On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 14:36:10 -0700, Ben Pfaff
wrote:

skuke writes:

In Daly City, CA over the weekend. A city street was marked with many No
Parking signs for construction about to begin on the said street. Cars etc.
where to be towed away if parked during construction period. A bike was
"Krytonite-d" to a street sign. The city workers needed to remove the bike
as it was illegally "parked" and in the way. My friend witnessed them
removing the bike from the street sign. How did they do it you asked? They
cut the FRAME, removed the offending bike, and left the Krytonite secured to
the pole!! ...one way to defeat a lock.

Boy, I'd be ****ed if someone destroyed my bike because it was
illegally parked. I don't think city workers would casually
destroy an illegally parked car, and I don't think they should do
the same to a bike either.

I'm new to bike commuting, having started seriously during May, using
some crappy cable locks. 25 miles roundtrip from Queens to Manhattan.
May is Bike Month in New York City and there was a bike show at the
Armory, where I bought my first real chain and lock, a Master. A good
buy for $50. For the next three weeks I left the lock locked to a
streetlamp in front of my job, using it during the day. That is legal
in NYC. One day I had not brought the bike for some reason, but as I
walked out of the building I glanced at the lampost and saw that the
lock was gone. As was the lampost. All that was left was the base
which rises about two feet from the sidewalk and has four big bolts
where the rest of the lampost screws in.

I checked with the local precinct. They had no idea what happened but
did get a giggle out of it. Then I spoke to the building super, who
told me that a contractor had removed the lampost during the night
because it had a dent in it and would replace it with another.

So I called the City. Tracked down the contractor. Got a call back
that the guys had left it "locked" to a nearby bike rack. Say what? If
there was a bike rack that's where the bike would have been.

They just threw it away or took it. I did check the local cans but
there was no big heavy chain in any of them.

Still, I do get to tell the story of how someone removed a lamppost
just to get my lock.

True story.