It’s a bad weekend to be a scooter.
When Ed came home from Insurance 101 yesterday, he took out the garbage because he is a good boy. He also took out the recycling, as new TVs come in a rainforest worth of cardboard. Free of cardboard, he stopped to look at his scooter for a second for no particular reason. Under his scooter, he found a shiny thing that did not belong. Curious, he took a closer look.
In a half-assed attempt to steal Ed’s scooter, someone had tried to punch his ignition and use a screwdriver or something to get it started. They pried up the panel covering the oil tank, trying to get into the seat. All failed. After chewing up the key hole something fierce, they then turned to Josh’s Ruckus. They had a little more luck here; punching in the ignition to a further degree and bending the shit out of the hole – but that’s it. Both scooters start up fine with some very minor cosmetic damage.
That’s a good thing, but there’s still that nasty feeling of violation; knowing someone not only touched your stuff but actively tried to take it away from you. My scooter wasn’t in the back, but I imagine Oscar would have been hit too – they didn’t touch Josh’s motorcycle because it is big and scary, and Shan’s scooter is STILL in the shop. All is well, I guess.
Oscar wasn’t free from molestation, though. This morning when I woke up, I looked out the window to see if it was raining. It was, but more importantly, Oscar was lying on his right side in the rain. I woke Ed up, and we ran outside to pick him up. It doesn’t look like he was hit, so we think someone sat on him and tried to move him forward, but since the steering column is locked, they lost their balance and fell over. He wasn’t pushed – there’s no damage whatsoever to his right side, and the only scratches on the left were from my slide down the hill last year. We righted him and he started up almost immediately. Oscar rules.
Fuck this neighbourhood, though. Now I’m up outrageously early, I’m in a shitty mood, and my foot hurts because Lemon attacked through my blanket. This is not an auspicious start to my Sunday morning.
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Uhg, so I guess it is sitting in the rain out front getting knocked over (as all of ours have a few times now) by drunks and awful drivers, or out of the rain out back but getting molested by drunken thieves.
Oh well, still probably much better off then if we lived anywhere downtown where car break-ins (like all of yours in east van) happen 10x more often.
Ugh! I feel your pain. We’ve been targeted by some asshole vandals who have, in the past several months, thrown rocks through a window, the glass in the front door, and the rear windshield of our car. Last week someone drove through our front yard, repeatedly, in the pouring rain. Yay for half a dozen muddy tire ruts in our lawn.
It’s enough to make you wanna sit up in the window with a rifle, it is.
I’m sorry to hear about your scooters! I hope the fix isn’t too horrible on Ed’s.
That totally sucks. Those dirtbags.
Have you guys thought about putting wheel locks on your bikes? I know my Civic (the most stolen car in Canada) used to get jimmied when I parked it downtown until I put The Club on it. Aside from having my mirrors kicked off a couple of times it’s been left alone ever since. I think the visible deterrent of the club has worked out well since it makes my car a tougher target than the other cars on the block.
I imagine wheel locks would do the same since it puts a visible barrier in front of the potential thief.
ya, I’m locked up now.
You don’t use a U-lock? I figured it’s standard equipment.
My boss had his Ruckus stolen from his driveway a couple of months ago, someone (he thinks) just picked it up and put it in the back of a truck. He took the opportunity (and ICBC $) to upgrade to a sweet 1971 Honda 350.
I fucking hate thieves, and would do my best to knock some sense into (then back out of) anyone caught trying to steal from me or my family.
Try putting covers over the scooters as well, we keep covers on our motorcycles as it seems to discourage people from messing with them. I realize it’s easy to remove a cover but it’s one more step that you have to take and it looks suspicious.
UGH. My scooter was *stolen* from my carport last year, just before xmas… stolen from my carport, while I slept. My carport is under my bedroom and I didn’t hear a thing. :( When I realised what had happened, I DID feel really violated; someone took my shit, while I slept, so close to me and my son…
Since it’s an electric scooter, they couldn’t start it (haha, the charger wasn’t with it and the batteries needed a charge!) but they ruined the ignition. My scoot was found just a few blocks away, trunk busted open, helmet (was in trunk) gone and one of the mirrors was broken. Then again, that could have been the police who told me they threw it in the back of their van when they found it. Then, the asked me to come pick it up. Since I couldn’t start it and it weighs like 375lbs due to the batteries, I wonder how they expected me to do that?! Morons…
Anyway, I’m glad things weren’t worse. ICBC are giant jerks to deal with.