Abandoned Bicycle

On the way home today, I passed a bicycle lying on its side in the street. From a distance away, it looked just like a normal bicycle. I thought it was a bit lax of someone to just leave their bike lying there like that - anyone could just ride away with it.

On closer inspection, this was not in fact the case, since the bicycle was missing a front wheel. Anyone attempting to ride it away would have had to be exceptionally good at balancing. This was still a bit strange though, as why would a wheel-less bike be just left lying around? Had someone just stolen a front wheel? Was the bike being stolen by a small weak person who could only carry one part of it at a time? Maybe it was the Borrowers? I was unsure.

When I was at university, bikes were very common and it was not unusual to see single front tyres chained to fences, where people had in fact stolen the entire rest of the bike. I often used to wonder what they did with these one-wheeled entities.

Well, now I have a theory: maybe each of those thieves carefully rides 200 miles north to York, balanced precariously on a one wheeled mountain bike. Upon reaching York, they ride around until they find an abandoned matching bike from which they can steal a matching wheel. They'd then have formed a full bike, and could use it to go to the shops, or to drug deals or whatever it is modern criminals do on bikes.

Yes, I expect that is what happened.

I don't think I'll ever fully understand the criminal mind.