Stolen! (Follow-up)
Yesterday an ad appeared on Craig’s List that said something to the effect of, “Hey I recovered this bike around Village Gate, I thought it was mine, it isn’t. Could it be yours?” It offered to return the bike to someone who could describe it.
Three people that I don’t know remembered the ad about my stolen bike, looked it up, and emailed me to tell me of this new ad.
Amazing!
I hadn’t yet perused Craig’s List yesterday when the first of the emails alerting me to the ad arrived. I immediately sent a reply to the ad, referencing mine with the descriptions. I haven’t heard a thing, but I doubted it would have been my bike anyway.
But it still makes me feel good that people are still out there looking for my bike. People on rides ask me about all the time, and so do people in the shops where I put flyers. And now people remember a Craig’s List ad from six weeks ago, look for it, and email me.
Sort of makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
In other news, the day after I discovered the theft, I printed a couple of dozen flyers, dropped them off at a few bike shops, and stuffed one under each apartment door in the building. Posted one in the laundry room too, since clearly the thief had a key to the basement.
Of course, I also had to talk with management to get the door to my storage room fixed. They fixed the door and added locks to the basement fire doors. Now the only way to get to the storage area is to be escorted.
Next, several tenants immediately suspected one other. Not necessarily him, but people who visit him. I learned from management last week that he and two other problem tenants were asked to leave at the end of this month. The one that the other tenants suspected, moved out today.
Management also told me that once all the problem tenants were gone, they’ll change all the locks in the common areas of the building. We’ll all be getting new keys.
Finally, there’s an awful lot of karma flying around here. I haven’t forgotten that once, I was one of those problem tenants, with problem visitors hanging around all the time. And I know of at least one thing that went missing at the time. I did not report it to anyone.
Karmic payback is the primary reason I’ve had a que sera sera attitude about the theft. Secondarily, it’s been a test in letting go. I did pretty good on that one. And finally, it’s shown the level of acceptance I’ve been able to reach in sobriety.
Doesn’t change the fact that I check Craig’s List a couple of times a day, especially the ads selling parts.
