ALERT!!! LOCK IT OR LOOSE IT!!!

[fastwin]

I was at my farm today when I got the dreaded voice mail message. The manager of the rental storage units where I keep some of my bikes called and said to please call her immediately, it was urgent. Oh s#@t!!! You can imagine what was going through my mind. When I finally got through to her it was what I thought. My unit had been burglarized along with others and they wanted to know what might be missing. I had five bikes in there. The 916SPS, 996S, S2R1000, Back in Black Sports 1000 and my Hayabusa. From their screwed up description of the crime scene it sounded like the 996S was gone but the others were still there.

You can imagine the foul language that flowed from my mouth during the two and a half hour drive home! When I got there I could not believe my eyes!! All my bikes were still there!! They had not bothered cutting my two high dollar disc locks on the roll up door, they went for the sliding latch they were locked to instead. Apparently that's no problem, that's not encouraging. They found the Mother Lode in my unit but they were soon discovered by a fellow renter going to his unit about 8:00pm last night. He saw they were up to no good and hit them with his high beams and honked liked crazy. They went flying over the fence and were gone. Good work dude!!

Well, sort of. They wanted my bikes so bad they went down the street and stole a huge rental box van from the Public Storage units. They cut their fence and broke into the truck, busted the steering column, hot wired it and drove it down the street and crashed through the gate of my storage complex and parked it in front of my unit. What balls!! They were busted and run off by the honking good Samaritan but they came back a second time for my bikes just an hour later!!

I have all my bikes locked with HUGE On Guard locking cables through the front and rear wheels of every bike. I also have every bike locked the same way to every other bike. They are all linked together and all their wheels are solidly locked. You can't just take one. Try moving five 500+ lb bikes all locked together with wheels that don't turn. Good luck!

They tried to cut the monster cables but had no luck. They had the truck with the door up and the ramp down on the ground but they could not cut any of my bikes free. Even if they had it would have been a giant pain in the ass to drag any of my bikes (with both wheels still securely cabled) out of the unit and up the ramp and into the van. I might have even paid money to sit back and watch that comedy of errors. Of course that would be right before I shot them in the ass with buckshot!! Bastards.

The point of this little tail is you had better re-think your bike securing techniques. That is what saved my ass pure and simple. Having worked for State District Criminal Court judges for years and having dealt with literally tens of thousands of felony defendants you start to think like one when it comes to personal defense and crime prevention. My bike lock down method kept my bikes from being stolen. I will invest in even more of those locking cables to make it even harder in case there is ever a next time.

My bikes are secured in my home garage exactly as they are in the remote storage unit. I can't tell you how many people I know that do not lock up their bikes just because they think they are "safe in my garage". You are wrong. BAD WRONG. I know way too many folks who have had their bikes stolen out of their garage, some even while they were home! Park your car outside with the garage door remote in it? Oops! Your mistake, big time. Have your electric garage door "emergency release" cord still attached and hanging down inside your garage? Want me to show you how fast I can break into your garage from the outside with a straightened coat hanger "fishing" for that cord through the upper door crack. You wouldn't like the results. Take the freaking cord off right now!!!! Oh, and lock up your bikes. It's a fact, they are not "safe in your garage".

Good luck out there people. 

[Cher]

Man, what an incredibly bad story.  I'm glad the swine weren't able to get anything of yours; hopefully they'll get caught 

And I think I'll look into a better way to keep our bikes safe at home; thanks for the "wake-up call."  Sorry you had to go through this tho just for the FHE...

[BarneePhife]

I was at my farm today when I got the dreaded voice mail message. The manager of the rental storage units where I keep some of my bikes called and said to please call her immediately, it was urgent. Oh s#@t!!! You can imagine what was going through my mind. When I finally got through to her it was what I thought. My unit had been burglarized along with others and they wanted to know what might be missing. I had five bikes in there. The 916SPS, 996S, S2R1000, Back in Black Sports 1000 and my Hayabusa. From their screwed up description of the crime scene it sounded like the 996S was gone but the others were still there.

You can imagine the foul language that flowed from my mouth during the two and a half hour drive home! When I got there I could not believe my eyes!! All my bikes were still there!! They had not bothered cutting my two high dollar disc locks on the roll up door, they went for the sliding latch they were locked to instead. Apparently that's no problem, that's not encouraging. They found the Mother Lode in my unit but they were soon discovered by a fellow renter going to his unit about 8:00pm last night. He saw they were up to no good and hit them with his high beams and honked liked crazy. They went flying over the fence and were gone. Good work dude!!

Well, sort of. They wanted my bikes so bad they went down the street and stole a huge rental box van from the Public Storage units. They cut their fence and broke into the truck, busted the steering column, hot wired it and drove it down the street and crashed through the gate of my storage complex and parked it in front of my unit. What balls!! They were busted and run off by the honking good Samaritan but they came back a second time for my bikes just an hour later!!

I have all my bikes locked with HUGE On Guard locking cables through the front and rear wheels of every bike. I also have every bike locked the same way to every other bike. They are all linked together and all their wheels are solidly locked. You can't just take one. Try moving five 500+ lb bikes all locked together with wheels that don't turn. Good luck!

They tried to cut the monster cables but had no luck. They had the truck with the door up and the ramp down on the ground but they could not cut any of my bikes free. Even if they had it would have been a giant pain in the ass to drag any of my bikes (with both wheels still securely cabled) out of the unit and up the ramp and into the van. I might have even paid money to sit back and watch that comedy of errors. Of course that would be right before I shot them in the ass with buckshot!! Bastards.

