Have You Seen This Bike?

 Back in October, we discovered that someone had stolen several bikes from our apartment complex's bike room. The room is in the underground garage, which is only accessible by remote, and the room itself is only accessible by key fob. And of course the bikes were locked to bike posts. But that didn't stop someone from taking Mark's bike.

We reported it to the police, tracked down the receipt for the bike, and filed with insurance. That sentence really does not convey the absolute drudgery of those tasks; believe me, it was painful.

Last week, Mark finally selected a new bike, and we went to pick it up on what he calls "New Year's Adam" [the day before New Year's Eve, because that's the order of operations in the Garden of Eden]. We made it into a date, because it was a 40 minute drive [not many shops have XL bikes] and that's what you do when you run errands as a couple. The bike shop dude helped him pick out a new lock that would be much sturdier than the one the thieves got through, and commented that if someone got through a U-lock or a heavy-chain-linked lock, we should start questioning the security of the apartment complex.

If this were fiction, that would be the foreboding moment in this story.

We got lunch at CAVA, which was delicious, and then made the trek back. While Mark put up the bike carrier for our car, I went to lock his new bike in the bike room. 

Which is when I discovered that someone had stolen several other bikes. Including mine.

We toyed with some victim's guilt for a bit, but really there was nothing we could have done. The room is, as I mentioned, not easy to access, and since the prior bike theft event, the apartment complex had added a metal cover over the latch part of the door, to prevent it being forced open. Also, the thieves got through U-locks and thick chain locks. That's the kicker there. Basically, we didn't stand a chance.

Understandably, we did not continue with locking Mark's bike in the room,, but took it up to our apartment instead, where we get to trip on it because it doesn't really fit. The next day began an even more complicated paperwork hunt than with Mark's bike--because I couldn't at first remember what my bike looks like [yes, really. I could pick it out of a line-up, but those details don't seem very relevant until you are no longer able to look at it yourself], and because I have yet to track down a receipt for it. It is so frustrating because I know when and where I purchased it, but can't get any records from the shop or from my credit card statements.

Also, it took forever to get a response from the police. First we went in person to the station, where they told us we could keep waiting in the lobby until someone was free, or we could call non-emergency 911 from home and someone would come out. We went back home, called, and when no one called back after 2 hours, I called again. The operator suggested I go to the police station to file more quickly, so back to the station I went. And when I got there, the police officer told me to go back home and call a 3rd time, because someone needs to respond in-person. 

Two hours after that 3rd call, while I was in the middle of grating cheese and cracking eggs for a quiche for dinner, we finally got a call back. Meaning we got a police case number and could submit an insurance claim before the end of a year when we had already met the deductible. Which is really the only bright side of having both bikes stolen in the same year.

Missing bike, gray, 6 years old, unnamed, indifferent to identity of rider