Well, today my greatest fear came true - no, I didn't accidentally go to school in my underwear, it's Saturday - and my (BoE-provided) bicycle was missing from my station when I got off the train. I don't know if it was stolen or impounded, or which one's more likely; it was locked up, and I've also left it in the same spot at the same time several times before with no problems. In case it was impounded, I asked the station agent where impounded bikes get taken (in Japanese) and he made it clear that he couldn't answer me and probably wouldn't if he could (usually I assume the best but it was pretty clear that I was getting the "if I don't feed it, it will go away" treatment).
Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy or anything - if it was impounded, I probably had it coming, etc - but I wanted to know if anyone else has had their bike run away on them. How did you deal with it? Should I walk into work on Monday, tell my supervisor, and sort out how to restore or replace it? Will they already know anyway, since it had a BoE label on it? Should I just buy one on my own and make that the BoE bike and forget about it?
If it's owned by the BOE and it has the BOE's label on it, if it was impounded I imagine they would have called the BOE. So maybe you'll show up on Monday and everything will be sorted out anyway ;)
Either way, I would still tell someone it's missing.
Err, yeah, wow, rereading what I typed it sounds like I was thinking of not telling anyone at all and just hoping nobody noticed - I definitely wasn't really considering that (since the bike is technically not mine). I just don't know what to expect in terms of what my part in dealing with it will be, or if there's a way I can possibly handle it on my own and not have to give my supervisor something else to worry about. Of course that's all assuming it wasn't just good ol' fashioned stolen in the first place...
I had 2 bikes, one from BOE, and one from a friend that had bought it then left.
The nice one, that my friend had given me went missing.
I left it infront of Heiwado at Nagahama Station. I left it for 2 days (something I had never done before). I had always come back after 1 day.
I had used 2 locks and the locks weren't there. It was over Xmas, so I thought the Heiwado jackass had taken the locks off, thrown them out and taken my bike home for his kids.
That or someone stole it(it was Xmas time and there were lots of foreigners hanging around that area). It was a nice bike so I wouldn't be surprised if it was stolen. I was pissed off cause I hated the other bike and didn't want to use it.
I went to the police box and told them exactly what happened. They asked me all the numbers on the bike etc, which of course I didn't know. One of my judo teachers came into the police box thinking I had been arrested for something. Anyways, that's a different story.
I told them all the details and told him the unique qualities of the bike, where the rust was, the rip in the seat etc.
He told me straight up that most bikes arn't found, but that occasionally some people just take them for joyrides when they are drunk.
After a few months, my bike was never returned.
One other JET Colin lost his bike. After heading down with his school who reported all the numbers etc, the bike was found.
Morale of the story, know the numbers on the bike and you have a better chance of getting it back.
There is no disadvantage of reporting it. Cheers.
My bike was stolen two times last month. I made a police report at the local koban. Later, I found the kid who stole it and got it back from him.
I suggest buying a small chain lock. The built in spoke lock is easy to open without a key, which was probably how your bike was stolen.
If you report your bike stolen with the police, they will liase with the neighbourhood groups and get people out looking for it. They will also do spot checks of foreigners, um, I mean people who look suspicious, to see if they've stolen it. Meanwhile, you can be looking around pachinko parlours, supermarkets and places like that to see if it's been joyridden. Mine was stolen from in front of Nagahama station, and the police found it within a month. They told me that they get bikes back more often than not.