Last Sunday I got back from mountainbiking and made the most stupid mistake in the world. After getting the bike and the bike stuff from my car, I walked back to my home, but apparently deeply distracted thinking of something else, I forgot to bring back the bike.

So there it was, my bike standing outside, unlocked. It was only until the next morning that I noticed it was gone. Still having good faith in my neighborhood I decided to distribute leaflets in the neighborhood asking people whether they had seen something. I also notified the local bike shops and told the world about it through the internet on the Dutch mountainbike forum. Every day during this week I eagerly waited for the phone to ring for someone to call me about the bike, for an e-mail or personal message on the mountainbike forum, or for a message in my post box at the front door.

Hope certainly faded away as none of this happened the entire week. I was already in the process of buying another bike as suddenly on a Friday evening, the doorbell rang. Since I was not awaiting any packages I quietly hoped this was someone who had found my bike. And, guess what, it was someone from the neighborhood who found my bike. Apparently, he saw the bike on Sunday evening at around 10pm unattended with empty beer cans and McDonalds waste around it. Thinking this was highly suspect he took the bike and also reported this to the police.

The way he found me was also interesting. Basically, it turns out that I am a quite well known person in the neighborhood when it comes to mountainbiking and the recumbent bike. Since I have no garden and only a small balcony, I usually fix or clean the bikes in public view. The positive id (as they call it on CSI) was made through the internet. When he googled for it, he quickly found the above link on the mountainbike forum and identified the bike. It was also a coincidence that I did not drop a leaflet into his postbox on monday evening. Otherwise, I would have gotten my bike back earlier.

My Precious

Nevertheless, I am happy as a small child right now and cannot wait to jump on the bike again. But first, I have to undo the leaflet action by informing everyone again that the bike was found. Also spent some time at the police office to make sure that my bike is no longer registered as stolen, and of course rewarded the finder for his good initiative.

So, apparently I am living in a really good neighborhood and I will never make a stupid mistake like this again!