What would you have done?

[fatjel]

I have a bike for shopping and stuff .. I use a poundland lock.
OK it doesn't lock very well but it is light and looks the part.
As a bonus if I were to lose the key I can pull it apart with my bare hands

 

[ColinJ]

I wouldn't leave my bike unsecured outside ever, wouldn't trust a cable lock, and even with a d-lock would be concerned about possible vandalism (what is it about Oxford and stamping on bike wheels?).

It isn't just Oxford ...

I went to watch a circuit race in Manchester City Centre once. I walked down the length of Deansgate and there was a nice bike locked to nearly every lampost, traffic sign, and bus stop. I walked the circuit and by the time I got back somebody had trashed every bike wheel. There was a crowd of thousands, but that didn't stop the idiots doing it!

I walked past bike stands at Sheffield university. The bikes that hadn't been stolen (broken locks lying about where bikes had presumably once been secured) or had bits stripped off them had been kicked and stamped on.

 

[bozmandb9]

It isn't just Oxford ...

I went to watch a circuit race in Manchester City Centre once. I walked down the length of Deansgate and there was a nice bike locked to nearly every lampost, traffic sign, and bus stop. I walked the circuit and by the time I got back somebody had trashed every bike wheel. There was a crowd of thousands, but that didn't stop the idiots doing it!

I walked past bike stands at Sheffield university. The bikes that hadn't been stolen (broken locks lying about where bikes had presumably once been secured) or had bits stripped off them had been kicked and stamped on.

The best solution is, when you catch somebody doing it, you do the same to their leg. It may seem a little drastic, but they certainly don't repeat offend for a while at least.

 

[Welsh wheels]

I agree. I just don't think there are thieves lurking round every corner, waiting to cut through a cable lock and steal every bike that gets left on the street. The risk of a bike with a lock on it being stolen seems very slight to me (whereas the risk of an unlocked bike being jumped on by a passing opportunist and ridden off seems quite a lot higher - but still not that high). Every town centre every day is full of locked-up bikes that don't get stolen. The OP had a lock, but believed it wouldn't be enough to prevent the ubiquitous lurking thieves from stealing her bike during a brief visit to a shop. That's the sad bit.

I think in a town centre, there are indeed thieves lurking around every corner watching out for bikes. It's the nature of the world we live in. Experience has taught me that!

 

[raleighnut]

I think in a town centre, there are indeed thieves lurking around every corner watching out for bikes. It's the nature of the world we live in. Experience has taught me that!

Indeed, bike thieves treat it as a job (as do pick-pockets, shoplifters and burglars) that's why it's an offence to go 'equipped to' commit a crime and whilst they're not lurking around every corner they are out there with the 'tools of the trade'.