Lock your Bike!

Yesterday morning I witnessed a bicycle theft! Well, I didn't realise it at first even though I felt there was something suspicious about the whole thing.

I was dropping off Isolde at pre-school and I had just turned into the street of her pre-school on my bike (with Isolde in her chair behind me; the pre-school is very near but it saves me time going to work afterwards to take the bike rather than walk) when I saw a guy passing by the entrance to the building where the pre-school is located (which is a residential building where people live as well). I wasn't sure if he had come out of the building or around the corner but he turned around and backed a few steps and climbed up on a bike that was parked outside (that wasn't locked so there was no unlocking involved) and pedalled away past me and Isolde (I had just stopped at this stage and was just about to unbutton Isolde from her chair). I thought at first he had briefly forgotten he had the bike - I've done that on many occasions and started walking a few metres and then remembered "oh yes, I took the bike today" - but I had a suspicious feeling because he seemed slightly hesitant and I got that feeling of someone grabbing an opportunity.

Everything went very quickly so I didn't have time to react. I'm not sure what I could have done anyway - perhaps asking "is that really your bike?" - especially with a small child with m, but afterwards I felt like I should have stopped him somehow.

Literally less than a minute after as I was still getting Isolde out of her bike chair and getting her stuff out of the basket a guy comes out of the building and starts looking around and looking confused. So I ask him "do you happen to look for a bike?". "Something strange just happened" and I tell him the story. He asked which direction the guy went and what he looked like and I tell him. He sets off to look for the thief while Isolde and I go inside. A few minutes later when I come back outside the guy, i.e. the rightful owner of the bike, comes back still without the bike (the thief probably got quite far in a short amount of time) and we chat again. He had literally been inside the building for a minute to drop off his child in one of the older age groups and he didn't think it was necessary to lock it for that brief moment. I have often thought about not locking for the same reasons and because it's a generally safe area of town, but I guess bike theft in one of the most common crimes and one that doesn't get solved very often either. I usually don't lock my bike when I stop at 7Eleven on my way to work but I certainly will now.