Theft Story

One of the odd crime developments over the past thirty years in Germany that I've come to observe....is the escalation on theft of bicycles.

Germans have attached themselves to using bikes and their preference is for bikes that range from a couple of hundred Euro, to five to ten thousand Euro.  If you want the battery-powered bicycles, then you are talking about a minimum of thousand Euro. 

To safely protect the bikes?  Well....folks go to an extreme.  Some folks will drag their bike up to their apartment or ensure it's safely in their garage.  Even upon arriving at work, they will make an effort to secure the bike in some protected room or shelter.  Some railway stations will even rent-out protective cabins to ensure protection of bikes. 

Chains to lock the bikes up?  It really doesn't matter....virtually all chains can be defeated. 

The cops?  All you can do upon discovering your bike was stolen....is call the cops and report it.  The cops really don't have the manpower to do anything, and there simply isn't a strategy on handling on this type of theft.

So I noticed today a bike recovery story here in the local Wiesbaden news. 

This German lady had her bike stolen.  It apparently had some unique features.  Some days pass, and she's browsing through want-ads on the internet (I assume Ebay or Craig's List).  Here's the bike.  She contacts the sales person, and arranges for an inspection to purchase.  Then she calls the cops and they show up. 

Yep, it's the bike.  Oddly enough....there's other items there that have been reported stolen.  So they conduct an inventory.  They bring the individual down to the station and do a full report, and then they issue a summons to report to the court. 

All of this effort though.....only comes about because of the determination of the German lady in recovering her own stuff.