“You think you had a bad day? Listen to this…”

“Dear PoPville,

You think you had a bad day? Listen to this… On 6/14 I was woken up by my alarm clock, which is odd, because usually my dog wakes me up 30 min before that goes off. I get out of bed to discover my dog is on the floor, shaking and having trouble breathing. I rush her to the vet. The vet says she’s stable and breathing, but they want to hold her for the day.

I go home, shower, get ready for work (for the last month, on top of my job responsibilities, I’ve been filling in for my co-worker who has been out, so I’ve been crazy busy). I’m running late at this point, but I’m still shaken up because of my dog, so I don’t really care (and I knew my boss would understand). I go to the garage in the basement of my building to get my bike, only to discover it is not there. Some asshole broke into my apartment complex, made his way to the garage, and stole my bike. It’s a 2011 Schwinn Merge hybrid bike (photo above.)

I walk to work. My girlfriend calls me. We’re supposed to go on vacation Saturday and have a friend watch our dog and stay in our apartment for a week. She says if our dog is very sick, we should cancel the trip. I agree. I look into it, no cancellation policy (which I figured). That doesn’t really sink in because my dog is on my mind. I call the vet for an update; she isn’t sure if my dog can get released and might need to stay the night in the emergency animal hospital.

I can hardly do my work, because I love that dog so much, so the stack continues to grow. I’m not even thinking about the bike at this moment. After work, I would normally ride my bike to go to my gym class, but can’t do that. Anyway, I want to check on my dog. I go to the vet. Thankfully, my dog is released and looks in rough shape, but is in good spirits. I’m incredibly relieved, but the consequences of not having my bike, which I’ve been pushing back all day, start to flow in. But I still can’t think about that because I have a message from my building manager and she wants to speak with me. At night I work a second job as a freelance video editor, and have at least 5 videos to make each week. My goal each night is to get to bed before 2AM. I’m behind schedule, and now that the building manager wants to call the police, I’m looking at a 4AM night. We call the police, file a report.

They ask me how much it’s worth. No idea. My bike can’t have a high retail value used. And mine was VERY used. Don’t get me wrong, I regularly kept it in good shape (washed it, oiled the chain, and tuned it up every few months). But, for example, the easy release for adjusting the seat snapped off last year, and I just replaced it with old gopro parts to it, and wrapped the bar of the seat with tape so it stopped sliding down. When I bought it a few years ago, I bought it on sale, and it was originally priced for $500. Also, I road it 6 days out of the week for the past 3 years (except winter), so it’s had some play time. As of writing this, I’m still not sure if the gf and I are taking the vacation. As I walked to work today, I realized that I can’t get from work, to home, and back to work in an hour by walking. So, I’m not getting paid for the extra time it takes me to walk home and back. Normally that wouldn’t bother me, but the vet bill was about $1,500. It looks like I’m losing the vacation money, paying a vet bill, and taking on more freelance work in order to pay all of that off, so sleep is out of my future. I can’t even look at buying a cheap bike at the moment, because I can’t even afford that. My only hope is finding my bike out there somewhere. If anyone sees my bike, please let me know. I can’t afford another one. Here’s a description of the asshole who took my bike: Thin, black male. Has dreadlocks and a lot of grey hair. He’s around 50 years old.

And the bike description one more time: 2011 Schwinn Merge hybrid bike.”