Win some, lose some

I happened to tell this story to timill a couple of days ago and he suggested I should post it here. It's a bit late now but never mind.

About three weeks ago I was in the front garden starting my motorbike when I noticed something sticking out from under the hedge. So I took a look while the engine was warming up and discovered a large pair of bolt cutters. About a foot away from the large steel chain through the front wheel...

Asked around, turns out it doesn't belong to anyone in the flat below, nor to our neighbours. The theory now is that someone tried to nick the bike during the night, started to mess about with the chain (although there are no marks on it), and got scared off by the bike's alarm or for some other reason. Most likely the alarm, since it's fairly sensitive. The odd part is that nobody heard anything; not me, not anyone in the flat below, and not my neighbours. I suppose that in theory we ought to hand the cutters over to the police as lost property, but we've decided to keep them until someone comes along and asks for them. I somehow suspect it'll be a long wait...

I ought to be smug about that, but unfortunately someone climbed over the wall and nicked a bicycle from the back garden shed last weekend. So it goes.