Just so we’re clear, sneaking into a yard that isn’t yours and stealing someone’s bike is not okay… especially when the person you stole it from is a kick-ass human being who genuinely gets a lot of joy out of riding his bike. I don’t know what your circumstances are and why you felt that your best choice last night was to take my roommate’s bike, but it was a really shitty thing to do and you totally ruined an otherwise great day. —Next Time Pick On A Bike-Abusing Asshole
This article appears in Aug 22-28, 2013.
Could be that this person didn’t have bus fare as was downtown the eve prior. Spent all his money drinking too much hootch and needed to get to work, so as not to get fired,(being warned too many times), when the shift is over the bike will return. I hear ya, almost had my motorcycle stolen years ago.
Eff off Klyde!! OP tell your friend to post a recent picture of his bicycle on facebook, let it go viral. If he does he has a very good chance to get it back, as I have seen this work against all odds a few times in the past year.
Klyde- Does your theory work with “borrowing” a car for the day, or “borrowing” some ones motorcycle? Can you “borrow” a bus too?
OB- Thats harsh and I sympathize. I’m an avid cyclist and my bike is my best friend.
I’m going to take a s.w.a.g. and suggest that Klyde was being sardonic.
Pretty sure his last sentence was sincere, though.
O.P., thieves do indeed suck.
I looked up sardonic (I fucking love new words too), and you may be correct. No one click “like” on my above comment until we have proper confirmation.
Too late. >: (
What can I say, I like your material.
All good, I just clicked “dislike” on all my comments to make up for it.
In my half awake semi imaginative mind I commented what came to my mind…Indeed it was semi sardonic as well as off the wall theories. I have had my bicycle stolen, another one run over and almost had my motorcycle swiped, not to mention 2 cars of mine being stolen…found one at Misty Moon on Kempt rd. the other in Truro. I truly feel for OP, and my last sentence was indeed sincere….thanks Ivan for seeing beyond words.
When my stuff was stolen, I tried to picture someone just borrowing it, gave me a sense of hope to have it returned.
There is no honor among thieves, was hoping this person would be a good Samaritan and return it. I don’t condone stealing on any level.
Nukka , I’ll be the first to let you borrow anything from me, just ask me first.
Their circumstances were that they saw a bike unguarded and just acted out of greed because thieves are very shallow people.
A TAXONOMY OF PROPERTY OWNERSHIP
The poster is clearly disturbed over the theft of his friend’s bike. But why was he disturbed? He was disturbed because the bike was his friend’s property. But what is property anyway? Is it a homogeneous concept? I think not. In fact, I have pondered the concept and come up with a graduated taxonomy of property ownership. The central criterion is the degree to which the property in question relates to the identity of the property owner. I see four principal categories.
(1) Property as Exchange Value: Think of the $10 note in your wallet. It is not valued for its own sake but rather for the goods and services for which it can be exchanged. In a sense it is not “property” at all since it has no intrinsic but only an instrumental value. Food and clothing fall into this category as well unless, of course, one is a glutton or a slave to fashion in which case it relates closely to the identity of the property owner.
(2) Property in the Form of Personally Meaningful Objects: There is a range of property in this category depending upon the intensity with which the object is associated with the identity of the owner. The friend’s bike, since it is viewed as an extension of himself, at least to some degree, and so it is personally meaningful. Cars fall into the same category. The highest form of property as a meaningful object, however, is one’s house. One’s house – not one’s apartment but one’s house – is both objectively and subjectively where one lives. It is the object with which one’s identity is most closely associated.
(3) Property in the Form of Animate Life: As we ascend the taxonomy of property ownership we pass from the category of inanimate objects to that of animate life. Here property ownership is usually in the form of pets of varying descriptions. Within this category there are clear distinctions. Ownership of a dog, for example, trumps ownership of a snake or bird. However, property in the form of animate life does not extend up to that of property in other human beings. That, for example, is why slavery in whatever form is so abhorrent.
(4) Property in the Form of Thought and Experience: Here we have attained the highest form of property, that which is not simply associated with one’s identity but rather is constitutive of it. As in the case of #1, it is only in an extended sense that one’s own ideas and experiences can be called “property” at all since to say so presupposes some further entity who possesses those thoughts and experiences, a further entity which does not in fact exist. For better or for worse, we ARE our thoughts and experiences.
But does this taxonomy of property ownership help the poster to overcome his anger at the bicycle thief? No it does not. Do I care? No, I don’t. I do not want to take ownership of that.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/08/26/ka…
Was it locked? Why was it outside?