This is a true story. The names have been changed to avoid embarrassment.
It's 11 AM on a Tuesday in the San Fernando Valley. Lou leaves the bowling alley after his weekly
gathering with friends and goes to collect his six-month-old e-bike outside. There are no bicycles in the rack.
At 11:07 Lou calls Thelma on her cell phone. It goes to voice mail. He tries again. No answer.
He keeps calling but also sends messages. "Someone took my bike. I need a ride." Then two minutes later, "Help."
Two minutes after that, "Hello?"
Thelma is entering Costco when she hears a buzz from her phone. She checks and discovers that not only has
Lou called eight times, but she has left her cell phone on vibrate since Sunday when she turned the ringer
off for church. Lou has warned her about not turning the ringer back on before. She checks her messages and
realizes that at least Lou has not been involved in an accident.
She calls Lou. As soon as he starts talking, she breaks in. "I'll be right there." She hangs up and
heads for the car.
When Thelma arrives, she recognizes Lou's white hair. He is sitting outside the bowling alley in the August heat.
Thelma stops and moves to the passenger seat.
Lou gets in and says, "Let's go to the Topanga Police Station and make a report." He takes the wheel
and they drive off.
The officer at the desk is patient, taking down all the information. "They took the lock, too?" he asks.
"Everything," Lou nods. "But I have a tracker on the bike."
"Well, if you can find it, call 911 and don't approach anyone. We don't want the situation to escalate."
He gives Lou a copy of the front page of the police report.
Back in the car, Lou takes out his cell phone and checks the tracking app. He and Thelma drive to the area
near the Sherman Way Orange Line. Lou parks the car. They both get out and walk around. There's a tent city
on one side of the street and a line of school buses parked along the other side. They walk down the middle
of the street. After passing the last tent, Lou veers off toward another entrance to the parking lot. He points
back to the front of the second-to-last tent. "It's right there," he whispers to Thelma.
Lou moves the car so he's closer to the tent. There's no way to watch from the front without being seen by the
tent inhabitants. There's no shade, either.
Lou calls 911 at 1:30 PM. They are told to wait.
There's a lot of activity in the encampment. Men ride up on bikes and passed through a hole in the chain link
fence from the parking lot and the same men reemerge from the hole with plastic bags of goods.
"This is like a swap meet," Thelma observes.
It's hot in the car. Thelma sees Lou sweating. It's 100 degrees outside and hotter in the car even with
the windows down. She checks Google maps and sees there's a Burger King a few blocks away. "I'll get us a Coke,"
she says. Besides that, she needs a bathroom. That's one of the perks of being an old lady.
Thelma comes back with the Coke. They sit and sip. At 3 PM, Thelma calls the Topanga Station to see if someone
can give her any information. The same officer picks up the phone. He tells her the report has gone out to the
beat officers, but it is a non-priority call. There's nothing he can do from behind a desk. "Okay," Thelma says.
At 3:45 PM, a man in a blue jacket with dark pants rides off with the e-bike, going north across the parking lot.
Lou and Thelma get out of the car and watch. Thelma tries to get a photo, but it happens too fast and she's all
thumbs calling up the camera on her cell phone. The pannier that held the tracker is no longer on the e-bike.
Thelma calls the Topanga Station to tell them they are breaking off the surveillance since the bike is gone.
As they are driving on Sherman Way, Lou's cell phone rings. Thelma answers. The police are now in the parking
lot and want to talk to Lou. If they had been there ten minutes before, they would have recovered Lou's e-bike.
Lou turns the car around and heads back. The police cruiser is in the parking lot where Lou and Thelma first parked.
They take the description of the man and the e-bike.
Thelma mentions the "swap meet" activity.
"This is a known high-crime area," one of the police officers said.
"Oh, you're aware already," Thelma replies.
The officers say they'll look around and call if they find the bike.
Thelma and Lou can't fault the police. There are too many crimes and the police are stretched thin. And
they were busy on other priority calls.
But still, as they head for home, Lou says, "Ten minutes!" He's not sure he'll get another e-bike. He's got
a bum leg and that was the only e-bike he found that fit him.
"Maybe I'm just too old for all this stuff ," he says.
Epilogue
Three weeks later, Lou buys another e-bike. He has three bike locks, a tracker hidden on the bike, and
a bike alarm.