Here, then gone,... and back again!

I have an incredible story to tell. So here goes: my bike was stolen Sunday morning around 8am, from in front of our apartment about three weeks ago. While laying in bed, I actually heard the person riding away with the second love of my life (this bike is really comfortable and rides well, despite its age). Needless to say, I was devastated. But you have to understand, bike theft is extremely commonplace at UCSB because it is the most widely used source of transportation for most everyone in Santa Barbara. I almost feel like if you haven't gotten a bike stolen during your time in SB, you can't really say that you ever lived the UCSB life. Anyway, I digress. So ever since that fateful day, I have determinedly been searching campus for my little blue bike. And yesterday, coming back from a hard days work at the library, I found it. It was in front of the engineering building, looking exactly as I had left it (with a bit more lube on the chain of course!). I was ecstatic and couldn't believe it. This is no easy feat- I'm talking about a campus with like 50,000 bikes. Andreas and I tried to figure out how to get it back in one piece (it was locked really well with a kryptonite lock)- we asked construction workers, facilities management, Campus Security and finally went to the police. In the meantime, we took every unlocked/available piece of the bike (right down to the pin that holds the wheels to the frame!) we could so the culprit couldn't just ride it away while we searched for a solution. Finally, we persuaded a cop to follow us to the site and had Campus Security cut the lock off with heavy duty bolt cutters. We put that baby in our car with such a sense of accomplishment. It was a great feeling! I just wish we could have staked out to see the look on the poor tool's face that had his stolen bike stolen back!!! HA! Serves you right culprit... stealing from a pregnant woman...