#KarmaCycle
March 21, 2018 4:08 PM   Subscribe

My bike was stolen a week ago Saturday. It was half my fault, half my husband’s fault, and 100 percent the fault of the person who stole it. Left with a lock, a front wheel and a heavy heart, I did the only thing I could think of: I decided to leave the thief a little note. Okay, it was a big note. […] On Wednesday evening, I got the first knock on my door.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (42 comments total) 47 users marked this as a favorite
 
More like this please, people of earth. More like this.

(Uhhh, the helping strangers in need part, not the theft catalyst.)
posted by elsietheeel at 4:25 PM on March 21, 2018 [11 favorites]


I need to know so much more. What kind of "craftsmanship" did this art dealer see in the sign? Why on earth was he "splitting" it with the other art dealer? How was this sign different from every other wacky neighbors-yelling-at-other-neighbors signs in New York and elsewhere?!

That said, great job, humanity.
posted by knownassociate at 4:26 PM on March 21, 2018 [7 favorites]


Ok that was sweet. I always need something to bolster my faith in humanity these days, thanks for sharing!
posted by Athanassiel at 4:35 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I need to know so much more. What kind of "craftsmanship" did this art dealer see in the sign? Why on earth was he "splitting" it with the other art dealer?

I suspect that this was the quirky cover story they came up with for "we want to give you money to help you, but we know that you will feel uncomfortable by that, so we have come up with this alternate reason for this money exchange that you can pretend this is about if you want so you don't have to feel embarrassed".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:35 PM on March 21, 2018 [80 favorites]


People will be such dipsticks on Nextdoor and local Facebook groups, but appeal to your neighbors directly and you can get this.

Not that I have unmitigated faith or anything. I once wandered around a major medical campus covered in blood, looking in vain for someone to help me to the ER a block away. But in general, I think that people have it in them to help, and that if you ask for a single, achievable, concrete thing, someone will step up to provide it. (Which is why the “I need exactly $7 for the next bus to see my kid” trick works.)
posted by Countess Elena at 4:37 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


What kind of "craftsmanship" did this art dealer see in the sign? Why on earth was he "splitting" it with the other art dealer?

I honestly can't tell if this is facetious or not but in case it's not I interpreted this as a fig leaf for the art dealer to essentially donate the money to the sign maker. It was split between him and his friend in Britain because they both wanted to donate.

How was this sign different from every other wacky neighbors-yelling-at-other-neighbors signs in New York and elsewhere?!

I'm guessing it was mostly the "I hope you need it more than me" part, perhaps in combination with the "I need it to get to work" and "I can't afford another one" parts.
posted by mhum at 4:37 PM on March 21, 2018 [11 favorites]


So great! Thanks for sharing. I needed that (but didn’t know...).
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 4:38 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


totally, who can forget when Jesus said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Or throw it at a hipster lol"

I kid. The sign was good.
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:52 PM on March 21, 2018 [57 favorites]


I'm split between the art dealer story being a fig leaf and the guy legit getting $10k for it in an East side gallery.
posted by GuyZero at 4:58 PM on March 21, 2018 [19 favorites]


What kind of "craftsmanship" did this art dealer see in the sign?
The art dealer who offered to buy the sign, Steven Powers, is interested “American Folk Art (including, Self-Taught and Outsider)” — which means he likes rough-around-the-edges things made by people who weren't trained as artists. If you're unfamiliar with the genre, search around and enjoy!

(Side note: Until I clicked through to Powers' Instagram conversation, I thought the article was talking about StePHen Powers, a Brooklyn artist & sign painter that I like a whole lot, who I can imagine doing something like this.)
posted by D.Billy at 5:01 PM on March 21, 2018 [23 favorites]


Wow, I am either too dense or too drunk or too cynical to realize that the art dealer may have been trying to help her out in a guise. But the art explanation helps, too, D.Billy. Thanks!
posted by knownassociate at 5:05 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I kept expecting something to happen that would make me hate this, but never did.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:17 PM on March 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


For those of you who are not into bikes, Peugeots are fancy bikes that can cost thousands of dollars

Can a New York bike nerd explain what this is about? Peugeots are cheap 1980s steel beaters in the UK.
posted by grahamparks at 5:25 PM on March 21, 2018 [10 favorites]


I'm a middle-aged Providence bike nerd but hip to the scene.

