Good for you! Great presence of mind to call out his identifiers, and great reactions to chase him down in the first place.
Philip On Jul 19, 7:10 pm, Liesl <li...@smm.org> wrote: > Despite this record-breaking heat and humidity here in the Twin > Cities, my partner Erin on her Quickbeam and I on my single-speed > Proto-Bleriot elected to do our 20-mile round trip commute to work. > The ride home was 98 degrees with a dew point at about 80 degrees…this > put the heat index up somewhere like 100-115 degrees. Right balmy. > Two blocks from home, as I’m looking forward to air conditioning and a > cold one, all hell broke loose. > > Up in front of me is a maroon Mercury Cougar, and I’m thinking, “When > did I last see a Cougar?” As I’m gazing, the car slows down and a > young man hops out to go to the convenience store. I wait to see if > the Cougar is going to park, but no, it just keeps going. As we > proceed down the road, a bicycle passes me, and then I hear yelling > behind me. I turn back to see another young man running like the > blazes shouting, “That guy stole my bike! Stop him! That guy stole > my bike!” It’s the dude from the Cougar who had passed me on the > bike! > > So I stood up and bore down hard on my peddles in hot pursuit. He was > riding on the sidewalk next to a big park and I was just behind him in > the street. After about 3-4 blocks he started to fade—remember it was > literally close to 100 degrees—and I caught up to him. > > “You stole that bike!” I yelled fiercely. It was clear that he wasn’t > aware that I had been on his heels. “You stole that bike! Just drop > it and walk away,” I commanded. His grin faded ever so slightly. > > “I see you,” I continued sternly (albeit between gulps of air). “I > see your face, I see your clothes, I see the number on your jersey.” > His grin dimmed. I looked at his bare arm. “I see your tattoo,” I > said and looked him in the eye. “I see you. Drop the bike and walk > away.” He knew the tattoo meant I could ID him. He looked away, > dropped the bike, and wobbled off, his legs spent. > > A dude in the park had watched the whole thing and called out, “Whoa! > You just caught that guy and made him give up the bike, man! You > chased him down in this heat, and you made him drop the bike. You > beat him and you’re twice his age, man!” > > Erin rode up, having stopped to call 911, and the young man who owned > the bike came up huffing and puffing and was ever thankful to have the > bike back. > > Most of the time, I count myself as one of the slower people out there > on a commute filled with lycra-clad boys riding carbon racers. At 52, > I’m all for bike lingering. But today, I busted it out at the end of > a scalding hot ride and beat a kid who in all likelihood was not two > but three times younger than me, and I caught up to him when it > counted and got a stolen bike back. > > Feels damn good. > > Yours, > Liesl > a.k.a. RivChicaWarrior, Superhero! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
