Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[Ancient Otter]

Arrived home this evening and as I'm parking the Landy I notice it's sounding off.. Like something is loose under the bonnet.. snip

Fan-fucking-tasting.

I hear you man, the amount of bad luck my family and friends had with cars....did you have it for long?

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Had a bit of a nosebleed at work on Wednesday at 02:20 and I'm still in hospital now!
I'm so bored and I missed my Wednesday visit to the comic shop for the Prog. I'm hoping that when the specialists look at it today that I'll. Be closer to going home, as 24 hours with a tampon up your nose is not fun

[Pete Wells]

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I just knew that was gonna be there when your name came up Mr Wells

[Michaelvk]

Arrived home this evening and as I'm parking the Landy I notice it's sounding off.. Like something is loose under the bonnet.. snip

Fan-fucking-tasting.

I hear you man, the amount of bad luck my family and friends had with cars....did you have it for long?

3 months or so.. Thing that annoys me most is that I had told them about The Leaky Thing and they did bugger all about it, telling me it's fine.. I had one go on me before, but as these guys were highly recommended by two colleagues, I took it in good faith they knew what they were doing.. So I'm not sure if it was proper incompetence, general indifference or they didn't feel like being told how to do their job by some English sounding long haired twat.. Either way, I'm having to put a 'new' engine in my beloved Land Rover. Don't get me started on the massive inconvenience of not having my own vehicle.. Yes, I probably should've known better and should've checked the oil level more dilligently, but when it's not pumping black smoke out the back and isn't leaking, then there's no reason for me to worry if they've assured me it's not leaking anymore..As it turns out it wasn't leaking because there was no sodding oil in it..

[TordelBack]

Be closer to going home, as 24 hours with a tampon up your nose is not fun [/color]

Some folk pay good money for that sort of thing.  Hope you're already on your way home and none the worse for it.

[Charlie boy]

Had a bit of a nosebleed at work on Wednesday at 02:20 and I'm still in hospital now!
I'm so bored and I missed my Wednesday visit to the comic shop for the Prog. I'm hoping that when the specialists look at it today that I'll. Be closer to going home, as 24 hours with a tampon up your nose is not fun

Did the specialist say it wouldn't bleed so much if you kept your finger out of it?

[Noisybast]

Hope you're on the mend, John.

So, here's the thing: Since my bike was nicked, I've been making some enquiries of my own. Two days after it went, I Googled "second hand bikes Liverpool" and paid a visit to the first place that came up. The guy told me he'd not had anyone try to sell a bike, but that if I gave him a description, he'd keep an eye out. I gave him the make & model, he replied "Is it a black one?" and proceeded to identify a fairly specific chain defect that had been bugging me for about a week. Turns out some little scrote had been in and had it adjusted that afternoon. He didn't have a name, but he gave a description and said he was pretty sure he's local.

A couple of times since then, I've been for a casual drive around the area. On Monday, I saw him. About 16 or 17, shaved head, black tracksuit, sitting on my bike in the street. Sadly, he was not alone and I was not prepared. I've held off on posting anything, as I wasn't sure how I was going to proceed. As it turns out, I've been brow-beaten by my girlfriend and mother into giving the details to the police and letting them handle it. I don't expect to hear from them again, but it has removed the option of going Full Burdis on the little shit.

What's upset me most is how everyone around me has insisted from the start that I should just accept having my property stolen and give up trying to track it down. "It's OK. It's only a bike". My girlfriend in particular has been very keen to stress the futility and hopelessness of the whole thing and has been a strong advocate for shutting the fuck up and letting it go. I can't - It's important not to let them get away with it. I need to do *something*.

Am I the freak here?

[Ancient Otter]

A couple of times since then, I've been for a casual drive around the area. On Monday, I saw him. About 16 or 17, shaved head, black tracksuit, sitting on my bike in the street. Sadly, he was not alone and I was not prepared. I've held off on posting anything, as I wasn't sure how I was going to proceed. As it turns out, I've been brow-beaten by my girlfriend and mother into giving the details to the police and letting them handle it. I don't expect to hear from them again, but it has removed the option of going Full Burdis on the little shit.