Vintage Peugeot high-end lugged steel road bikes are the apotheosis of the fixed gear conversion corksniffers. Little else can do any better. But you do best if you got back to '60s-'70s. '80s will pass but earlier is apparently the height of curated cool.
posted by BlackPebble at 5:33 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


They are also 1980s steel beaters in the US, and sometimes someone leaves them locked up outside for five years so they go from pretty and shiny vintage to sad and rusty junk incapable of going anywhere.

I think someone's revived the brand again and is selling new ones, but I dunno if they're available in the US. My guess is someone saw a price for a Peugeot automobile and got confused, since even fancy-ass vintage refit is probably not that expensive.
posted by asperity at 5:35 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]




Peugeots are cheap 1980s steel beaters in the UK.

They are expensive 1980's steel beaters in this part of the world (and I'm willing to bet, in parts of the UK too.)
posted by deadwax at 6:17 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I thought the article was talking about StePHen Powers
Just stopping in to say that I, too, was really excited by the idea that her sign was bought by ESPO, signmaker extraordinaire.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 7:59 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I am of two sides about this. On the one hand, I always love stories where people turn out to be pretty ok. On the other hand, passive aggressive pleas that suggest "those people" deserve to be robbed, but she doesn't, kinda makes me uncomfortable.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:01 PM on March 21, 2018 [9 favorites]


They report the sign says:
'To the person who stole my bicycle' but it says 'To the person who stole my bike'
'I hope you need it more than I do', when it clearly says, 'I hope you need it more than me'
I can't get to the end of the story because I looked at the picture and started to read the article and got to the quotes and went back to the picture and then read the quotes again and…
posted by unliteral at 8:50 PM on March 21, 2018 [12 favorites]


At community bike shops (most major cities in the US have at least one), people donate old bikes. Most of the bikes people donate to the community bike shops I've volunteered with are crap bikes, the kind of bikes designed to last a year or so and be thrown out. When these low-end bikes are pretty much the entirety of your world, a steel beater from the 80s that's designed to last looks more attractive.

As a society, we are failing the people who steal bikes. We can do better.
posted by aniola at 8:56 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


the note sounded like Jesus wrote it

Christ on a bike.
posted by Segundus at 9:47 PM on March 21, 2018 [13 favorites]


Can a New York bike nerd explain what this is about? Peugeots are cheap 1980s steel beaters in the UK.

Peugots are the converted fixed-gear bikes that you see tight-pantst hipsters pushing up hills. (LoL, suck it hipsters.)

But please, do not steal their bikes. That's just mean.
posted by klanawa at 10:23 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I suspect that this was the quirky cover story they came up with for "we want to give you money to help you, but we know that you will feel uncomfortable by that, so we have come up with this alternate reason for this money exchange that you can pretend this is about if you want so you don't have to feel embarrassed".

This. I have a steady income these days, although I am a loooong way from rich. I was out this afternoon with a friend of mine who is a stand-up comedian. In the winter, gigs are thin on the ground stand-up biz, and while had had a gig on the weekend, it was at a St. Paddy's Day evening. The audience was drunk and wanted to hear music, so people were heckling before he even got to the mic. He was pretty down on the whole situation, so as we were walking along the street, I asked him to tell me a joke. He thought for a second and did; I thanked him and said, "You are busking," and gave him all the money in my pockets.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:49 PM on March 21, 2018 [15 favorites]


That helpless, furious feeling of being robbed is so awful.

There was a sign like this in our neighborhood a few years ago but it was about a child's bike, with 50% more "shame on you."

As I sometime respond to Craigslist scammers: "Your mother must be proud."
posted by gottabefunky at 10:54 PM on March 21, 2018 [10 favorites]


(Who here though it was going to be the thief knocking at the door?)
posted by gottabefunky at 10:54 PM on March 21, 2018 [10 favorites]


Jesus said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Or throw it at a hipster lol"

Jesus... bubby... walk a mile in your own Birkenstocks sometime.
posted by rokusan at 12:18 AM on March 22, 2018


I suspect that this was the quirky cover story they came up with for "we want to give you money to help you, but we know that you will feel uncomfortable by that, so we have come up with this alternate reason for this money exchange that you can pretend this is about if you want so you don't have to feel embarrassed".

