Stolen Bike

Huge bummer, someone stole my bike last night!!!  I am a mixture of sad & angry, and it has totally ruined my day!  See, here in The Netherlands bikes are very important, not to mention very expensive!  Besides often popping to the stores on the bike, one of my favorite things to do is go on a family bike ride.  My daughter rides with my husband, I bike next to them, and we go all over town visiting playgrounds.  Now that winter is passed, I was really looking forward to those outings.  And now some @#?! ruined it by stealing my bike!  It was there last night when my husband returned home, he even parked his bike behind it.  Then this morning, the second time I let the dog out, I realized there was only 1 bike and not 2!  So somewhere in a 12hr period, someone walked up to the back of our terrace and stole a LOCKED bike.  Why my bike?  I really liked it, it was really nice, and it was expensive - still €150 second hand!  I guess we're lucky they didn't take my husbands bike because that's the one with the child seat attached... my daughter would have been heart broken if she couldn't go on bike rides with dad anymore.  There were lots of other bikes in the parking lot, even on the street in front of our apartment there are at least 50, why mine!  (Even more upsetting, we were just 10 feet away, asleep in our beds.)  Just a month ago I wrote about the rise of crime in our town, and now we're victims again!  (In July 2012 someone tried to steal our scooter, which ended up costing us money because insurance wouldn't cover the damage and the apartment committee said even though it was their property they're not responsible, nice!) 

Hope you are all having a better day than mine!

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

What's Happening?

If you're not interested in reading me grumbling about crime in our area then I would skip this post over...

What's happening?  When I first moved to The Netherlands over 10yrs ago it took me a long to get used to how safe it is was.  It was hard for me to comprehend that I could walk down the street alone at night... that I never had to consider locking the doors of the car as we drove... that the kids hanging on the corner were still harmless, just big mouths... and that if you got into a confrontation a gun wouldn't even come to mind.  But now, one of the major bonuses of living in The Netherlands is starting to change.  Sure, there was always crime in the big cities or petty crime here & there in the smaller ones.  But lately every time I open the local online news I'm reading of more and more serious crimes, ones comparable to where I came from in The States, ones that didn't used to be so abundant here in the past.  Within the past 2 months there have been at least 2 store robberies at gun point, one was even across the street from my child's elementary!  (And another in a town not so far away.)  Then this evening I open the news again, and 2 gas stations within 10 minutes of our apartment were held up at knife point, then there was a 3rd across town.  The Netherlands has so much to offer, a healthy living style, great health insurance for the children, clean streets & parks (of course all paid for by the extreme amount of tax people pay, but that's besides the point).  Crime seems to be on the rise, guns are starting to become more prevalent despite the strict laws.  And besides weapons, it seems like some of the people are changing or maybe the numbers of criminals are increasing... it seems as if they have less respect for the world around them.  I hope this isn't true.

In The States, I can barely watch the news, they often use scare tactics to get viewers or get people hooked waiting for the next update.  And it often seems like endless negative report after another.  Maybe that's what's happening here.  Maybe the crime was there all along and the media just never focused on it.  But now they are, and the scare tactics are working.  It makes me question the safety of Eindhoven, makes me wonder if it's still the right place for us.  Everywhere has its pluses and minuses, I guess I'm just surprised as to what is happening here, somewhere I didn't expect.  I try and tell myself no matter where you go in the world there is crime, just some places worse than others.  I enjoyed living with little concern about crime around us, but I guess that was naïve anyway. 

Sorry for the depressing post, and I promise I will get around to happy fun posts about our vacation to Florida.

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Scooter O' Scooter

As you might have read in an old post, we have a scooter (moped, whatever you want to call it).  But we let it sit for so long we could no longer get it started.  After many talks we decided to take it to a garage and get it serviced.  While helping a friend move, my husband and his friends dropped by our apartment and loaded the old scooter into the truck and headed to the garage.  Within a few days we were able to pick it up; when I heard how little we had to pay I knew it hadn't been serviced, but merely jump started (possibly even a new battery).  I wasn't there so it was out of my control.  No matter what, it worked; even though it was quite rusty, had mildew in the trunk, not all of the lights worked, and had pieces hanging off it.  Everyday we started it to keep it running but we knew we needed to actually use it. 

So one day while our daughter was at her aunt's we decided to take it for a spin for old times sake.  Before our daughter was born we often would just go for a ride around town or the parks, enjoy the weather, and each others company.  We stopped off at a couple stores, one of which being the pet shop.  Knowing we'd most likely be buying the puppy the next day we went ahead and picked up the things she needed.  You should have seen us trying to drive back home to drop off the massive box with the dog cage inside.  In front of the grocery store the scooter decided not to work anymore, we were close to home so walking it back wasn't going to be so bad.  But luckily for us it started just before we gave up.  Despite the drizzling rain and the risk of it copping out again we headed to the park.  We sat next to the canal chatting, taking funny pictures & movies, and snacking.  It was a fun afternoon, and looked forward to getting the scooter fully serviced for future afternoon jaunts.

But life had something else in mind, we woke up Friday morning to find out someone tried to steal our scooter in the middle of the night!  My husband called on the way to work and said he thought he saw our scooter parked in the space next to his within our private parking lot.  I darted outside and sure enough the scooter was not at the bottom of the terrace stairs.  When I reached the parking lot I saw our scooter near the gate; I was glad they didn't take it but I wasn't sure what kind of damage they had done.  I pulled out my phone and took photos for the police and insurance company, not daring disturb the crime scene.  Quickly I realized the entire ignition was missing, and I was sure to add that to my conversation with the police. 
The police said that didn't send officers by for scooter thefts and that I'd have to fill out a report online.  Not wanting to upset the neighbors by leaving the scooter in their parking spot I went to move it.  But as I latched on to the handle bars, it computed that the thieves had managed to remove the ignition in order to start it, but when they couldn't get the steering column out of the locked position they gave up.  So there I stood, the steering column locked and turned to the left, without being able to use the key I could only push it in circles.  It was early in the morning and I didn't have it in me to work the scooter back up to our terrace.  I lifted it a few times, first the back then the front (they're surprisingly heavy) until it was in my husbands spot and there I left it until he arrived home.  I spent the next hour, filing an online police report, informing insurance, and putting up a note in the apartment hallway to warn the neighbors.  In the end we found out it's our own problem.  The police aren't going to do a thing, apparently insurance only covers an accident not theft, and the apartment committee said they'd do nothing and I should inform the neighbors myself.  So we had the scooter up and working for less than two weeks.  Now we have to pay the garage to come & pick it up, put in a new ignition, and do a general service, great!