Thursday, August 29, 2013

MY bike!!!

i showed you the I Amsterdam sculpture already... but this photo also has my bike on it. its one of the few photos with my bike in amsterdam, and there wont be any more as my bike was stolen this week.... :(( buhuhuhuhuh. all those years i lived in utrecht i never had my bike stolen, while i parked it everywhere. i was however always careful to lock it to something you cannot move (like one of the many bridges or a streetlight, sometimes hard to find, as all dutch cities are literally flooded with bikes attached to things that cannot move), and then i used an additional lock to attach my front wheel to my frame (and if possible, would lock that also to something that cannot move). 
i didnt yet have the second lock since i live in amsterdam. but i just went out for a bit, parked my bike at the subway station, locked it with the simple bike lock that every bike has and an additional one attached to the bridge. when back, that lock was still hanging there, but my bike was nowhere to be found.... :( buhuhuhuhuhuh. i was so happy with the pink basket on the front (i had found it at a trash receptacle, perfect for my american water bottle), and look at the saddle bags!! this was MY bike and someone thought they could just take it and did that..... in broad daylight!! :(((( in the days since i have been looking everywhere to see if if my bike is standing around, but ofcourse it isnt. i looked on the internet if someone offered it for sale (thats how someone recently found her bike, and the thief, back), but no luck of course.... 
so... if you have seen this bike. its MINE. if you took it, bring it back, its not yours!! according to the internet, there are approximately 18 million bikes in the netherlands (1.1 bikes per inhabitant), and many of them are stolen each year. the exact number is hard to determine, as most people dont even file a report. i got a new one already... as well as 2 big locks.....

5 comments:

Jack said...

CaT, this is distressing. Stealing a double-locked bicycle? I am so sorry for you. I have such high regard for the Dutch . . . they don't seem like thieves.

Kay said...

That really stinks! What a nasty "welcome home." So sorry to read this!

CaT said...

yes, unfortunately bike theft is a huge problem in the netherlands... :( it happens a LOT. for many people its the most (and often only) mode of transportation, so its good business...

biebkriebels said...

Oh that is bad, but you know about the new rules about parking bikes? Speciale fietsenverwijderaars met vrachtwagens knippen de fietsen los als ze ergens staan wat niet geoorloofd is. Ze worden naar een depot ergens in een buitengebied gebracht, waar je ze weer tegen betaling van een boete kunt ophalen.
http://www.amsterdam.nl/parkeren-verkeer/fiets/fietsdepot/
Kijk hier eens.

Wayne said...

It sounds like the bike thief story from Vancouver has gone global.

We know who steals the bikes. What I'm always curious about is who buys them. Bike thieves are sketchy characters, not the sort most people would want to do business with.