Working Long Hours

Photo by umjanedoan

Being a lawyer can be a busy occupation sometimes.  I have fallen into a dark, bottomless pit teething with the dreaded serpents of long hours and pressing deadlines this past week, so I have unfortunately neglected this blog.  And I would have continued to neglect this blog had I not seen a glimmer of hope this morning in my war against bike thievery.  Last week, I reported on a Rocky Mountain Soul that had appeared unlocked one morning at my bike rack - a notorious hiding place for stolen bicycles.  I had assumed that it was stolen. 

This morning, that bike reappeared, again unlocked.  However, now I'm not so sure the bike is stolen.  To set the scene a little, I usually lock up my bike with both a u-lock and a cable lock while I'm at work.  Unless I have to take my bike somewhere the next morning before coming to work, I'll leave both of those heavy, cumbersome locks attached to the bike rack so I don't have to schlep them around.  That's what I did last night. 

This morning, the owner (thief?) of the Rocky Mountain Soul, who apparently can't scrape together a few dollars to buy his own lock, carefully draped my cable lock over the handlebars of his bike in order to create the impression that his bike was in fact locked to the rack.  I suppose that, viewed from afar, he indeed created that impression.  Maybe that is enough to deter thieves in Milwaukee.  I don't know.  It certainly wouldn't keep a bike from getting stolen where I'm from. 

I felt terrible when I had to yank my cable lock off of the Rocky Mountain in order to lock up my own bike this morning.  I hope it doesn't get stolen, and if it's already a stolen bike (we haven't ruled that out yet), then I hope it doesn't get stolen again.  Two wrongs don't make a right.