And people say that the US doesn't "get" Asian cultures.
posted by rokusan at 12:19 AM on March 22, 2018 [19 favorites]


ITT and in TFA about "karma" people deride others and don't seem to care about the meanness of that... nor the irony.
posted by humboldt32 at 2:03 AM on March 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


> humboldt32:
"nor the irony."

Maybe the Peugeot is a 1980s irony beater?
posted by chavenet at 2:43 AM on March 22, 2018


Yeah Peugeot's are cheap down here too. But replacing any bike in the city sucks.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:47 AM on March 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


As an anxious bike-commuter, I think it's lovely that people Actually stopped and rang. I'd have been tempted to stop, but interacting with actual humans is such a crapshoot that they're bravery makes their generosity all the more powerful.
posted by ldthomps at 7:43 AM on March 22, 2018


Also, while the hipster line is a little mean? It's also the mean that makes the sign funny instead of just pitiful holier-than-thou, and I'd argue that it MADE its artistic value.
posted by ldthomps at 7:46 AM on March 22, 2018 [4 favorites]


I suspect that this was the quirky cover story they came up with for "we want to give you money to help you, but we know that you will feel uncomfortable by that, so we have come up with this alternate reason for this money exchange that you can pretend this is about if you want so you don't have to feel embarrassed".

Yes, obviously. But now given the backstory and article, it may be worth something.
posted by Toddles at 7:50 AM on March 22, 2018


uniliteral: They report the sign says:

'To the person who stole my bicycle' but it says 'To the person who stole my bike'
'I hope you need it more than I do', when it clearly says, 'I hope you need it more than me'


I agree that the inconsistent wording is somewhat jarring. As the WaPo notes at the end of the article, it was adapted from a post on the bike owner's blog, Real Tiny Trumpet, The "bicycle/bike" and "than I do/than me" discrepancy is in the original post; it wasn't added by the WaPo.

Standing up for my fellow copy editors here -- few things make me cringe more than realizing that I've added a mistake to a story.
posted by virago at 7:52 AM on March 22, 2018 [6 favorites]


"Ha, I was thinking more like "Don't steal, turn the other cheek, fuck the rich", but that works, too."

This is why I love Jesus. The way he phrased "fuck the rich" was really good too. Also when he wrecked shit at the temple. How so many supposed Christians will worship Christ on one hand and do capitalism with the other is depressing.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:29 AM on March 22, 2018


This is great!
posted by erattacorrige at 9:18 AM on March 22, 2018


uniliteral - almost made my profile list.
posted by unliteral at 11:28 AM on March 22, 2018


paywall.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 1:40 PM on March 22, 2018


Sorry about that. Here's the original blog post and a followup.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:25 PM on March 22, 2018


The followup: My Bike Got Stolen and Now CBS’s Marc Liverman Wants to Know What I Want. It’s Not a New Bike.
I’m flattered. I’ve got to admit, I thought my 15 seconds of fame would be the disco ball at my tequilla infused funeral pre-party, but hey – I’ll take what I can get. The rest of me can’t help wondering:

Really guys? It was a bicycle and a cardboard sign. Aren’t there more worthy do-gooders and unsolved problems in the world?

Or is that the problem – that the positive stories usually feature epic saviors in foreign places, desensitizing us to the role we all play in making the world a better place?

Or is this what’s right with people? That we are fundamentally moved by small acts of kindness, like a short-circuit in the human brain for joy?

And then there’s a bit of sadness – if we are hard-wired for joy, then why is a hand-painted sign and a knock on a neighbor’s door and the act of giving a stranger $200 so spectacular?

Why doesn’t it happen more?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:27 PM on March 22, 2018 [4 favorites]


I interpreted this as a fig leaf for the art dealer to essentially donate the money to the sign maker.

I'm split between the art dealer story being a fig leaf and the guy legit getting $10k for it in an East side gallery.

That's the funny thing about art.... Now; this sign has a story. It's become an artifact of our times.

I hope that when it does sell for $10k, that the proceeds go to #karmacycle.

(I *really* hope that it sells for $10k and then gets put on display by the new owner at the Court Cycles shop, or similar.)
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 6:27 AM on March 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


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