Hands off - that's mine!

Everything was fine till last month when I came back from India to resume classes at Texas A&M for the Summer semester. I go to the bike rack and my bicycle was missing! Despite the fact that my bike was old and not in perfect condition, I couldn't get over the fact that it was stolen from my own apartment's bike rack where I had locked it tight. But beside worrying about that fact, I didn't take any action towards getting it back primarily because I thought it wasn't worth the effort. Life moved on...

......... a month later ...............

I walk out of Weisenbaker Engineering Building and see my stolen bike locked to the rack there. I was shocked to say the least!! It was now that it dawned to me that I have the University Police to help me out. I called them up and an officer dropped by the location immediately. He asked me about where and when the bike was stolen and after I gave all the necessary info including some unique things about the bike which I had put in, he asked me the all important question - "Did you file a report with us as soon as you noticed your bike was stolen?". I had to sheepishly say "No, I didn't think that would help". At that point he said "Since you don't have solid proof of ownership and also didn't report it stolen a month back, there is no way you can prove this is your bike but we do honor your claim on it". But then since he understood my situation, he gave me an idea. He asked me to lock the bike again to the rack using my own lock so that the person using it can't get away with it. I did that and also put a note on it asking that person to call me. Later that evening I get a call from a student ('X') asking me why I locked "his" bike. I went over there along with a police officer and we talked to him. It turns out 'X' had bought the bike from a person in the apartment next to mine 2 weeks back. So the police officer came to the obvious conclusion that it was stolen from me and then sold to 'X'. Right now, I was going to be given my bike back but the poor student was out of luck as he had bought stolen property without enquiring about the source.

The officer volunteered to visit the place where 'X' had bought my bike and after a few days they caught the thief and were able to get his money back at which point 'X' happily gave me my bike back. Finally, I got my bike back and 'X' didn't undergo any financial loss though his purchase of a bike at a really good price was gone now. So everything is back to normal but I learnt a few important things from this moderately stressful experience :

1. Never refrain from reporting stolen property. It might be your only claim to get it back later. Also engrave your ID number/phone number on it so that you can claim it later.
2. Do not buy stolen property i.e. when buying something make sure the person selling it to you owns it. Get a signed note from him stating that it is not disputed property if he doesn't have proof of ownership.
3. Never leave your property outside when going on vacation. Lock it up indoors so that nobody is tempted to steal it.
4. For all such things, note down the ID number so that you can trace it if its stolen. eg. VIN for cars, serial numbers for bikes, IMEI numbers for mobile phones, etc.

I wrote this hoping others can learn from my experience and be careful. Remember -
"Fool me once, shame on you... Fool me twice, shame on me." --Chinese Proverb

Suresh Balasubramanian

July 9, 2008