Sometime around 5pm (just half an hour before I came home), Suzie (my Suzuki Burgman 650) was lifted into the back of an SUV, RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR BUILDING! Literally on the corner of the intersection in front of our building. I can’t believe it.

There were witnesses. There were several of the oblivious crossing the street that saw the whole thing and did nothing. No one asked them a question, no one called the police, no one did a thing. One of them lived in our building and came in to tell our doorman of the incident as casually as if discussing the weather.

I was walking from the subway toward the entrance to our building and looking toward the corner where I had parked Suzie early that morning, when I got that sudden cold sweat and disorientation of misplacing an important personal object – that “wait… didn’t I leave it here… and if not where is it?” feeling. I knew the spot was legal parking from reading the sign a hundred times before and parking there even more. But it was certainly gone. I thought it might have been moved as they sometimes move vehicles to another area of the neighborhood when shooting a movie, but no signs for filming had been posted so I knew it couldn’t be that.

After all of that I considered the possibility of theft, but dismissed it due to the fact that it was broad daylight and there were people all over the place (forgot for the moment that they were New York people, who are defined by their nature of being self-obsessed and unconcerned with the fortunes or misfortunes of others). But aside from the issues of the people, I still couldn’t imagine a couple of thieves having the guts to lift a bike with so much exposure, and right at a busy intersection.

The very timid asian woman who casually reported the incident to our doorman in passing has practically no detail to assist in the search. All she remembered from watching the incident in person from 20 feet away was “two Hispanic men lifted it into a gray, or maybe blue, stations wagon. Or maybe a small SUV.” No better description of the guys, no better description of the vehicle, no license plate number or anything else that could possible help.

The police came and took my report with little interest and, as expected, nothing came of it. They were sensitive enough to share the reality that Suzie was already probably in pieces being readied for shipment to other shores. I was grateful for their concern and determination to rid the city of crime by being genuinely impressed as how the criminals are easily able to evade their efforts. Go NYPD!