I Fought The Law, And The Law Won

Day 58   August 6   Part 2 

On this evening, I received an email from the Portland, Oregon police. After I had reported to them that one of my blog readers had emailed me that he had found my stolen bike in Portland, they had spoken to him and then gone to check it out.

The bike in question was locked up in plain view, in a busy waterfront location. The front tire was missing, presumably taken off by the current “owner” so that nobody could steal it and ride off with it. The irony.

The cop on the case took a few photos of the bike, and attached them to the email. This was un-freakin-believable……this was MY bike!!

My bike had been customized over the last few years with certain high-end components. This was not a combination that you just purchase off-the-rack at a bike shop. This was, without a doubt, MY bike!

Now the sucky news. The cops could not legally cut the lock to retrieve my bike, without proof that the bike was mine.

Since I’d be traveling for another couple months, I didn’t have any way to check my files at home to see if I had recorded the serial number. I called Trek, and I called the shop where I’d purchased the original bike, and neither of them had a record of my serial number. (and, now that I’m home, I checked my files, and did not record the serial number. dumb)

No serial number, no bikey coming back to me.

There you have it. Some a-hole stole my bike, and probably sold it to someone who has no idea it was stolen and no idea how valuable it is. If they knew these things, they most definitely would NOT leave it outside.

So many lessons to be learned here. Such a bummer. A suck-fest. On the other hand, I think I’m over my hatred of Portland, Oregon. I think I’m ready to go back there someday.