The point of this little tail is you had better re-think your bike securing techniques. That is what saved my ass pure and simple. Having worked for State District Criminal Court judges for years and having dealt with literally tens of thousands of felony defendants you start to think like one when it comes to personal defense and crime prevention. My bike lock down method kept my bikes from being stolen. I will invest in even more of those locking cables to make it even harder in case there is ever a next time.

My bikes are secured in my home garage exactly as they are in the remote storage unit. I can't tell you how many people I know that do not lock up their bikes just because they think they are "safe in my garage". You are wrong. BAD WRONG. I know way too many folks who have had their bikes stolen out of their garage, some even while they were home! Park your car outside with the garage door remote in it? Oops! Your mistake, big time. Have your electric garage door "emergency release" cord still attached and hanging down inside your garage? Want me to show you how fast I can break into your garage from the outside with a straightened coat hanger "fishing" for that cord through the upper door crack. You wouldn't like the results. Take the freaking cord off right now!!!! Oh, and lock up your bikes. It's a fact, they are not "safe in your garage".

Good luck out there people. 

Holy smokes!  Amazing story Brian!!!  I'm glad to hear that it had a happy ending (so to speak) - all bikes accounted for, and no damage to them.  Any idea what ran them off finally?  Just frustration over not being able to move any of the bikes?  Another good samaratan?  Or just finally wised up and went on looking for an easier score?  Regardless, I'm really suprised they didn't take out their frustrations by kicking over a couple of the bikes when they finally had decided their attemps would be fruitless.  Or maybe they want to keep them in good condition and intend to come back someday?  I hope you're considering moving them, or seeking some additional security system?  At the very least - move to an alternate unit so they'll be harder for the same mornons to find.  You know, if they're not in jail, they'll probably come back with the right tools for the job.

Kudo's to the good samaratn who spooked them off the first time.

Wow... just wow...

[Slag]

Rottweilers. Lots of them.  Only feed them once per week.  Make them nice and hungry for the bastards 

[Cyclone]

  Thanks for tip about the Garage door emergency release cord - since I have no windows I thought I was safe <fail> !

Thanks Fastwin for sharing your tale of almost woe !  

[fastwin]

That's been done. They are moved. I told the management they had a choice: either let me move the bikes right now to another unit or I'm spending the night in my unit with Claymores and a M249 SAW machine gun in wait. They went for the move to another unit. Guess they didn't want to clean up the mess I would have left behind.

We have no idea what made them leave for good the second time. No one knows. No good Samaritan #2 has come forward if there was one. We think they just grew tired and impatient of trying to cut free the Hayabusa (which was closest to the roll up door and the one they took the bike cover off of). Maybe they left to go and steal a welding truck so they could come back a third time and burn the locking cables off?

One thing is for sure, the complex has security cameras but they didn't do s#@t. They are at roof top level so all the thieves did was tilt the one aimed at my unit skyward so there is no video evidence of anything except the full moon and shooting stars.

[TresGatos]

Good Samaritans

Good info Brian, thanks.  Mine probably are not safe where I keep them (secret).  I'll beef up security.

[fastwin]

Do it! You won't be sorry. Spend all you can afford on cables, locks, alarms, Lo-jack, etc. Oh yeah, and theft insurance. Just doesn't pay to have anything nice... some a##hole will try and take it.


EDIT: Just ordered four more Rottweiler OnGuard cable locks. When too many is just enough!!! Since I couldn't get all the real dogs I would like I'm settling on the locking cables named after them that saved my bacon. Still, that SAW in ambush thing sounds mighty appealing... just saying.

[muskrat]

Do it! You won't be sorry. Spend all you can afford on cables, locks, alarms, Lo-jack, etc. Oh yeah, and theft insurance. Just doesn't pay to have anything nice... some a##hole will try and take it.

what a fuc*$%g shame these people.  I hope they get caught and put behind bars.  I'm going to check into lo-jack for all three of my ponies now.  I already had cut the cord on the garage door but dumb me left the remote in the truck.....task completed.
thankfully your babies are safe.  if you need help moving them again let me know, have trailer.

[LYD]

did they take anything, or is it too early to tell?  Brian, glad all the bikes were there?

[BarneePhife]

I'll beef up security.

[fastwin]

Unfortunately, Dallas Police Department's crime scene expert left a little to be desired. With his "help" I am sure the bad guys have little to fear. When he dusted the 'busa for prints all he did was grumble and when I asked if he was going to print me so he could tell the difference from the owner's prints vs the thieves he said "naw". ? WTF? Ahhh, I think my 12 year old could have figured that one out! When I asked him about the rental Public Storage box van he said that since it's rented that there would be too many prints. Hmmm, do most of the renter's break into the truck, bust open the steering column and hot wire it? Oh yeah, wouldn't there be prints on the rolled up door and ramp? Guess that's why not many home burglaries get solved in Dallas? No offense to my friends who work the street for DPD. But the CSI staff isn't helping.

[webspoke]

Crap!  Glad to hear they were unsuccessful, but still awful. 

[fastwin]

did they take anything, or is it too early to tell?  Brian, glad all the bikes were there?

No, all is good. Everything accounted for. They didn't even touch my well endowed ( ) tool box. Amazing! They put my air compressor in the van but left with out it. The storage unit manager put it back in my unit and was smart enough to wear gloves and not grip the carry handle. Don't know if the crime scene guy even looked at it. I was disgusted and left after he dusted the 'busa.

[LYD]

No, all is good. Everything accounted for. They didn't even touch my well endowed ( ) tool box. Amazing! They put my air compressor in the van but left with out it. The storage unit manager put it back in my unit and was smart enough to wear gloves and not grip the carry handle. Don't know if the crime scene guy even looked at it. I was disgusted and left after he dusted the 'busa.

Nothing like you see on TV.

Well tell Jen its time to move into a warehome!!