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My bike was stolen (2017)

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21–30 of 121 posts

Re: My bike was stolen (2017)

#22
post #12

I like the writing style. Compact sentences. Reminds me of Erlend Loe's first few books.

Same here. I must be jaded because every time I click to read a story like this, I am fully expecting:

"Someone stole my bike. Here's how I got it back.

It was an unexpectedly warm day in the hills of Colorado, back in October of 1967. My father--or, rather the person who would eventually become my father, because he didn't yet know it--relaxed on the porch after finally getting to those weeds his mother had been pestering him to work on. My soon-to-be-mother, or at least the soon-to-be-bride to my father as they'd not met as of yet, rode her bicycle along a well-worn trail just outside the woods of rural Vermont.

Did you know that rural Vermont is where Bernie Sanders was born? Except that's not true because he was actually born in New York City some twenty five years earlier. Twenty-five, incidentally, being the age at which someone is eligible to serve in the United States Congress.

[sixteen paragraphs from the Australian parliament to Kevin Bacon later]

So, anyway, I was able to buy my bike back from the thief on Craigslist. I even negotiated the price down a whole $100!"

Re: My bike was stolen (2017)

#24

I had the same bike stolen twice and was able to find it on Facebook marketplace both times. The key is to file a police report and make sure you have the serial number of the bike. Without these, the police will not help. Once you find your bike, message the person, negotiate, set-up a meet up, and then get the police involved. Although we caught the guys selling the stolen bikes red-handed, the police couldn’t do a…

Convenient how the police just skipped right over how receiving stolen property is a crime.

Re: My bike was stolen (2017)

#26
post #14

I had the same bike stolen twice and was able to find it on Facebook marketplace both times. The key is to file a police report and make sure you have the serial number of the bike. Without these, the police will not help. Once you find your bike, message the person, negotiate, set-up a meet up, and then get the police involved. Although we caught the guys selling the stolen bikes red-handed, the police couldn’t do a…

So the police didn't do any detective work, didn't help with the sting operation, and they didn't punish the thief. It seems like it'd be more fruitful to get a few of your friends and solve the problem yourself. It's not like the thief is going to go to the cops.

One of the hallmarks of a justice system is the presence of a neutral judge and a defense attorney.

Mob violence is most certainly not just.

Re: My bike was stolen (2017)

#28
post #12

I like the writing style. Compact sentences. Reminds me of Erlend Loe's first few books.

I have been experimenting these past few years with an even more condensed style of writing which I have termed "Iceberg Articles".

Here is the iceberg article on the topic of Iceberg Articles:

https://john.kozubik.com/pub/IcebergArticle/tip.html

I think you'll get the idea, but here is another example which is a work in progress:

https://john.kozubik.com/pub/NetworkSlug/tip.html

... and yes, I am aware that the opposite of the "tip" of an iceberg is a "bummock" but I decided to just use "body".

Re: My bike was stolen (2017)

#29
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the police didn't do any detective work, didn't help with the sting operation, and they didn't punish the thief. It seems like it'd be more fruitful to get a few of your friends and solve the problem yourself. It's not like the thief is going to go to the cops.

One of the hallmarks of a justice system is the presence of a neutral judge and a defense attorney. Mob violence is most certainly not just.

Also the presence of an executive part of the government which enforces law. If that is missing, the justice system is broken just the same. I don't understand why often we find it unfair when mob justice is administered (and it is unfair) but we don't find unfair that the police refuses to administer justice.

Re: My bike was stolen (2017)

#30
I know of someone who, during the pandemic, noticed a certain homeless encampment that regularly had $8K bikes lying around. Because a homeless person would certainly possess a six-month-old carbon World Cup race bike.

The person went to the camp regularly for a while, with a baseball bat, and retrieved bikes. They had 5 in the garage at one point. Doing so was more hassle, though, once they were in possession, than just letting people with such bikes file insurance claims and what-not.

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