Mercury Rising #3, December 1991
On Friday, November 15th a messenger from Executive Courier was attacked by two bicycle thieves, one was wielding a long screw driver. The thief tried to stab him while the messenger rescued his bike.
Several months earlier Cartoon was also attacked, while trying to save his bicycle from the same fate. His attackers used a chain on him. Luckily Cartoon escaped with his bike, without serious injury.
There have been many other incidents of attempted bicycle theft accompanied by 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 started making threatening gestures towards his back pocket, like he was going to pull a knife and stab me.
It is obvious that these people are dangerous beyond the scope of any normal property thief. Why? Why this vendetta? And why have they recently taken their hatred out on messengers? It seems to me it would be safer and easier to steal bicycles from a less formidable group of cyclists. Maybe they figure the greater the risk the funnier the crime. I really will never understand their mentality. Well what ever the reason, the thefts need to stop.
Where can we turn for assistance? The police don't really seem to be too concerned. Maybe they are too busy, too busy shining up light poles removing Agnos posters? Who knows? Ultimately it will be up to us to end the careers of these scum.
I have made another step towards doing just that. Listed below is an accurate description of two of our suspects:
They both dress very similar to most messengers, kind of a mid-eighties past-punk look, with leather basketball shoes, jeans, and flannels. Both are fairly matched in height and stature, being not too tall at about 6’2". Both have ruddy complexions. Both have slight beards and mustaches. They both 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 look very similar to most messenger bikes, which is not surprising considering they probably were at some point. The blond rides a red standard cro-mo framed mountain bike with a few stickers, and the brunette rides a black mountain bike. The most obvious detail of their appearance is that, even though they look it, vaguely, they are not messengers. They don't ride with purpose like someone doing tags, they ride around aimlessly looking for their next victims.
If you have any more information about thieves or stolen bicycles please con tact Bongo of Mercury Rising. Our ad dress is: 564 Mission #152. Unfortunately you can only mail information to this box. If you rather make the delivery yourself you can drop stuff off at Harvey’s Place, 5th and Shipley. He'll gladly give us the scoop.
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