Vandalism Could Kill

While I was at work today (Saturday), with the bike parked inside our warehouse at the back of the store, someone decided to steal the nuts off the motor output sprocket, which could have gotten me killed if the sprocket had come off when I was trying to accelerate into traffic.

Fortunately it came off during a left turn at an empty intersection, so when the chain tangled up because of it, I could let it glide harmlessly to a stop.

I debated whether to walk to a nearby house and ask to use their phone to call the police at that moment or not, and have them come by and see if they could dust it for fingerprints or something, but I realized that A) they would probably take hours to come since I was in no immediate danger, which B) would put me in danger of someone coming up to me and mugging me (as happened in 2003 when walking home one night), and C) they probably wouldn't do anything like dust for fingerprints or check for DNA but would probably instead just take the report, shrug, and do nothing about it. So I decided not to waste the time of either of us.

I checked my cargo pods to see if perhaps someone was playing a very dangerous and impractical joke on me, by putting the nuts in there after taking them off, but no, they did not. They were removed completely from the bike, and it appears my own tools that I carry on the bike may have been used to do it, because the toolbag was unzipped. I am uncertain if any of the tools are also missing, as they are not kept neatly in there, but they did not seem to be all present. I just don't remember which ones aren't there, and I won't find out until I try to fix something later only to find I no longer own a tool to do it.

At that point, whatever it is will be unrepairable and the bike will be scrap, along with any other project I have requiring that tool, as I can't afford to buy new ones.

Since the nuts for this were special in shape, and of a thread and size I have no others of, the bike is currently useless. I can't just go out and buy them somewhere--I don't have money for that, even if I knew for sure what they came from, or exactly what size and shape they had been. I'd have to guess, and try different ones until I got the right ones. Dangerous and even more money.

If I was willing to live with the knee pain, I could still pedal it, but it is so heavy even without the batteries and motor (which I would have to remove) that I can barely get it started while balancing it, on pedals alone. Sometimes I cannot balance it in this situation, and it curves wildly to one side while I try to recover, which on a street with traffic is likely to result in a collision.

So kudos to you, whoever you are that vandalized my bike. You've essentially rendered moot 3/4 of a year of work, and several other people's contributions, and destroyed my ability to travel around, get groceries, and go to work. Thanks.

If you see me limping for miles around town in the heat, wave from your comfortable transportation, ok?