Apparently it is ok to now take things that aren't locked up

WOW!

I just hate thieves. That stinks!

This makes me so mad that people have no problem stealing from others. And while they're home, too!

Wait, is she in touch with WalMart because she thinks it's their fault?

I always worry that one of our bikes will be stolen from my garage. I should like them but I don't.

That sucks. Gosh, we used to dump our bikes all over the front yard as kids, and actually mine still do that sometimes. It seems really awful to think of someone taking it right out of your garage.

If they go in to your garage, it's breaking and entering.
My son's bike was stolen from our garage about 5 years ago.
A couple days later, my ds and dh were driving in our neighborhood and they saw the POS riding it and my ds knew it was a kid that went to his school.
The next day, I went to my ds's school right before it let out with the cops and the bike was on the rack.
We waited for the kid to walk out and get on the bike, which he did, and boom, he was busted!

My daughter's bike was stolen from our yard, from behind our fence, in the middle of the day. The gate was open. We'd talked to DD many, many times about being sure to close the gate, but the latch was "iffy" and wouldn't easily close, so the gate was often partly open. The bike was visible from the street, so of course someone felt that it was their right to take it.

You haven't "lived" until your crying 9yo daughter asks why someone would want to steal from her.

It was a while before we could replace it, too. It still annoys me.

It was a factor in our decision to move from that neighborhood. And while our house was on the market, and we were in a long process of a local move, someone stole our $300 gas grill from our back porch. Our screened-in back porch, which had clear glass doors onto our kitchen and dining room. In other words -- someone really, really ballsy stole it. (We'd do the thing where we'd leave different lights on in the house and park our cars differently when we were there and when we left.)

Now her bike is stored in a locked storage space next to our front door. The door has no windows so no one can see what's inside.

If I stored a bike outside, even behind a locked gate, I would lock it every time, with one of those specialty bike locks that can't be cut. I'd hook it to something that was attached to the ground -- either a giant, heavy bike rack or a light post. Not kidding.

Thievery pisses me off.

Honestly, it isn't that new of a phenominum. I had my bike stolen off the school bike rack when I was a kid. That was in the late 1960s and again in the late 1970s another one, a 20 year old balloon tired rust bucket, had the lock cut and it too was stolen from in front of my apartment. Found the chain in the dumpster. Never saw the bike again. Very possibly it got a new coat of paint and didn't look like "mine" any more.

Why did your friend call Walmart instead of the police? Does she expect them to replace the bike?

Sorry about your nephews bike. To have someone actually come on your property and enter your home is just wrong.

I've seen local stories on the news of wheelchairs stolen (more than once) where the family cannot afford to replace it. WTF would someone do with a wheelchair?

My kids had both of their bikes stolen when they left them on our front porch to come inside to get a drink! The kicker is, that not 30 minutes later, my dd saw a kid she knew from school riding her bike. He had already stripped the manufacturer's stickers and put a different, best up, crappy seat on it. She chased the boy down and demanded he give her and her brother's bikes back. He gave hers back, but wouldn't get our son's bike back from his little brother. So we called the police.

While waiting, I gathered photos of the bikes with my kids on the bikes that day to help identify them. The officer went to visit the family. When he knocked you could hear the mom inside the house yelling about stealing bikes and the police at the door. When she finally answered the door, she told the officer she didn't know where her kids were. She said they were probably outside somewhere riding the new bikes their aunt just bought for them! Long story short, the officer told us that my son was out of luck because even through I had photos of my son riding the bike earlier that day, since I didn't have the serial number recorded we were out of luck.

That day my kids learned that the system doesn't always work for the good people or victims, and lying and theft are acceptable and pays off. The officer even admitted he knew this family and knew the bike was my son's, he just won't pursue it because it wasn't worth it.

We live in a very safe area with little crime, but there have been many incidents of theft from garages that are left open or cars in driveways. Our local paper/ had warned people about this. It sounded like if caught people would be charged. That being said, my brothers live in Portland. They meet at one brothers house and then ride bike to work and they have nice bikes. A few months ago someone stole the bikes from the backyard. They reported it but nothing was really done. Shortly after the owner of a local bike shop called them and said that someone brought one of the bikes in to have the pedals taken off (they had fancy pedals or something). My brothers called the police and gave then the info hey had and nothing was done

I'm glad you did that.  I hope everyone saw him get busted so they know not to trust him.  Stealing is not okay.