Sunday Focus: Bike Thieves

     A story from Canada reminded me of two bikes I've had stolen over the years.
     The woman in Canada made news because she stole her bike back after she saw it advertised in Craigs List. Yes!
     The same thing happened in Columbus Ohio in June.
      I kinda did the same thing when I was in about the 7th grade and someone stole my bike.
      I'll admit the memory of the incident is a bit fuzzy....but I believe I somehow found out who had taken it and a friend or two of mine went with me to the thief's house and basically told him to hand it over. He did. Power in numbers.
    Armando Scotia is the name I remember....'62 or so...Queens, NY? Armando, where are you now?
    Later, in the 70's, using a bike to get back and forth from my three part time jobs, I locked it in the basement of the building on the Upper West Side that was the location of an Audio-Video job. They simply cut the chains and walked away with it. I took a subway home, and it wasn't long after that when I moved to Alabama.
     And it may have been a good thing. New York seems to be a kind of mecca for bike theft. Every respondent in a 1990's survey reported having at least one bike stolen!

Fairview Avenue, 2013

     I haven't owned more than one bike in Alabama...and none in Montgomery. But Fall is in the air, a perfect Season for biking in a relatively flat environment.
 
  But be careful! Cars and trucks are a lot heavier and you'll likely lose any physical confrontation with them!

[Sunday Focus is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]