Again.

[swan_tower]

Remember this?

This time they took BOTH bikes. From inside a locked garage, wheels in U-locks, chained and locked to a pillar, and under a sheet to boot, just so nobody would glance through the garage bars and see a tempting target.

I fucking give up.

Comments

[elflands2ndcousin (from livejournal.com)]

Holy crap! That seriously blows, and to have it happen again? I'm really sorry.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

There's nothing more I can do, short of somehow finding room inside our residence for both bikes (hint: we don't have any). The garage is blatantly not secure enough. There's nowhere else to put them. My choices are a) not own a bike, b) own shitty a shitty bike that nobody wants to steal, or c) accept that my bike will be stolen on a regular basis.

I've left a pissed-off message with the management of the complex, in the hopes of arguing them into doing something to deal with this. I don't know if it will work.

My one tiny, tiny thread of hope: on advice, I bought a ReuniteIt label and stuck it on my bike after the first one was stolen. If the gods are good, that will make a difference. But I'm not counting on it.

[misslynx.livejournal.com]

In some cities you can register a bike with the police, so that they have its serial number on file, and if the thief ever gets busted, that greatly increases your chance of getting your bike back. Serial numbers on bikes are less easily gotten rid of than stickers.

Also, I know of some people who've gotten their bikes back by checking listings on Craigslist, Kijiji etc., finding their bikes for sale there, and setting up some kind of sting operation. Obviously you have to be careful with that, but it has worked for some people, at least.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

The "sticker" is a thing that is supposed to be nigh impossible to remove or deface -- the point is that it's part of a nationwide registry. Whether or not it works, well, we'll see.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, what jerks. I'm so sorry.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

"Jerks" is one word for it.

I think I've gone through all the rest over the last couple of hours.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm going to talk to Richardson Bike Mart to see if they have any suggestions. That really sucks! Can management find you a space further in to chain them?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it would help. The main thing I can think of would be for them to install an actual bike rack, so I can secure my bike to something with the U-lock, instead of having to use a chain (those being too easy to cut).

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Argh. Again?

Complaining to the management might get some result. I mean, yes, theft happens, but surely there's some level of theft at which you're being actively negligent about providing your tenants with a secure space for their stuff. 3 bikes in 18 months sounds like it might approach that.

I have seen gizmos for hanging bikes from the ceiling for storage - I'm not sure if that would be feasible in your current residence, but it might be worth looking into.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

We have damn high ceilings upstairs, but I'm not going to maneuver my bike up and down the staircase every single time I want to use it.

But yeah -- this is the point at which I really start telling the management that the garage is not. secure. enough.

[gollumgollum.livejournal.com]

I got a big fuckoff hook at the hardware store and i screwed it into a stud in the wall in my stairwell. It's a pain in the ass to get it up and down the stairs every time i want to ride, as my stairwell is awkward as hell without a bike, but reading this makes me glad i do so. Is there a wall anywhere inside that you can hang your bikes?

Also, i have friends in some cities who have two bikes - the nice one they save for riding for pleasure/fun/long distances, and the beater bikes they keep for running errands. Not really cost effective, but it might be worth not having to deal with them being stolen.

*hugs* Regardless, that's a whole lot of suck, and i'm sorry.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

There is *nowhere* inside to keep a bike, unless I hang it from the sloped 15-ft. ceiling upstairs, via the staircase that would immediately be trashed by having bike bits scrape along its walls.

In other words, there is nowhere inside to keep a bike, be it a good one or a bad one.

[gollumgollum.livejournal.com]

Sorry, dude. ):

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

Two bikes only works if you can lock them up safely. I have two for exact that reason (they get stolen in town and the university areas all the f-ing time) but at least our cellar is reasonably secure.

[misslynx.livejournal.com]

Oh, no - that's awful! Bike thieves are the scum of the earth. :-(

And it really sucks that you don't have a proper bike rack in your building's garage that you can actually get a U-bar through... chains and cables are too easily cut. Maybe hearing about this will help prompt the management to install a proper rack.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I hope so. It's the only thing I can think of that might make theft harder.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Sympathies. Wow, that's infuriating and also kind of creepy that the management can't make/hasn't made things more secure.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

They improved the strength of the pedestrian gates a bit after the last break-in, but I don't know whether that's done any good. (Sadly, I can't be sure when the theft happened this time: I haven't been down there much, and hadn't really looked at the area where the bikes were chained. So I don't know if this was while I was in Poland, and the gate got crowbarred open again and has been repaired since then, or whether it's more recent and they got in by means other than force.)

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

It could actually be someone with access to the garage, who may even have noticed you were going to leave for a few days.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got a call saying there was no sign of forced entry. So now . . . who knows.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Oh, how utterly infuriating.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, I think I'm less ripshit this time than last time. I'm still pissed, but I'm also just resigned.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm - does your renter's or home owner's insurance cover theft? That might at least be a way to replace the bikes.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does, which is the one bright spot in all of this. But it still means we have to jump through all the hoops to get the check.

[shveta-thakrar.livejournal.com]

Oh, crap! I'm so sorry to hear that. <3

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Thanks.