Somebody Stole My Life!

This afternoon I was about to go out on my bike for a ride and a little shopping. These days, being of senior years and not in the best of health, it is my only means of prolonged periods of exercise, and of enjoying a degree of independence and freedom.

I went to the bike rack at the end of my block of apartments, in a semi-rural area about an hour or so South East of Tokyo, only to find that my bike had been stolen.

It is so infuriating, as what the culprit has actually, thoughtlessly done is steal my life. To make matters worse, I am retired with a very small pension, so I cannot just go out and buy another one.

It has also come as quite a surprise, because so far the Japanese have impressed me with their honesty. In Spain, it is expected that if you have a bicycle and/or a mobile phone, it is highly likely to be stolen. I had three bikes stolen in Spain, though it may not be the Spanish.

A Spanish policeman friend of mine once told me that some unscrupulous thieves, from somewhere in Eastern Europe hire a truck and drive all the way to the south of Spain, to steal bikes en-mass. They then drive all the way back to where they came from, with a full truckload of very good second-hand bikes to sell on.

About ten years ago I had my very expensive mobile phone stolen from an Internet cafe. I reported the theft to the police and immediately called Vodaphone to ask them to zap the phone, rendering it inoperable.

Unbelievably, a week later, on a Saturday morning, I got a call from the thief, or whoever bought the phone from the thief, complaining quite vociferously about the fact that I had blocked the phone. Amazingly, the person calling did nothing to hide the number they were calling from!

Great, all I have to do is go back to the police with the caller's number, get them to call Telefonica for the caller's address details, and then go and apprehend the thief and retrieve the phone. No such luck.

The police told me that data protection laws forbid them from asking Telefonica for the thief's personal details. So basically, the law protects the wrong-doer and punishes the victim!

The police said that they would have to apply to a judge for a special warrant to present to Telefonica before they could act. And it would take.....wait for it....three months to get such a warrant!

What a truly screwed-up world we live in. It is little wonder that these days being a thief is a highly profitable career choice. The best part is, the law will do very little, if anything, to stop them, or to catch them and put things right.

And sad to reflect, it is little better in the UK. I once had 2,000 pounds sterling, in cash, stolen from my house. When I went to the police station to report the theft, I was interviewed, not by a police officer, but by a civil servant, whose job it is to soft soap and fob off any victims of crime. 

The young woman told me that the amount had to be at least 10,000 pounds before they would even consider investigating it. Not much hope for us really, is there?

When I was a boy, a policeman on the beat, by foot or on a bike (as long as it hadn't been stolen.) Knew everybody in the neighbourhood and would go out and recover what had been stolen and give the thief a stern warning. A different age I'm afraid, totally different, worlds apart.