NationStates Jolt Archive

Canadian police have caught the man believed to be the world's most prolific bike thief, after they recovered 2,865 stolen bicycles from the owner of a Toronto bike shop.

Link (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/26/canada)

Kenk was arrested on July 18, when Toronto police, noticing that bike theft had spiked sharply in June, planted bicycles on the streets and watched to see who stole them. As plain clothes officers hid in wait, Kenk and another man walked past. Kenk seemed to tell his companion to cut the locks on two bikes, which he did, before the pair attempted to pedal away.

Yet the question tearing at your brain is why? Why in God's name why?

Though Kenk's motive is currently unclear, the New York Times reported that police believe he may have been playing the commodities markets, waiting for another spike in metal prices before melting down the bicycles.

Interesting plan.

When police raided the Bicycle Clinic, the shop was so jam-packed that the fire service had to remove the upper-floor windows and lower the bikes out by rope. Later, 200 more bikes were seized in Kenk's home, along with large quantities of drugs, in a smart neighbourhood in Toronto. Ten landlords around the city also reported that they had rented garages to Kenk, which were chock-full of bikes.

What's the worst thing you've had stolen from you?

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/6264/stolevv4.gif

What's the worst thing you've had stolen from you?
My sanity?

(Hopefully my bike's still there, though!)

He needs to move on to pirate gold. If there's ever anything worth stealing, it's pirate gold.

Oh, someone stole my left sock once. Imagine the mailce, the sheer inhospitality, that it takes to steal a mans sock.

I've lost several bicycles because of theft, but I lost more because of mechanical breakdown.

What's the worst thing you've had stolen from you?

Umm my dignity?

No nooo my base guitar!

My dignity and my self-esteem. I still ain't got them back.

Having lived in Cambridge, this doesn't surprise me at all. And, true to form, my first bike was stolen within two weeks of buying it. Next one has lasted a lot longer, probably due to it looking like it's about to fall apart at any minute.

My sanity

My sanity?

(Hopefully my bike's still there, though!)

I didn't steal it! I commandeered it. :)

Capitalist modes of production and private ownership are inherently based on theft from workers on a staggering scale so I hardly think an individual "stealing" a few bikes is particularly notable or commentworthy.

*Insert more commie twaddle, probably mentioning "false consciousness" and "alienation from species being"*

Twice I have had TI-82 calculators stolen out of my back-pack, but oh well those were so long ago... Although, my family usually hoards my time; which is harder to replace.

Someone stole the rear tire off of my bike once...not sure why. There's not exactly a thriving black market for ten year old rear bike tires for a specific make of bike in Columbus...

My sanity
Beat you to it.
I didn't steal it! I commandeered it. :)
But apparently, it wasn't stolen.

You just borrowed it for a little while, right? Right? http://www.long-tom.de/smilies/3d/zweifel.gif

*takes his sanity back and takes off* http://www.studip.uni-goettingen.de/pictures/smile/bye.gif

When they Dutch play Germany at football, they sing 'give us back our bicycles', cos apparently the Germans stole all their bicycles during the 2nd WW..

Is this true?

These days Dutch football (that's soccer for our American cousins) fans tend to paint themselves in the colours of our royal house (orange) and our national flag (red, white and blue), I wouldn't know what they sing these days in the stadiums.

What's the worst thing you've had stolen from you?
In 1985 our house was burgled while we were away on holiday and all of the jewellery (a lot of which was extremely old and had already been inherited by a few generations, so technically I guess some of it was 'mine') was stolen. I was a fairly disinterested teenager about the whole thing at the time but, with hindsight, it was pretty bad. None of it was recovered.

This July my wife had 2 large cardboard boxes full of broken electrical goods (all those broken hairdryers, toasters, portable TVs/videos etc. that inexplicably pile up in the attic wherever I live) stolen from the boot of her car whilst she was out for a coffee en route to the local recycling facility. Those are the best things we've had stolen :tongue:

When young, my father used to drop by the garage after picking us up from school on the way home from work - we'd get 20p to buy sweets or comics and, back in the day, we used to love these plastic pipes that you'd fill with sherbet and suck through.

So my brother and I were sitting on the garage shop steps, smoking our pipes like two old grampas while we watched this guy get into our car and drive off.

When my father came out he was all 'dudes, where's my car?', so we told him some guy had driven off in it.

I mean, we didn't really question the world of adults at that age.

Umm my dignity?

No nooo my base guitar!

Pfft. Some mother fucker stole my air guitar.

When they Dutch play Germany at football, they sing 'give us back our bicycles', cos apparently the Germans stole all their bicycles during the 2nd WW..

Is this true?
I believe it is.

I'm not sure if it was during the war (Some dictatorship thing or metal needed)

or on the retreat.
(So they could Ride like hell from the Allies)

A car. It was a 1962 VW Bug. It was red with a blue hood and a wooden bumper. The passenger door had to be held closed with a rope. It caught fire every now and then because the battery was under the back seat and when the metal spring touched the battery terminal it would send out sparks and touch off the straw-like stuff that filled the seat. It also only had about 2 1/2 gallons in the tank. The police found it about 100 miles away with only half a gallon left in the tank. I have no idea why anyone wanted to steal it. I was really hoping that the police wouldn't find it. My insurance was ready to give me $2500 for it.

A car. It was a 1962 VW Bug. It was red with a blue hood and a wooden bumper. The passenger door had to be held closed with a rope. It caught fire every now and then because the battery was under the back seat and when the metal spring touched the battery terminal it would send out sparks and touch off the straw-like stuff that filled the seat. It also only had about 2 1/2 gallons in the tank. The police found it about 100 miles away with only half a gallon left in the tank. I have no idea why anyone wanted to steal it. I was really hoping that the police wouldn't find it. My insurance was ready to give me $2500 for it.

I fucking want that car.

When they Dutch play Germany at football, they sing 'give us back our bicycles', cos apparently the Germans stole all their bicycles during the 2nd WW..

Is this true?

The previous generations (those who experienced WWII and the first post-war) did so, but that's a bit stale these days.

Nowadays, we just scorn them for the bomb craters they dig into our beaches. :D

I fucking want that car.

Sorry, after four years of benign neglect, it threw a rod.

Sorry, after four years of benign neglect, it threw a rod.

God damnit, I DEMAND this car!

my virginity.

Tons of Beach stuff when I was really little, also my wallet, both on vacations, a gameboy as well.

It's not stealing !
It's the select redistribution of possessions