More Tales from the Burbs: #stupidalison #sweetpolice #culturalstudies I cant believe this actually happened!! Well - the first part maybe yes: loving riding my brand new bike to the metro and take care to buy an awesome combination lock that I carefully experiment with a couple of times before I leave the house to make sure my secret number is working. At the metro I jiggle the bike in amongst the other bikes and tuck it up nicely up alongside the locking post so kindly provided by Takoma Park. With great care and concentration I loop my wire in a clever way that captures the front wheel, the body and the locking bar - and key in my code secret code and walk away feeling very pleased with myself. I come back 10 hours later and feel pleased again when I see my bike still there, although its at a bit of a weird angle and there is a policeman present who approaches me as I am busy remembering my secret number. Is this your bike? He asks. Yes it is I say. He looks pained, reaches out and tilts it gently away from the bar, revealing the fact that I had carefully locked the NEXT DOOR bike to the bar, and left mine standing freely there all day. Some poor woman had arrived to collect her bike earlier and found it double locked by me! She called the police and the policeman had been standing there for more than an hour waiting for the IDIOT to show up!! Thank god the woman had departed the scene - apparently to fetch a pair of cutters! I cant think of any other place I have ever lived in where this scenario would have played out thus. In the UK the bike would have been quickly nicked by a local. In Zim or South Africa - the bike would have been quickly nicked most likely BY the police to compensate for their lack of official transport. In Thailand my bike might still have been there, but the owner of the other bike would never have called the police, they would be waiting there, guarding my bike and then apologizing to me repeatedly for the inconvenience to me of having to unlock their bike.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 23:19:52 +0000
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