I mentioned in another post here, about my wrought iron furniture being stolen, and during the same time span, our two dogs were stolen, 20 years ago, and I'm still sad about our pets.

I also wrote rather recently about my bikes on the Garden Junk forum...Someone had posted a subject about thieves. A few people had showed pictures of their old bikes...painted and sitting in their gardens...many of them were painted one color, yes, all over, tires, seats, etcs.,Maybe you saw them and maybe, like me, you're first thought was,not in my yard...If someone had told me 5 years ago, that I would enjoy "junk" I would of probably said, (or at least thought), When what freezes over?!?

But gradually changed my mind...

We have our daughter's old gym set in the backyard, it was just a frame, then DH hung a long wooden swing with chains to it...I was alone one day, and decided to paint it blue...then, I had an idea and soon was in the barn pulling out tools, lawn mowers and so on, to reach two old bikes...that we just hadn't bothered to throw away yet...I sprayed one all-over blue and the other all-over red...propped one on each side of the gym frame... and later, planted vines to grow up them...Soon, it was looking colorful...I water the flowers at night or early morning...There are security lights surrounding us in almost every yard, but still dark in some places in our yard...One night I walked to the back to water and heard a commotion... like scuffling feet...I stopped... when it was silent again, I continued watering.

The next day, I found out what the noise had been...Thieves had stolen my two bikes, ripped them from the vines which now laid on the ground...

When I told DH about it, he said, "Why would anybody want to steal them.?"

He's not exactly interested in "junk",ha, but he is a pack-rat (Tools), Though he won't admit it.

There are two young guys who live about a mile from us, on another road...They walk everywhere. One of them knocked on our door one day, asking DH to take him about 5 miles away...to pick up a bike that someone had stolen from him, and was found...seems someone had called to tell him the location of the bike...Sounded "fishy" to me...This guy asked him a few times to drive him somewhere...DH said he felt sorry for the guy. Then, my bikes were stolen...Sorry for him, that is until one day, I looked out and saw this guy looking at DH's saws, etcs. he had left on a table..in our backyard...

I thought I had to do something...so I opened the door, and asked, 'Can I help you?'...He ignored that, so I asked again. He turned and walked very slowly inside the open gate of our fence and was about 3 feet from me, when he sneakily looked up from his cap and said, "That wood up there, you want to give it away?"...There was a stack of posts that DH had bought for our yard... I knew that guy wasn't interested in wood...Then he asked, "That your car?"..."Will you take me to a store?" When I said no, he said, "Your husband takes me."...I said, 'Well, I'm not him, and he's not here.'...He finally left.

Another time, he knocked so loudly on the side door, my daughter was visiting, and she said, "I'll call the police."...

But I answered the door...He said, "Is your husband home?"...No...He slowly nodded his head toward my daughter's truck..."That's his truck." No it isn't..."That is his truck." he insisted.He wanted me to take him somwhere...I told him to ask somebody else...Anyway, he finally left.

DH knows some of the policemen...and finally asked them about the two guys...They know them well...They put them in jail for awhile...and even offered to help them find a job...They refused the help...They told DH that their Mother keeps throwing them out of the house and then they live under a bridge...I asked what the police said was the worse thing that they do and DH said, "They break into houses."

Then, I remembered his old bike that DH used to ride...one he was "gonna fix some day"... It has no seat...it only has a steel post, whatever it's called, stuck up, that a bike seat attaches to...Back to the barn, and pulled out the old rusty no seater...

He shook his head when I told him that I was going to buy a big white poster and use a black marker to write on it:

TO THE PERSON(s) WHO STOLE OUR BIKES..........YOU FORGOT THIS ONE-------------->

He knew that being the usual quiet person I am, and living in a "subdued" neighborhood, I would never do such.

But I did. Once I got the nerve to put the bike and sign in our front yard, near the road, I thought it was funny...

Noone touched it...and after a few days, DH decided it was time to take his old bike to a dumpster.