Yesterday, after waiting for them to get something the right size in, I bought a refurbished bike from the Oxford Cycle Workshop around the corner. I was very happy with the purchase, and put it next to C's bike at the back of the house. This morning when I got up it had been stolen.
I hadn't locked it up as the D-lock I have wouldn't go around the bike shelter pole - I figured I'd get a chain lock today - and C had been leaving her bike unlocked for months without a problem. But I had been warned by everyone about the bicycle thieves in Oxford, and it seems they are both discerning of quality and very quick off the mark. That's a lesson I won't forget! (I actually had a thought just before I went to sleep that I should have used the D-lock around the wheel, though with half-asleep logic I was worried about the wheels being stolen.)
I've reported the theft to the police - who were very friendly and efficient - and there is a number engraved on the frame, but I don't hold much hope for ever seeing it again, even though my sister says they once got a stolen bike back.
Friends of ours had a brand-new barbecue stolen from their back yard the day they bought it, so opportunistic theft is obviously a problem. On the other hand, not a single house in this area has bars on the windows - unlike where we were in Sydney, where half the houses or more did - so break-and-enter must be a lot less common. (Possibly there is some kind of building regulation prohibiting bars, as it seems extraordinary that no one at all has them.)
Update (August 2011): Oxford Times story on bicycle theft hotspots
I think the bars thing is a fire safety regulation. It's a good one to have, too, since it means nobody can have bars and you don't get the arms race you get on Sydney streets.
Holly also had a bike stolen in similar circumstances. Get insurance if your bike is valuable. A lock helps ;)
Also it might be because most places have double glazing. Apparently it's harder to break in through a double glazed window.
Sorry to hear about your bike.
I don't think the place we're in has double glazing - the best the central heating can do seems to be to keep it about 5 degrees warmer than outside!
Fire safety is the reason we don't have bars on the upstairs windows in our place in Sydney, but unless one deadlocks the doors I wouldn't have thought the downstairs windows would be an issue (at least in a terrace where the only exit options are at the front and back).
Your piece of bad luck reminds me of an arty classic flick The Bicycle Thief of the late 1940s.
http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~vasc/bicycle_thief.html
In the late 1950s the film had a re-run or first release in Hong Kong. It had lavish praise from the Chinese press ( I could only read Chinese then). Outside of the cinema,there was a giant billboard with a real bicycle attached to it,to spruik the film. The billboard and the film's title in Chinese never failed to attract my attention as I travelled pass on the tram time after time. It was becoming something enigmatic to me.
I did not see the film, and I don't think I was old enough to understand it even I had a chance. I had literally waited for decades before it was on show on SBS. But I couldn't stay up late for it. It was a shame.
Comments on the film, anyone ?
Had my bike stolen off Cowley road in similar circumstances a few months ago. It was a nice bike by Oxford standards, and only locked to itself. InNow have a rubbish-but-serviceable bike like everybody else. Theft - reducing inequality!
[…] years. That includes three bikes - two secondhand three-speeds bought for £110 each (the first was stolen the day I bought it) and a fully-fitted 8-speed city bike bought new online for £295 - assorted parts - a pannier bag, […]