Peed off.

[tykeboy2003]

Very.

Just been volunteering at the Burton Beer festival and left my bike locked up outside and some ******* has gone through my panniers and nicked my tool kit. This is particularly annoying because they were fairly specific cycling tools like a chain splitter and tyre levers etc which are almost worthless unless you are a cyclist so this was a fellow cyclist who did this to me - git.

[Mike Sales]

Not necessarily a cyclist. A thief will take anything, after all it comes free.
A burglar, amongst other dross, took my ragged pyjamas.

[pwa]

. . . this was a fellow cyclist who did this to me - git.

+1

[foxyrider]

Yes very annoying but why did you leave the bags on the bike?

[tykeboy2003]

Yes very annoying but why did you leave the bags on the bike?

They are not easily removable, the type with the drop down sides. Originally held on with velcro but that was useless so I fastened them on with cable ties. Daft thing is they didn't take my mini pump or spare inner tube which were in there with my tools.

[Audax67]

If it looks as if it might contain anything of value, scum will pinch it. I had a tool kit pinched out of the back of the car as we were unloading after coming home from holidays in 1983. It was in one of those godawful "man-bags" that women were inflicting on their menfolk with at the time**, and I reckon the villain thought to find money, house keys & so forth.

** "Hey, nice toolkit!"
"It's not for that, it's for your money and keys and the other stuff that weighs down your pockets."
"What, so that it can all be pinched at one go?"
(Tense silence.)
"Nice toolkit."

[Flinders]

Very.

Just been volunteering at the Burton Beer festival and left my bike locked up outside and some ******* has gone through my panniers and nicked my tool kit. This is particularly annoying because they were fairly specific cycling tools like a chain splitter and tyre levers etc which are almost worthless unless you are a cyclist so this was a fellow cyclist who did this to me - git.

When I was at art school, someone came in one night and nicked our paints. Which were expensive paints, mark you. It could only have been other art students, who else would want half-used tubes? I felt the same as you- art students with little money stealing off other art students they knew would be no better off- it was sickening. We thought it was students from a local rival art school, but that may have been wishful thinking because we were even less happy about the idea it was one of our own. I had to lock my paints in my paintbox and chain it to the radiator pipes after that. Come to think of it, I still have the box, and still use it. Not bad for well over 30 years....eh, they were built to last in them days....

[eileithyia]

Some years ago I had locked my race bike outside work, I usually had my commute bike and would take bag with all spares, off while working. On this occasion I took the handlebar bag off but forgot the rolled up useless to anyone else tub, and the cheap 'bought from a local garage £5 plastic strapped digital watch' wrapped around the handlebar. At the end of shift both items had gone...... the tub was useless it was merely an old one used as a get out of jail if I have a puncture... and the watch was worthless. They will take anything.

[Tangled Metal]

Freshers week at uni and a few rooms in our block got burgled. They knew who was doing these burglaries but could never catch him. It was a student funding his uni course through nefarious means. Apparently he paid some local kid to climb a drainpipe and climb through a window. Then run round and open the main door to b this student. He then went into the room and nicked what he could. Used to carry it off in the student's own bags.

Then he'd send the kid round the ledge under the windows into the next room's open window and that room would be robbed too. It was only the ground floor that wasn't robbed because nobody on the ground floor is stupid enough to leave a window open. The others just don't expect ppl to climb up. I did but it was a room off ours that had the open window. I always shut my window.

Just because you share some aspect of your behaviour doesn't mean you're safe from a thief. Although a bag left on a bike with nobody near? I'd have got the pump too!

[oldun]

Yes they will take anything .
Many years ago i had a stall at the 3 day Great Dorset steam fair . There was a 20 metre long stall opposite me selling outdoor clothing ,so at night the owner put side and front canvas sheets around the entire stall . He drove 2 stakes into the ground inside his stall ( one at each end ) and put a rope between the 2 so as his large alsatian guard dog could reach anywhere inside the stall whist being tethered to the said rope . When he arrived on the Sunday morning he found a rail of wax jackets had been stolen overnight ,along with ...yep you guessed it ....the guard dog .

On another occasion when i worked the markets in France there was a man demonstrating wet and dry vaccum cleaners . As part of this demonstration he has a grubby sofa that he would clean small patches of with his machine . During the morning he went for a coffee and upon his return his vaccum cleaner was still there but the sofa was not .
Other traders saw 2 men walking through the market with this sofa , but nobody thought it was actually being stolen did they ?

[tatanab]

25 years ago I joined some friends for a pint on the way home from work. I came out of the inner city pub to find my saddlebag open. The contents had been cleared out - that was a couple of days dirty laundry, some decent over trousers and my works pass. I looked along the road and saw a litter bin. On checking, there was my works pass. They did not take the "good" stuff. In the side pockets were my tools etc and on the top of the bag was my cape. The only loss I mourned was the decent over trousers, the thieves were welcome to my dirty underwear.

[Tangled Metal]

My bike got stolen from work with another guys bike. Two bored work colleagues not really paying attention in a meeting saw the guy nick the bikes. Coolly walking past the window out the security gates. Apparently they thought it was a guy (on his own) wheeling a tandem who had got lost and walked round from the other side.

Two handlebars, four wheels and obviously two bikes. Reckon they were too lazy to say anything.

The point is confident thieves just walk out with their ill gotten gains right under the eyes of those around them. We see but don't take in what we're seeing half the time.

[brooksby]

To my eternal shame, I looked out of my bedroom window at godawful o'clock one morning and saw a bloke manhandling my neighbour's small caravan out of their drive and attaching it to his car, then driving away.

Knowing my neighbours, I just assumed they'd lent it to someone (they do that), shrugged and went back to bed.

The next day, my wife informed me that someone had stolen their caravan right off their front lawn!

[Tangled Metal]

Don't worry they'll be insured, but might my afford cover for the replacement afterwards.

TBF PPL often don't realise what they're actually seeing when a robbery / burglary is happening. As a kid our estate (private houses not council houses and some had real money / big houses) had a spate of burglaries over a couple of weeks. Seems the burglars robbed ppl who had left keys in the door. The burglars used a biro glued to the key to unlock the door. They then found spare keys to open the front or garage up and loaded straight into a plain, white van. Ppl saw them but thought they were workmen or delivery ppl taking away something for the owners. After taking what they wanted the locked up and turned the biro before pulling it off the key leaving at most a residue of the glue.

Insurance claims were a bit strained affairs until the police discovered the glue and realised the method of entry. Anyway, my point is they were seen and even said hello to neighbours. They acted in plain view and naturally so ppl didn't see the crime for what it was.

[rmurphy195]

I do know of one (attempted) theft that was by a fellow cyclist.

Many moons ago, when I was baout 13-14 years of age friends and I used to cycle to Elmdon Airport (Now Birmingham, it was much smaller in 64/65!) from our homes near Castle Bromwich - yes, we could do that quite safely in those days.

One evening, as we walked away from out locked-up bikes, I suddenly remembered I hadn't removed my headlight (you know, the old ever-ready ones that fitted on a clunky bracket).

So I went back for it and saw a grown-up removing the lamp - then he started to walk straight towards me.

That's when I found that yelling at the top of my voice, things like "Thief!", "That's Mine!", "Give it back" when there are lots of people about sometimes does work. He shoved the light into my hand and ran off.