Well, the other day I was struck by hormones like a fastball from a pro baseball pitcher.
I obliged to my rather rare dessert craving and decided to stop at Mission Pie after work to stuff my face with a slice of I’msogonnaeatthiswholethingrightnow.
Anyways, as I was leaving I spotted out of the corner of my eye a bikeshare bike. AH! have yet to see one up close I thought. Immediately noticing something was not right.
It wasn’t the bike that completely gave it away –half covered with a mix of toilet paper and bubblewrap– but the two people walking it, they could hardly finish getting themselves across the sidewalk.
Luckily I had an almost full-charged bat phone.
I gave it a second thought about taking a picture, but then I went for it.
This took me .25 seconds to decide.
These two could HARDLY stand-up straight, nevermind walk. The person in orange with long blond hair almost fell twice sideways but kept his/her hands on the bike grips.
I recall learning that Mission Police Station had a team dedicated to the huge bike-theft problem that the city faces, and that they were on Twitter. I was aware of this thanks to our very own local bike-theft ninja Jenny Oh.
So, I tweeted this photo minutes after spotting the bike on 25th that evening, a couple of days after and few twitter threads later, the bike was back with Bay Area Bike Share.
mi first spotting of stolen 'coverup' @SFBayBikeShare bike? @sfbike @plattyjo @SFPDBikeTheft seen 5mts ago 25th&Capp pic.twitter.com/AHqTxaUi90
— meli × (@meligrosa) September 5, 2013
You can see the thread here → twitter.com/meligrosa/statuses/375445738546675712
“IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING”
+ Follow SDPD on twitter → @SFPDBikeTheft
+ A great interview & tips by Jenny of “SFbiketheft (Officer Freidman!) Who’s SFPDbiketheft? Meet the man behind…
RESOURCEFUL: Learn tips, find links and important info at this large Google+ Bay Area group: [Stolen Bicycles Bay Area, public group]
+ The second recovered BABS bike! via the timbuk2 blog: Recovering a stolen bike 2
+ SAFE & SFPD’s bike program was approved on September 19th –bike registration coming in the near future(!)+ Learn more about Bay Area Bike Share → bayareabikeshare.com
They have continued to provide what seems like active tips on their various social media channels:Tip #6: Never leave a bike unattended. Ride safely, & always wait for the green light when you end the trip. pic.twitter.com/QkYtJX1TWs
— Bay Area Bike Share (@SFBayBikeShare) September 6, 2013
+ Additional info → stolenbicycleregistry.com | @stolenbikessfo on Twitter
Alright, so I was very glad to have contributed my 2 pesos glad to help out & that it worked out.
It has numerous times being proven that great things happen when you mix the Bay Area bike community with social media + word of mouth: pulling positive forces is awesome.
Hope our community continues to communicate & work together to fight bike theft.
And speaking of hormones, here is a pretty picture of flowers from the delicious Mission Pie.
Not taken that same day:
—
This stolen-bikesighting foto was tweeted on the 4th of September.
OK, that is all for now.
xxom
