been caught by someone getting their post. So I'm lying there in bed, angry and feeling pretty stupid because the writing had been on the wall, I just hadn't read it properly.
At that exact, perfect, moment a large group of drunk people came stumbling out of the road almost opposite, Singing.
The van took off with a wheel spin.
And my bike was saved, by the crime fighting force that is the drunk people.
Yay!
I went round some of the flats today and warned people to check anything locked up outside, and to remove anything they like from their cars (I know they're really after my copy of fern gully on VHS, and I'll ensure I clear all my "valuables" out of my car to prevent them being nicked- or tempting anyone to nick them).
I know they'll come back, if they want something badly enough they'll steal it eventually. In my hear of hearts I know all you need are some sizeable bolt cutters and my bike is yours- but carrying said bolt cutters would certainly count as "Going equipped to steal" I suppose a hack saw will do most bike locks in a matter of seconds and is much easier to hide.
The guy in the flat below ours told me that the house opposite ours was burgled on Thursday, in the night, buy some blokes with a van.
That would explain why the police seemed more interested than usual about a bike theft (or an attempted one) When I rang them at half one in the morning. They said if the van came back to call them on the emergency number not 101, and not to confront the thieves.
They said there had been "other reports" and that extra police were already patrolling the area- which when you consider how close this was to a theft, is not all too reassuring, their presence is so insignificant that they van-people are not put off at all.
I'm going to move my bike to the hallway, it can have an indoor holiday. god only knows how we'll manage- our hall is already an assault course of traff's bike and all our wet suit stuff- but I'd rather play military bootcamp for a few weeks until they piss off and terrorise another area than have for fork out for another bike. again.
People of Bedfordshire: Lock up your bikes.
And checking your doors and windows, and removing valuables from your cars wouldn't be a bad idea either.
On a more seriously pissed off note, It makes me so angry that people think it's OK to take something which is clearly not theirs.
None of us is so well off we can afford to have our stuff nicked and replace it, just so that someone else can make a few quid selling it on Ebay or Gumtree. What happened to peoples sense of morality and the concept of ownership?
Maybe they're really "hard up" and consider themselves hard done by- well, guess what? That's life, Life likes to fuck us all over occasionally. That doesn't give you the right to take something that isn't yours! Everyone else managed to be perfectly nice and law abiding when they're having a crappy time. You know where you can put your sense of entitlement?!
My bike might look like scrap metal to these people, but to me it's a rather beloved method of transport.
