Mercury Rising #3, December 1991
On Friday, November 15th a messenger from Executive Courier was attackedby two bicycle thieves, one was wielding a long screw driver. The thieftried to stab him while the messenger rescued his bike.
Several months earlier Cartoon was also attacked, while trying to savehis bicycle from the same fate. His attackers used a chain on him. LuckilyCartoon escaped with his bike, without serious injury.
There have been many other incidents of attempted bicycle theft accompaniedby violence. I, myself, had to tackle one suspected thief off my bike.After he got off the ground, while I was carrying my bike away, he startedmaking threatening gestures towards his back pocket, like he was goingto pull a knife and stab me.
It is obvious that these people are dangerous beyond the scope of anynormal property thief. Why? Why this vendetta? And why have they recentlytaken their hatred out on messengers? It seems to me it would be saferand easier to steal bicycles from a less formidable group of cyclists.Maybe they figure the greater the risk the funnier the crime. I reallywill never understand their mentality. Well what ever the reason, the theftsneed to stop.
Where can we turn for assistance? The police don't really seem to betoo concerned. Maybe they are too busy, too busy shining up light polesremoving Agnos posters? Who knows? Ultimately it will be up to us to endthe careers of these scum.
I have made another step towards doing just that. Listed below is anaccurate description of two of our suspects:
They both dress very similar to most messengers, kind of a mid-eightiespast-punk look, with leather basketball shoes, jeans, and flannels. Bothare fairly matched in height and stature, being not too tall at about 6’2".Both have ruddy complexions. Both have slight beards and mustaches. Theyboth are dirty and unwashed. They could be brothers even, but not twins.One has dirty blond hair and the other has dark hair. Their bikes lookvery similar to most messenger bikes, which is not surprising consideringthey probably were at some point. The blond rides a red standard cro-moframed mountain bike with a few stickers, and the brunette rides a blackmountain bike. The most obvious detail of their appearance is that, eventhough they look it, vaguely, they are not messengers. They don't ridewith purpose like someone doing tags, they ride around aimlessly lookingfor their next victims.
If you have any more information about thieves or stolen bicycles pleasecon tact Bongo of Mercury Rising. Our ad dress is: 564 Mission #152. Unfortunatelyyou can only mail information to this box. If you rather make the deliveryyourself you can drop stuff off at Harvey’s Place, 5th and Shipley. He'llgladly give us the scoop.
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