Blog - Au voleur! Stolen bike...

Au voleur! Stolen bike...

My bike was stolen today!
I left it for about half an hour, locked, while I went shopping a bit, and when I got back to where I had left it, it was gone!

Here, it's common for your bike to be confiscated if parked in an area where parking is prohibited (this never happened to me yet though). However, people are always parking their bikes there.

Today I had parked in an area for a bank's customers, which is however prohibited on weekends, though many bikes were there already.
When I got back, I first thought that it may have been confiscated because of that, but the other bikes were still there, and the board indicating the date when they last confiscated bikes said August 1, so I assumed that it wasn't the case.

Then I assumed that it must have been stolen. I use a chain with a number lock, and I guess I'm guilty of locking it a bit carelessly, only spinning one or two of the digits slightly...

So I went to the kōban (small police office) to signal the disparition. I had to bring a paper that you get when you buy a bike, which indicates the serial number, invoice number, owner's name, etc.
For the first time I had to sign with a fingerprint, usual practice in Japan for those who forgot their hankō (stamp of their own name used as signature) or don't have one, but this practice is generally a bit dreaded by foreigners since in other countries (North America at least) only fingerprints of criminals are taken. Personally I don't care much though.

I hope I will hear back from them, but I guess chances are thin, so I might as well start looking for a new bike. :(

Posted on August 3, 2003 at 16:59 | Tweet |

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