John B. writes:

On Wed, 08 Mar 2017 23:55:23 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Wed, 8 Mar 2017 14:51:14 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

when
parking it at the mall, it's in a place where it's out of sight and
cable locked to secure pipes.

I, on the other hand, look for a place where dozens of people have a
clear view of anyone who might feel like messing with my bike.

I've never had a bike part stolen. Well, not that I remember -- I was
born with chronic amnesia -- but once I came out of Aldi to find that
someone had affixed a five-dollar bill to my handlebars. Since this
was shortly before I gave up trying to find a replacement for my
worn-out Avocet WII and bought the only women's saddle at the
Trailhouse, I suspected that the donor thought that I needed the
money, so I passed it on to someone who did.


I locked my keys in the pickup one day. Parked on a fairly busy street
and was sort of peering in the window trying to figure out if breaking
the window was the only option. A guy walking down the sidewalk says,
"Locked your keys in the car, huh?" I said yes and he popped into a
hardware shop (apparently knew the shop owner) came back with an 18"
steel ruler and popped the lock. I thanked him profusely and got in
and drove away wondering, "could I get a new pickup that way?"

I'm not sure whether being in a crowd is really any protection for a
bicycle :-)

Sometimes it is. Years ago, when I was a gradual student, I was walking
across campus with my girlfriend. She told me to go back the way we had
come -- she had seen someone stealing a bicycle. At first I did not
believe her, because I had noticed nothing. It was the middle of the
day, and there were many people around. She said she had seen him
trying to cut the cable with a pair of dikes, so we turned around, just
in time to see a small and bedraggled looking guy being frogmarched
authority-ward by two burly students.

I assume justice was served.

While one can't rely on bystanders protecting your bicycle, it's a
better bet than imagining that some secluded spot is unpatrolled by
thieves.

--