So I went for a ride about half hour out of town, parked my bike between the low wall and barbed wire fence over the side of the road. In the Isle of Man there is virtually no street crime, so doors are mostly open, stuff not locked.
I come back from my walk, and the bike is not there… I’m like devastated and can’t really believe it, these things don’t happen here, at ALL.
A guy in a Jaguar stops and helps me, calls the cops. He gives me a ride to this food store, which apparently he’s the boss of, and instructs the guys there to have someone drop me off in town, and/or call a taxi at their expense.
For about a couple of hours I warn everyone around town, friends, etc, to keep an eye out.
Around 3pm (after 2 and a half hours of trauma), I head physically to the police station (We had called, but around here people don’t really ‘‘work’’, so they never called me back or anything). The guy is like ‘‘hold on, we got a bike in recently’’ ‘‘looks like the ones in your pictures i think’’…
Yea so he comes out with my bicycle. Some guy in a van thought it was abandoned, took it, and brought it to the police station… Well I was crying when I saw it, just the release of all that stress. The kind of thing that could happen only on this island.
If only every place were like that. Sounds awesome. The cops in Columbus said we were “not smart” for keeping a bike locked in the car after someone destroyed the trunk to steal it. They did not want to bother even making a report.
Years ago, the local bike shop was robbed during the night. The store had video cameras and everything. The cops didn’t even want to look at the videos, they didn’t do anything more than fill out some basic paperwork and left. They didn’t even want a list of the bikes that were stolen! One of the mechanics started watching Craig’s List, and the local bike reseller groups and saw one of them surface months later. He went to see the bike, and saw more bikes poorly hidden away. He called their cops, and they YAWN were too busy, so he called the cops where the bikes were, and they swooped in and retrieved all but one. Their local cops (where the bike shop was located) were not happy and they made it known, but after being totally blown off after the robbery and getting the word out what happened, on the next election, there was a change in the police department. The balls of the police chief to be angry at being exposed. Wow… And I’m sure the small town cops had a great time solving a case the ‘big city police department’ couldn’t (ended up being wouldn’t).
It’s like car/bike accidents. Some areas just go through the motions, while others drive it to the end for constituents.
But great story.
I remember, some time ago reading about a guy whose bike was left for a couple minutes, and he came back to find it locked up. Someone didn’t want it to be stolen, and put their lock on it, and had meant to watch for the return of the owner so they could unlock it. By the time spectators showed up, and an officer as I remember the story, the owner of the lock showed up to remove it. Apologizing and offering discounts at his store, etc. Good samaritans come in all guises…
Yea the intention was good! But a couple things, maybe he could have left a note to not make me die of a heart attack
And the cops had received the call of a stolen bike… that never happens here. Still, they didn’t bother to call me back when they received the bike. I just passed there on my own while walking about, and realized it was there when I asked physically.
