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?

I am slightly confused, why did you put your bike beside hers on that rack and cover both? Why didn't you put your bike elsewhere or only cover your own?

So when you cover your bike, you effectively take two spots (especially when you lock the cover).

This time there weren't two spots together for you to take, and you decided you are annoyed, because the owner could have used a single space at another rack and left both spaces on "yours" empty for you.

I think you need to get a different bike cover design, because always taking two spots and expecting the full rack empty is not reasonable and leads you to weird decisions.

Reads like you were annoyed that someone took "your" spot so you decided to cover their bike up to mark your territory and put them off and cause them an issue, not realising it would escalate to them shelling out for a new bike, and now you are claiming you couldn't cover just your own bike and trying to justify your behaviour as perfectly reasonable and deflect all the blame back onto the bike owner.
Personally I think it's 90% on you and the other person has been unlucky to fall foul of special unwritten bike shed rules

The point of a Sheffield stand is that two bikes can use it at the same time. I always wondered what kind of people leave a lock on a stand. How do you lock your bike when you get to your destination or are you always doing round trips? Or do you have dozens of locks scattered around the bike stands of your town?

Bottom line is that YABU. Selfish action on your part with unfortunate consequences for your neighbour.

I would keep quiet. How does she explain her locked bike being unlocked and relocked up?

I've been in similar situations and just half covered my bike so the other person can still access theirs. What you did was pretty weird.

I think she's having you on, tbh. She found her bike, was annoyed when she realised your weird behaviour and decided to wind you up. She must have known what happened when she saw her bike 'returned' with lock and everything intact.

So yeah, I think she just clocked you as Weird Bike Rack Woman and thought she'd wind you up.

you covered her bike and you failed to respond to the WA message about a stolen bike. this is on you OP

Most normal people returning to the space where they had left their bike and seeing that there was a bike there would absolutely peek under the cover

What kind of idiot would assume a theft and not have a look to check, surely no one would do that

I think yabu

Surely you could have pushed the cover in the gap to just cover your bike? Even if it didn't fit perfectly, I don't believe a fabric cover couldnt be bunched to go in the small gap between the 2 bikes

Or do you always have to have the cover covering both of the bike racks, so you normally take up 2 spaces? Or have to cover the bike parked next to yours?

Its so weird to cover someone elses property, not mention it on the neighbour group and then go away for a week.

Totally weird to cover someone else's bike, I can understand why she would think that it was so unlikely that someone would cover her bike she wouldn't think to lift the cover to see if it was hers. I think I would have personally but I can completely see why she read the situation as my bike has gone. You don't seem to take any responsibility at all, you could have squished up your cover or (unless there's a reason why not) why on earth didn't you just put your bike somewhere else. You covered her bike up, she didn't know or realise, not her fault, she messaged about it in the group, you didn't respond or think to say you had covered someone's bike up and perhaps that was hers (baffling if you read it and didn't twig), and you're now blaming her for the entire thing and contemplating whether to own up because she seems a bit crazy. Really?

Presumably there’s no cctv there or she would have already caught you doing it. And you probably wouldn’t have done it if there was a camera. Shame

She's an idiot, @FergalHunter

I was hoping that 😂

She sounds a bit thick tbh. If I'd left it there I'd have definitely had a peek under the cover.

And the OP is taking the piss by hogging a bike stand.

The OP is wrong and an entitled CF
the neighbour is a complete idiot.

Never a winning combination.

But she’s used that rack for two years!!!!!!!!

Possession is 9/10 of the law don’t you know!!

Same suppose she’s newly moved in and hasn’t been watching the racks for 2 years so knows that’s your place (it’s not!). She locks her bike doesn’t pay much attention to surroundings and when she come back can’t see it. Never occurs to check under covers. I think you should explain so everyone isn’t worried about a theft that didn’t happen

Is it possible that like you, she has a usual parking space but for some reason came that day and used the one you use. When she came to get her bike she may have looked in her usual spot and on seeing the bike gone, assumed it was stolen, she didnt think to look under your cover because for whatever reason she didnt usually use that rack and forgot she had. You however normally have your bike under a cover in that spot and she may be used to seeing that. Sometimes when our minds are on other things we do make mistakes. This could be a series of unfortunate events.

so now she has 2 bikes, both taking up rack space....

would it be terrible if op’s bike - and the several
locks and the cover with a padlock- all got hidden somewhere and then she could search around and check under covers for it. And feel how weird and antisocial that would be. You can’t hide a bike just because someone has the gall to share one of the two spaces you’ve hogged for two years.