Thursday, May 7, 2009

velo m.i.a.

I left my bike at the train station one too many times and it decided to leave me--or more likely someone ELSE decided it should leave me and bike-napped it. The tires were mostly flat, too! Who steals a bike with flat tires? I went to the police station today, and although I was expecting them to say it was my tough luck for leaving it there over night (err, serveral nights, actuallly), the guy was in fact very nice. He was telling me I could perhaps claim it on insurance, and said, "even if you don't have your reciept anymore, if you know it was, what, say 500 francs?..." I volunteered it was more like 100. He almost couldn't believe I was reporting a $100 bike. :) And, he said normally the deductible (is that the right word?) on that insurance is 200 anyway. But, he said there is perhaps a 30 percent chance that it'll turn up, and I hope those flat tires made someone ditch it somewhere.

And if not...well...so goes the world.

10 comments:

  1. Let's have the "audacity of hope" that the 30% chance will indeed prevail. ;)

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  2. Sigh. You are destroying my illusions that Basel is the near-perfect city in the near-perfect country....

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  3. You know something else scary? The police apparently thought $100 was nothing, and really cheap for a bike.

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  4. It kinda is cheap around here. I talked to my police officer friend and he said he thinks someone probably took it to ride home and not to sell. I was surprised; if I were stealing bikes, I'd sure do it for profit.

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  5. $100 bike, $50 lock, the math just doesn't work.

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  6. It was locked. I was talking to my language partner today, and she said she knows a guy who carries cable cutters with him when he goes out on Friday and Saturday night so that he'll have a bike home from the station.

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  7. If you'd had the $50 lock bolt cutters wouldn't have worked...

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  8. Thieves aren't picky anymore. Apparently, even the economy takes it tolls on larceny...

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  9. Never leave a bike anywhere near a train station. It will eventually be stolen or vandalized...

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