[nyanmatt]

I had this really nice bike once. Bought it in Japan, shipped it home — it really meant a lot to me.

It was chained to the back of our camper, as we toured the country living on the road. My now deceased dog and I put a lot of miles on that bike across the USA, him running alongside bursting with joy.

It was 2017, and we were camped in Santa Paula. Dec. 4th the Thomas Fire exploded as the largest wildfire in California. We had to evacuate for over a month. They let us into the area after 2-weeks to get some belongings.

Bike thieves had come through and stolen everyone’s bikes. Someone took advantage of a catastrophe to steal one of my most precious belongings…

I have zero sympathy for bike thieves. One of the lowest things you can do is steal someone’s bike.

(Edit: profanity removed after calming down)

[probably_wrong]

> Someone took advantage of a catastrophe to steal one of my most precious belongings…

This is the type of stuff that one would expect to happen centuries ago, like piracy, only to find out it's still alive and kicking. Quoting from chapter XIX of "Les Misérables" (1862):

> Every army has a rear-guard, and it is that which must be blamed. Bat-like creatures, half brigands and lackeys; all the sorts of vespertillos that that twilight called war engenders; wearers of uniforms, who take no part in the fighting; pretended invalids; formidable limpers; interloping sutlers, trotting along in little carts, sometimes accompanied by their wives, and stealing things which they sell again; beggars offering themselves as guides to officers; soldiers’ servants; marauders; armies on the march in days gone by,—we are not speaking of the present,—dragged all this behind them, so that in the special language they are called “stragglers.” No army, no nation, was responsible for those beings; they spoke Italian and followed the Germans, then spoke French and followed the English. (...)

> Nevertheless, on the night from the 18th to the 19th of June, the dead were robbed. Wellington was rigid; he gave orders that any one caught in the act should be shot; but rapine is tenacious. The marauders stole in one corner of the battlefield while others were being shot in another.

[nicbou]

There was a wave of rapes in areas the Red Army liberated from the Germans. The frontoviki where allegedly fine, but those who followed were looting and raping their way through.

[RunSet]

I find it interesting how legislation is used to effect privileged classes of transportation and transportation owners.

Stealing is a crime almost everywhere, but in the old west, horse theft was a hanging crime. Similarly, motor vehicle theft carries a more severe penalty than stealing a bicycle of equivalent value.

The shoes remain as mismatched when they swap feet: Killing someone with a motor vehicle, sober or drunk, typically carries less severe consequences than doing it with your bare hands.

[loeg]

Yeah. There's a reason for the "Death to bike thieves" slogan.