What's upset me most is how everyone around me has insisted from the start that I should just accept having my property stolen and give up trying to track it down. "It's OK. It's only a bike". My girlfriend in particular has been very keen to stress the futility and hopelessness of the whole thing and has been a strong advocate for shutting the fuck up and letting it go. I can't - It's important not to let them get away with it. I need to do *something*.

Am I the freak here?

If it that simple to prove it is your bike (like you know the frame serial number off the top of your head) I can't see why the police can't sort out a easy arrest, you've done all the detective work for them! Keep saying it to the police.  For safety's sake I wouldn't advise confronting any scumbag over it though.

[Hawkmumbler]

Noisybast is, The Sweeny!
Great tale there nb, have to say though, good on you for doing the head hunting. The police should honestly have no excuse for not making an arrest with this much evidence, can the mechanic act as a pseudo-witness?

[Noisybast]

He's already confirmed to the police what he saw. The officer I spoke to (before I spotted the bike myself) was still doubtful, saying even if the bike turned up, it basically came down to my word against the thief's.

The second officer I spoke to (post-sighting) was slightly more positive, citing my recent and distinctive customisations to the bike as things that might help to ID the bike. We'll see what happens.

[TordelBack]

Am I the freak here?

Not a bit of it: it is 'only a bike', but that doesn't mean it isn't important.  Broken window syndrome applies if nothing else.  But as Otter says, keep working on the police, don't put yourself in harm's way.  Eventually it will become more annoying for them to deal with you than to arrest a scrote.

[A.Cow]

It's important not to let them get away with it. I need to do *something*.

If it that simple to prove it is your bike (like you know the frame serial number off the top of your head) I can't see why the police can't sort out a easy arrest, you've done all the detective work for them! Keep saying it to the police.  For safety's sake I wouldn't advise confronting any scumbag over it though.

Are you certain he's the actual thief?  Having worked in Bootle for years I'd admit that 99% of Scouse scallies would buy blatant stolen property.  However, there's always the chance he's the other 1% and an innocent party.

Failing that you could ambush him in a darkened alley, kneecap him and apply a generous Deep Heat enema.  He won't forget that in a hurry.  Nor will he be riding any bicycles soon thereafter.  (I've got a loaded syringe ready-prepared, just in case I ever bump into that twat Sc*j*.)

[Noisybast]

Are you certain he's the actual thief?

Well, there's the rub. While he's *definitely* riding my bike, I had already considered the possibility that he didn't actually take it. He could just as easily be someone whose dad bought a cheap bike from a bloke in the pub (Yes, I know - the chances of him ever having met his dad are remote at best). That's why every more... proactive version of the plan involved firmly but non-violently taking my property back from him and getting the hell out of there, avoiding any fighty unpleasantness all costs. Besides anything else, I might *look* big and scary, but I've never been one for getting punched...

[radiator]

I lost my faith in the police years ago.

When I was a student, I was walking home from a bar one night with my girlfriend and we were followed home by a gang of chavs who then proceeded to attack us on our doorstep.

I managed to fend off the two weasels attacking me long enough for our friendly neighbor to shout at them and tell them she was calling the police, at which point they legged it.

When the police arrived, they took a statement, but treated us in an extraordinarily patronising manner. They repeatedly tried to get us to admit that we had somehow antagonised the gang - that they must have been the bar we were in, and we must have had some kind of altercation with them prior. No, we replied - they were just scumbag street urchins who were roaming the streets looking for innocent victims to prey on. The fat old rozzer seemed almost amused by this, and cheerfully informed us that in all his years on the force, he'd never known people to just attack others for no reason. I was astounded, as in the shithole of a town we lived at the time, incidents like this would happen to us or people we knew almost on a weekly basis the whole time we lived there.

Then a few days later, my girlfriend saw the girl who had attacked her in the town. She approached a nearby policewoman, who refused to do anything but write this news down in her little notebook.

Doesn't it make you feel safe?