Someone cut my bike lock.

[brokenbetty]

On the plus side, someone has just shown you how easy it is to get through your old lock without actually stealing your bike. Usually we only find that out when the bike has gone, so in trying to hurt you they've unwittingly done you a favour

 

[snorri]

Your actions and response seemed perfectly reasonable, the only thing that would worry me is that the neighbour may damage your bike if your new lock proves unbreakable. It would appear this neighbour has 'a thing' about bicycles and there is no saying what they might try to do next time.

 

[downfader]

Your actions and response seemed perfectly reasonable, the only thing that would worry me is that the neighbour may damage your bike if your new lock proves unbreakable. It would appear this neighbour has 'a thing' about bicycles and there is no saying what they might try to do next time.

As MrC said, that is indeed if they did do it. How does rthe OP know is wasnt some scroat who tried to steal it and was disturbed?
As has also been said - get a decent lock. Cable locks are like butter.

 

[TheDoctor]

Is it possible to use a different part of the railings? Not outside the flat with the plant?
And (as others have said) at least you didn't find out the hard way that the loch wasn't up to scratch.
Losing a lock is irritating, but losing your bike too hurts. A lot.
[/voice of experience]

 

[slowmotion]

Just let it go! Your bike is OK. Yes, it isn't great when somebody causes you financial pain and anger, but it is probably only £50 tops for the lock. Once you start considering legal stuff, £50 is nothing, both to your bank account and to your emotional welfare.

Forget it and do not fester on the matter.

By the way, Welcome.

 

[normskirus]

Hi

Get a better a lock for a start. Then dont lock your bike with the new super lock to the railings - they may damage the bike instead. I wouldnt assume that the railings are not owned by a particular flat or the block as a whole ( the last will depend on the deeds ).


I think what was done was wrong but I would put it down to experience and look for somewhere else to park your bike next time.


Normski

 

[taxing]

Just let it go! Your bike is OK. Yes, it isn't great when somebody causes you financial pain and anger, but it is probably only £50 tops for the lock. Once you start considering legal stuff, £50 is nothing, both to your bank account and to your emotional welfare.

Forget it and do not fester on the matter.

By the way, Welcome.

So... can I have £50?

(On a more serious note, £50 is what you get to live on for a week when you're on Jobseeker's. It's not nothing to everyone. Even though I'm working, for most of the month if I lost £50 out of my bank account I'd go overdrawn and be charged for it.)

 

[slowmotion]

Fair point taxing. I didn't mean to make £50 sound a trivial sum. Apologies.

 

[jonny jeez]

I went to a friend's house for half an hour. I left my bike locked to the railings outside a tenement house in Glasgow. When I came back the bike lock had been cut and my bike had been thrown onto their next door neighbour's garden which had no railings around. The street surprisingly had no lamp posts or other railings nearby and certainly no bike parks as it is a residential street. I can understand why they did it. The railings had a plant growing around it but I made sure to attach it to only the railings. I didn't damage their plant in the slightest. The building is a Tenement building so I'm presuming that they do not own it therefore the railings are not their property.
I would like to know what my rights are. They didn't damage the bike but my lock cannot be used again. Can I press charges for criminal damage?

Welcome Vicky, not quite sure where Gavinc is coming from as I don’t see your description of the building to be pejorative at all, just factual...if it's occupied by tenants, then it's not occupied by owners.??

I agree with Broken betty that at the very least you now know the limits of your lock but, this doesn’t help you much I suppose.

I think the bottom line is you have 3 courses of action.

1, forget about it.
2, try for legal action although I suspect this will be futile as there are no witnesses
3, have it out with the guy who did it.

Personally I suspect the person who did it is probably a bit of a nut job, to take that sort of action in the very first instance as apposed to just asking you not to chain your bike there. If you don’t have the stomach to take this type of guy on (thankfully few reasonable human beings do) then I suspect you'll just have to let it slide.

there is a fourth option in taking cunobelin's advice to sneak back and keep bolting all sorts to his railings, (remember, you know where he lives, he doesn’t know you at all.) but this will probably lead to a nasty confrontation if not a huge bill for locks.

Good luck

 

[jonny jeez]

Oh, PS as a fifth option...talk to the local housing authority and see if the property is indeed tenanted. If so, make a complaint to them about their tenant. Private Landlords are likely to give you short shrift, but an authority may take it up (especially if the tenant is a known trouble maker).

Also report it to the police to get it on a record of somesort...so thats six options then.

 

[dellzeqq]

I'd make cardboard locks out of old cereal packets and slip one round a railing every now and again...

and BrokenBetty has a very good point. No bike lock (absolutely none) will stop a determined and practiced thief for long.

 

[Coco]

Welcome Vicky, not quite sure where Gavinc is coming from as I don’t see your description of the building to be pejorative at all, just factual...if it's occupied by tenants, then it's not occupied by owners.??

A tenemant is just another name for a block of flats (architects can enlighten further). It doesn't mean it is occupied by tenants. Many of them are owned by the occupiers and this can indeed include the front garden and railings.

 

[2Loose]

Any chance this could be a failed\disturbed bike theft, rather than a disgruntled tenant? I know it seems unlikely given that the bike wasn't moved far, but if I thought there was a chance that it may have been a tenant (and I can't possibly read anything negative into tenement either btw

) then perhaps a small piece of paper into each mailbox stating what has happened for the tenants suggesting that they ring the police if they see anything untowards going on with bikes on their railings. May make them rethink their strategy too, if it was one of them...

 

[ufkacbln]

Any chance this could be a failed\disturbed bike theft, rather than a disgruntled tenant? I know it seems unlikely given that the bike wasn't moved far, but if I thought there was a chance that it may have been a tenant (and I can't possibly read anything negative into tenement either btw

) then perhaps a small piece of paper into each mailbox stating what has happened for the tenants suggesting that they ring the police if they see anything untowards going on with bikes on their railings. May make them rethink their strategy too, if it was one of them...

My thought was that it was reasonable to report it as an attempted theft and assume that the bike had been abandoned because the thief had been disturbed, then do as above quoting the crime number and the contact name.

 

[fimm]

Just to repeat; in Scotland "Tenament" is a description of a type of block of flats and says nothing about the ownership of said flats. I live in a tenament, but I own (well have a mortgage on) my flat. Other flats in the same block are rented from private landlords who live elsewhere.