Bye Bye Bike... Twice

 I have a few moments to spare, so I thought I’d sit and share a while. Today’s post flows from an incident that happened yesterday. It has also happened to me once before, but seemed like a once in a lifetime thing, so I didn’t really expect it to happen again.

See the bike in the photo above? Loved that bike. It took me on some very enjoyable adventures. Know what happened to that bike? It got stolen… off the back of my truck… in a parking lot… while I was at work. This hurt me deeply.

Can we take a moment and have a few seconds of silence for it?

Thank you for your condolences. They are greatly appreciated.

So Anywho! I got another bike for this year at college. Having a broken leg, I figured it would be helpful in that I wouldn’t have to walk as far. I had had this bike for about 2 weeks, and had used it nearly every day. As you read in my last post, it was the rainy season around town two days ago. Because it was raining so hard, I decided to ride my bike. You all know that I came upon the trolly on the way to class and dropped my bike off. What you don’t know is that I had to leave it unlocked. My bike lock fell out of my backpack as I was riding about 4 days ago. :/

“No worries right? Christian campus… secluded location… no reason to think twice about it.”

I came back from class that day and it was doing just fine. I was with a bunch of friends so it would have been awkward for me to just ditch them and ride back to my dorm. I left it there.

“No worries. It will be just fine.”

As morning came yesterday, I hopped in my car and drove to class. I drove right past my bike and it was still there just sitting pretty and shining in the sunlight. I ate lunch, went to my second class, and began to drive back to my dorm. As I came up to where I parked my bike, I saw three kids ride across the street. They were going as fast as they could, so they naturally caught my attention. Having an eye for detail, I just happened to look at the types of bikes they were on. The last kid was riding a bike just like mine! Cool! I guess I picked a good bike after all. That was like the 4th person on campus with the same bike as me…

I keep driving about 10 more feet and looked to see how my bike was doing. To my surprise, it wasn’t there!!!

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! HECK NO… I’m not about to have my bike stolen again!”

I threw my little green minivan into reverse, screeching through the parking lot, I barely missed the kids before they crossed a bridge. I got out of my van and yelled at them.

“Dude! Come on now… Give me my bike back!”

(Like that would actually get them to stop and bring my bike back)

Sure enough, they kept riding. I, once again, threw my vehicle into reverse and rushed out of the lot in an attempt to keep them in my sight. By the time I got onto the main road, I had lost them. I asked one of the guys who heard me yell at them which way they went. He pointed me in the right direction. I sped up and slowed down as I approached each side street, like one of those epic police chases in action movies. Just as I thought I had lost them for good, I caught a glimpse of a tire going around a corner into an appartment complex.

“HAHAHA you little punks are dead!”

Still abiding by road laws, I headed off into their general direction. I almost missed the turn, but was able to skim my van over a section of grass to make it. Ahead in the distance, I saw them! They were quickly running out of road.

‘Muahhahahaha’

They left the road and rode off into the woods. Running out of room to ride, they dumped their bikes and ran for the hills (or houses like 30′ ahead). Still hot to trot, I drove up as close to the trees as I could, hopped out of my van and limped into the tree line like a madman about to cut someones head off with a chainsaw.

“Aha! There it is!”

My bike was dirty from all the mud they rode through trying to escape, but it was still in tact. I snatched it up, walked it back and locked it in my van. Still a tad bit ticked off, I walked back into the woods, grabbed the other kids bike, and tossed it into the river five feet away.

‘That’ll show ‘em! Psh… tryna take my bike. HA! Not this time!’

With that situation now under control, I drove off into the sunset still somewhat stunned by what had just happened. I got out of my van, locked it, and went inside to take a nap. My bike is still (and will remain) locked up in my van until I can get a new lock for it.

That is all.