I got robbed on my bike -- and the robber was another cyclist!

At 5:10 this morning, as I rode my bike to the Blue Line in Long Beach, I was mugged. I was on my 50-pound, 1930s beach cruiser, pedaling as fast as I could, when I noticed someone else on a BMX-style bike getting progressively close to my bike.

Just as I became aware of the fact that he was a bit too close for comfort, a hand reached into my basket and grabbed the enormous knapsack that was sitting in it, containing all things I consider necessary in a day -- including my driver’s license, credit card, commuting debit card, debit card, house keys, car keys, proof of insurance, various gift certificates, U-Lock keys, a digital recorder with a yet-to-be transcribed interview on it and an assortment of things of no monetary value but only personal importance. Like my favorite book and a tiny ceramic “good luck” frog.

All these things were taken from me while this man and I were both still in motion.

Confused, I nervously shouted, “Excuse me! Um, excuse me!” thinking there had been a mistake. Maybe the man in a hooded sweatshirt mistook me for a friend he was joking with. Maybe he was trying to teach me a lesson and would surely stop down the block.

But as he sped away little details began to register, like his attempt to conceal his identity with a hood over his head and the speed at which he rode away, and I realized that I had in fact been robbed.

The one thing I was still in possession of was my cellphone, which had been in my hand, and, after calling the police, I began to call every person I knew who might have possibly been awake at 5 a.m.

After taking mental inventory of what was in the bag, I realized I couldn’t ride back home and drive to work: my license and proof of insurance were in my bag. I couldn’t ride the Metro because my commuter card and all my money (which wasn’t much) were in my knapsack. I wouldn’t be able to get into my apartment without my keys or even lock my bike somewhere without those keys. And, after calling my bank, I learned I would not be able to access my account until I opened a new checking account, which still doesn’t make sense to me.

Now, after borrowing $3 from a friend, the only things I have in my possession are my BlackBerry (miraculously), $1.75 from the change I got at my Blue Line station after I bought a ticket to get to work and my police report, crumpled in my back pocket.

-- Lauren A. Williams

Comments

[BloggerPal]

We should always be vigilant of the things and people around us especially in times and place we least expect to get hurt or rob. Chances are the more you care less the more things can get worse.

[LAlawblogger]

This is quite bothersome. Now bicycle riders have other things to worry about besides being hit and ran over by other motorists.

[Nick]

Wow...and to think you were doing the "right" thing by biking to work. That is why most people drive to work and that is also why we are becoming a society where we sit in our steel tubes, turn up our radios and ignore one another. Pretty soon "riding a bike" will seem like having an 8 track player..

[sparky]

I am saddened to read your post and hope you are OK. I strongly discouraged bike riding before sunrise and after sunset until I was mugged on my way home from work, standing with children in front of my house, in broad daylight in West LA, losing hope that times, have indeed changed as well quickly as my locks. Then I wonder if we're ever really safe. One can never be too careful and police first advised me not to carry purse or back pack but hold items close inside jacket, not to wear ponytail and the obvious, to be aware of your surroundings even at high speeds, evidently. Now I cautiously dress to avoid potential mugger. I wish you well; grab a coworker, friend, make a commuter buddy and please do not ride alone. It's a pity, LA.

[Oscar]

Sorry this happened to you.

As a bike rider I always worry about cars coming too close...not so much other bikes.

[rhonda williams]

I am so very sorry that this happened to you, my dear!

Jim S certainly had a wealth of good advice and spent some time organizing it and writing it! Thank you Jim!

Please move back home...

love,
your mother

[Susan]

OH NO! That's horrible! Move to Texas. We need good writing here, and we don't mug you (okay, we probably do but maybe it made you smile).

[JimS]

o.o;

My first assumption in that situation would be that I was getting jacked. ^^;;;

The horse is already out of the barn, but a general good rule of thumb is to carry important things like keys, ID, etc. on your person rather than in a bag (which, in addition to being stolen, can also be simply forgotten, left on roof of car, etc.) In case of mugging, it's often useful to carry a decoy wallet with a small amount of cash and decorated with bogus cards, novelty IDs, etc.

As far as personal belongings go, if you have a high-value-item bag you can leave a GPS tracking device (about the size of a cellphone) either sewed into a compartment of the bag, or make it look valuable and leave it visible in the contents of the bag.

Generally very shortly after the theft, the thief will quickly grab the valuable items from the bag and transfer them into another container (pocket, another bag, etc.) and dispose of the bag in a ditch/dumpster/freeway/etc. so as not to be seen with a distinctive bag. If the tracker is sewn into the bag, it will sometimes let you recover items that are not useful to the thief but important to you (paperwork, mementos like the frog, etc.). These will usually either be found still in the bag, or strewn nearby.

If it's conspicuous and valuable looking, the thief will probably keep it and it enables you to track down the thief and recover the valuable items that he kept.

Smart devices like laptops can be fitted with software that attempts to communicate over wifi or cellular (depending on the capabilities of the device) to give you updates on location and live feeds from integrated microphone and camera if present.

None of this, of course, helps your present situation, but here are some things to think about:

1) Change the locks on everything you have immediately. Thieves usually dispose of IDs and keys and such because they are not immediately useful for gaining cash. Most petty thugs won't bother. In cases where all these things are acquired together, however, the thief does know who you are, where you live, the make model and license plate of your car, etc., and they will sometimes attempt to use the keys they steal for an easy and fast heist.

2) Your bank is very much correct in telling you to make a new checking account. The thief now has your account numbers, current series check numbers (assuming they acquired checks), and has sufficient personal information on you to steal your identity. Simply disabling your account is not good enough, because one tactic used by identity thieves is to reenable frozen accounts. Again, a simple thug will probably not bother, but sometimes they are smart enough to recognize the value of such a complete set of information, and will pass it off to someone in a gang that can use it better. Do consider buying ongoing (instead of one-time) access to your credit reports for the coming year to watch for rogue lines of credit -- damage from identity theft is minimized when you respond to it quickly. The information is useful to have regardless, and could be invaluable in the unlikely event of bad things happening. At bare minimum, you should wait a few months and burn your free credit reports to see if anything bad is there.

3) Don't panic. Despite all the bad stuff that can happen, none of it is personal. The most likely scenario is the thug pocketed the cash, possibly pocketed the gift cards, later fenced the audio recorder for a pittance, and deposited everything else in a nearby dumpster. Even if your information is passed on to a more sophisticated operations, ultimately a dumb thug or a smart crook accomplice just wants easy money. Raise the bar so it's more lucrative and less risky to look elsewhere, and the bad stuff won't happen to you.

4) You may get lucky and get your stuff back. Purse snatchers don't always dump the remains in a dumpster, sometimes they just toss them wherever they happen to be, and a good samaritan happens to find them. It's less likely but not uncommon. I've randomly found and returned people's scattered personal effects on four different occasions.

[Dave]

Riding a bike near the Blue Line in Long Beach warrants for possession of pepper spray and a taser. That would have stopped your hoodlum.

[Alex]

That's scary! I'm glad you weren't hurt, though. I always get nervous when other bikes come close to me like that.

[Steve]

Oh no! That's awful. I hope the police are able to bring this person to justice. And I am glad to hear that you were not physically hurt.