I got my bike bike! (2008.08.30)

Below is a quick story about having my bicycle stolen and then recovering it:

August 22nd, 2008 between the hours of noon and 6:30pm my bicycle was stolen from a bicycle rack at my work. In place of my bike was an unlocked black beach cruiser sporting lots of rust. This just happened to be the only day in the entire year that the campus I work at isn't teaming with people, because we were all at the company picnic. Odd I must say.

I call Walnut Creek Police and report the theft. On monday a traffic officer from WCPD comes out and takes down a report. You would never get this type of treatment in Oakland unless there was a bloody body involved somewhere in your story.

I spend my spare hours on monday, tuesday, and wednesday cruising Concord, Pleasant Hill, and Walnut Creek cruising on a bicycle I built out of some trash components I found last week. A thick and heavy vengeance burns inside of me, my blood clots into coal that my soul burns with rage, but I find no one to take it out on.

And then Thursday I find an add on craigslist, freshly posted showing my bike. Below is the posting:



Why am I convinced this is my bike? lets compare it to a picture of me took before doing an endo and splitting my eyebrow open in the Alameda skate park a few years back:


Here is that craigslist photo with a little more detail:

Oh yeah thats my fucking bike.

I start shaking with rage when I see this, but I'm sensible enough to call the WCPD and tell them, "I just found my stolen bike on craigslist and I'm calling you to do the responsible thing, please take care of this, so I don't have to do something unresponsible."

WCPD calls the guy on thursday and gets a call back from him latter on that night. The officer tries to talk him down in price and they guy says, "I paid to much for it, I couldn't go any lower." On friday at 1pm WCPD met the guy and got my bike back.


A couple of items have been changed out on the bike. My rims that are pictured in the craigslist posting have been switched out for crappy steel rims that are heavy and have the newest tires I've ever seen on them. Many years of crashes and bumps have knocked off my spit-fire shifters and front derailer, so this guy put on grip shifters and a new front derailer. He did a real good job of it...add this up with the fresh a can be tires and I think this cat works at a local bike store. 

A co-worker on friday found my bike lock ditched infront of our parking lot:


looks like someone cut through it with some sort of electric saw.

And just in case your wondering about the guy selling the bike. WCPD wasn't able to arrest him or charge him with anything, because he said he bought the bike at a swap meet. I looked up the guys phone number from the craigslist post and this guy appears to have gone to a "swap meet" and resold about 8 bikes in the last couple of months...all nice mountain bikes ironically.