Neighbours "Stolen" Bike

[FergalHunter]

A very curious incident occurred in my block of flats recently that I am eager to hear the forum's perspective on.

Our development runs along the corner of two roads. There are three buildings with about 55 flats in total. There's a shared garden at the back with a covered bike store where I keep my bike. There aren't any allocated spaces, but people tend to leave their bikes in the same spot and leave their locks on the stand when out for a ride. I've parked my bike in the same spot for the last two years, and there are always spare racks.

When I leave my bike there, I use a D-lock, a cable, and a bike cover. There are about 4-5 other people also using covers. I usually put another small lock on to secure the cover. This might sound like overkill, but we've had multiple instances of bikes getting nicked while I've lived here.

Anyway, onto what happened. A couple of weeks ago, I took my bike out to head to the gym, leaving my D-lock and cable attached to the rack in my usual space. When I came back about 90 minutes later, another bike was attached to the same rack. I'd seen the bike before, but don't know who owns it. Not a massive issue, but a little annoying considering there were racks nearby with spaces where people don't cover their bikes.

I was due to head on holiday for 10 days early the next morning and didn't want to leave my bike uncovered that long, so I threw the cover over both bikes. It wasn't locked down and could easily be lifted up. I didn't think it would be an issue, if anything, her bike was getting the benefit of the cover too!
While I was away, someone posted in the residents' chat that her bike had been stolen. Like I said, this isn't an uncommon occurrence, so I didn't think too much of it.

When I returned from holiday 10 days later, her bike was still sitting under the cover right next to mine. I took my bike out for another 90ish minute gym trip and when I got back, I decided I'd move my bike to an empty rack next to it so I could go back to my normal setup. I moved my bike and my cover over to the new rack, leaving her bike completely exposed on her rack.

About an hour later, the same woman posted on the residents' chat claiming her bike had been "returned", but that she'd already bought a replacement!
I'm flabbergasted that a supposedly grown adult seems to lack basic object permanence. Arriving back at her rack, seeing a cover draped over it, and immediately concluding her bike was stolen, without taking two seconds to lift the sheet, is genuinely mind-boggling to me.

Now she's on the chat insisting someone must have stolen it, taken it for a joyride, and returned it, and she is demanding CCTV access.

Is it worth trying to engage with someone like this?

Yes i should have handled this better and my actions obviously caused confusion but i refuse to acknowledge that not checking under the cover is not on her. There are quite a few steps between not seeing a bike, presumably reporting it stolen and buying a new one.

I am struggling to understand why you had to cover her bike - can we have a diagram please?

Or, now I think about it, why you couldn't cover your bike if you moved it somewhere else?

Why would you cover the other bike? That's unreasonable.

People checking under bike covers looks like they're looking to steal.

@FergalHunter In her shoes, I’m not sure I would have started touching other people’s bikes and checking under their covers. It wouldn’t occur to me that someone would put their cover on my bike. If bikes are stolen from this spot then her conclusion that it was stolen was pretty logical. She may have acted promptly because she needs a bike. I think your refusal to acknowledge full responsibility doesn’t put you in a very good light, especially as all of this was preempted by a bit of huffing over your spot having been taken.

I would keep quiet and take to putting my bike in one of the other stand going forward. She sounds a bit of a nut job.

Using it for how ever many years, does not make it any more yours than anyone else’s.

Its honestly up to you to explain what happened

I’d have replied to the initial post saying a bike was stolen, as a “just in case.” I’d have said something like, “I had to cover someone else’s bike when I put my own cover on - the blue bike on X rack, if that’s yours? It’s just under the cover.”

But I also wouldn’t have covered someone else’s bike, I’d just move to another rack.

You also say that you secure the cover with a small lock. Is it possible to move the cover without opening that lock? Or for her to extract her bike if she had found it?

I’d have left a note on the outside of the cover to explain that the bike was underneath. Yes, she was a bit silly not to search more carefully, but it was 6 of one half a dozen of the other.

Out of interest, how do you secure your bike when at the gym?

I usually put another small lock on to secure the cover.

did you do this??

Why are you so obsessed with this? That’s two posts on a very short thread from you, saying the same thing. And what a really odd thing to disbelieve and demand proof of. Do you not have anything more important going on?

No, she said she didn’t.

I don’t think this woman sounds like a nut job at all. She thought her bike was stolen because someone had put their cover on it. Then she may have reported it as stolen, and then bought a new one. In the meantime she updated everyone which is the right thing to do. And then when her bike reappeared she updated everyone again because it was so strange. I think that is all a normal chain of responses.

That's her bike and mine under a cover to the right. You can see with a D-Lock on there's no way to cover just 1 bike

Given the length of time you were going to be away on holiday I'd have moved my bike to another rack (even if it was in another section) I wouldn't just go around randomly covering up other people's bikes for my own convenience.

What kind of cover do you have that you couldn't just shove it down between the 2 bikes.?

Sorry you did say in your OP that you did not lock the cover. I missed that.

Because the locks get in the way? You can’t shove it down in between because the locks are in the way… obviously.

Just seen your picture. I would have put the cover over my own bike as much as possible but not covered hers.

No reason you couldn't have pulled the fabric round your D lock a bit. Or placed the lock further down

Don't be silly - of course you would lift up a cover if it was where you had left your bike!

And posters used to get banned for troll hunting...not sure if they still do

I think yabu. You could have said in the group chat that you’d covered two bikes and perhaps one was hers?

Edit: it was

In retrospect I accept I should have dropped in a message. I didn't think it was a big issue and never in a million years thought someone might believe it to be stolen.
I would go talk to her but I have no idea who she is.