Stolen Bike Part 1: Recovered!

“I hardly ever get to do this,” the cop said to me.

She was telling me that my stolen bike had been rescued, and obviously enjoying herself. Her tone was very “everything just sucks right now except this, which is a ray of goddamn sunshine.”

The bike was stolen last Tuesday night. But then it was apparently abandoned by the thieves, rescued by a good samaritan, and turned in. Truly amazing.

My guess is that the thieves couldn’t take my bike apart, so they ditched it. Presumably they can only sell parts easily, not whole bikes, but there was no taking mine apart with an allen key, because the wheels have clever, robust security bolts that need a unique key (Pinhead locks). It would take an extraordinary effort and specialized tools to get the wheels off without damaging the frame, and honestly I wonder if it’s possible at all.

I had those bolts to foil wheel theft; I never imagined that they might save the whole bike. If that’s how it went down… fascinating.

[It wasn't how it went down. That guess was wrong. See next post for an update.] *Vancouver has a serious bike theft problem: a collision of high average wealth, an extremely fitness-minded population, and a very nasty drug addiction problem that has produced another population of extremely desperate people. And of course it’s worse than ever since the pandemic started.