Not from me, oh no, but from PlattyJo.com, aka Jenny Oh Hatfield, who just nuts about bikes.
Does this count as a bike theft? I’d say so:
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Posts Tagged ‘thieves’
Here’s a Detailed Report of the Big SFPD-Google Bike Theft Workshop – 720 Stolen in the Mission Per Year
Thursday, December 13th, 2012Masjid Darussalam Mosque at Jones and Market, Just Above the Open-Air Stolen Apple iPhone Store of Mid-Market
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
How the Little Monsters of San Francisco Steal Your Bike: First Immobilize, Then Come Back for the Kill
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012The owner of this ride first “lost” a wheel to a professional junkie / bike thief. Then the owner left the immobilized bike parked on the mean streets of San Francisco overnight. Then the thieves came back to finish the job.
Thusly:
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Was this an especially desirable bike?
Nope. (Note carpet remnant used as saddle upholstery.)
Wouldn’t it make more sense if the thieves were able to steal the whole bike?
Yep.
You know, back in the day, about twenty years ago, bike thieves would aspire to steal your whole bike. Thieves would carry around car jacks stolen from Volvos so they could be used to pry apart U-locks.
I think I’d prefer that, losing the whole bike, over coming back and seeing something like this.
You know, back in the day, horse thieves would steal your whole horse. They wouldn’t just take the tail or a leg and then leave you with a horse carcass.
Let’s make this a rule: Bike thieves, take the whole bike or nothing at all.
End of line.
It Takes a Village (of Cops) to Bust a Hippie – The Sad State Justice Stephen Breyer’s Old High School, Lowell
Friday, July 13th, 2012Here’s your Lowell High School timeline:
- 1913 – School moved to new, larger campus on Hayes Street between Masonic Avenue and Ashbury
- 1962 – School moved to current campus to make room for future expansion and add a library, gymnasium and larger auditorium
So this is where Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer actually went to high school, on the #21 Hayes line, back in the 50′s. Now it’s the John Adams Campus of troubled City College of San Francisco.
There are fewer drug dealers hanging about these days, but they’ve been replaced by bike thieves…
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Speaking of which, I think this ride has been abandoned for months now. Oh well:
Oh, here’s what Lowell High School looked like in 1917:
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And here’s the same place today:
See if you can match up the bricks with the shot at the top.
(Not much difference excepting for the Toyotas out front and the bright white racing stripe up high. That’s an ADA-complaint elevator shaft hanging off the side these days, one would think. Probably should have been standing about ten feet to the left – that telephone pole in front of the main entrance on Hayes probably is in the same place today as 1917 so it’d be a good tool for alignment. A tilt-shift lens and/or Photoshop would produce an almost identical image as the 1917 shot.)
Campus Information
Built in 1911 as Lowell High School, the John Adams building consists of 64 classrooms and labs, an auditorium, a state-of-the-art child care center, and offices for counseling and administrative services. At this campus, we offer a variety of credit and noncredit courses and programs. John Adams Campus also houses the Dean’s Office of the School of Health and Physical Education. Our mission here is to assist students in accomplishing their educational goal and to ensure student success.
John Adams Campus
1860 Hayes Street
San Francisco, CA 94117 ► Google Map
- #43 Masonic to Hayes/Masonic
- #21 Hayes to Hayes/Masonic
- #5 Fulton to Fulton/Masonic
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee Doesn’t Really Care About Your Stolen Bicycle – Here’s Why
Thursday, April 19th, 2012Because the issue doesn’t affect him, that’s why.
What he cares about is raising money for elections past and future. That’s about it. Ask him and he’ll tell you – he complains about having to do it all the time.
But if people said “now what are you going to do about bicycle theft” as they handed him their $500 checks at the private parties that you can’t afford to attend, then maybe Mayor Ed Lee would start to care.
But until then, look forward to more of this:
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Oh well.
How Long, on Average, Does The City of San Francisco Leave Vandalized Bikes in Front of Our Flagship Nordstrom Store?
Friday, February 3rd, 2012Now, when I say vandalized, I mean partially stolen. (You see criminals these days don’t actually have the ability to easily steal an entire bicycle with a quickness, so they just take the parts that they want.)
Wheels, headsets, saddles, lights, brakes, cassettes, pedals, handlebars, shifters – they’re all fair game.
So the owners of the bikes come back to the remaining carcass and then say, “Screw it, I’m buying a car,” or whathaveyou.
And then the unusable bikes remain for days, weeks, and months.
See?
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If our dysfunctional City can’t see its way clear to criminalize bike theft, couldn’t it at least haul away the abandoned bike carcasses promptly?
I mean, we’re supposed to be a “world-class City” or something, right?
So how many tens of thousands of tourists have seen this one bike while walking into City Centre mall?
Is that a good thing?
Just asking, Bro.
Bicycle Trilogy: Bicycle Seatpost and Saddle Theft Appears to be on the Rise in San Francisco
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011Or seatpin or saddlepole or whatever you call the tube of metal or whatnot that the little monsters tend to also take when they set out to steal bike parts.
Now this kind of thing just didn’t happen back in the day. The bike thief of the 1990′s would do things proper, he’d take the trouble to first steal a Volvo car jack and then he’d carry it around all over the place hoping for the chance to jack your ride by applying force to your U-lock. Then he’d ride off.
I think I prefer the old-school thieves.
Or maybe this fellow is a stud what doesn’t need a saddle. (Actually I think I recognize him through his shoes.) Anyway, one for the ladies:
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The point is that you’d almost never see this kind of pathetic scene back in the good olde days…
Forgetful Cyclist Makes a Rookie Mistake – Leaves Wheel in Front of the Market Street Nordstroms
Thursday, March 17th, 2011When I was a beginner, I’d do the same thing – I’d go all the way home before remembering my front wheel:
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How embarrassing!
How the Little Monsters Steal Your Trek Bicycle on Market Street: One Part at a Time
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011Appears as if the owner of this electric blue Trek FX or something 7.3 hybrid bike abandoned it after a few parts went missing. And when I say a “few,” I mean just enough, maybe only one thing, to make this particular owner to give up and leave the rest to the midnight vultures of Market Street.
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Note that the pilot took the time to use a proper U lock along with a cable to protect the wheels.
But that’s not enough these days! It’s your headset and your seat and your seatpost – that’s what you need to protect on the mean Streets of San Francisco.
Here’s a shot from a day or two later. The fork and the brakes are now gone too:
The hand tools necessary to crack open the lock or cut the cables, well, they’re too bulky for the little monsters to carry around all the time. But wire cutters and hex tools, your Allen wrench assortment, that’s all you need to operate a bike thief bidness.
I suppose the end to this vignette is the SFPD or DPW coming along to crack the U lock to make room for other pigeons to park their bikes right in front of the Great Nordstrom / Bloomingdale’s Mall of Market Street. You know, to continue the cycle.
On it goes…
Norman Schwarzkopf, something tells me you want to go home
Champagne, bibles, custom clothes you own
