Auto break-in, in the Pearl -- just as I passed by.

What a crazy 45 minutes it's been.  I thought I'd go out on a night bike ride in the cool air...sure, 2:45 am why not?  There's no traffic on the roads or on the sidewalks, and it's cool enough to ride.  Things didn't go the way that I planned, however -- here's my story.

As I rode my bike north on 12th, I heard a sound that resembled a loud thud.  I looked back in the direction of the sound, and saw two guys near a car.  As I started to ride off, I had this feeling come over me that the sound I heard was that of a muffled glass break.  I thought okay, if I turn around and observe their behavior as I shine my light on them, then I'll be able to tell what the situation was.

My helmet vs. a motorcycle officer's helmet

An aside: I have this giant, white sixsixone helmet that will freak out people who apparently may hold guilty consciences of a crime currently being committed or have committed in the past. You see, it resembles the white helmet motorcycle officers wear.  Never mind, of course,  that Portland Police bicycle officers wear traditional black bicycle helmets and reflective yellow / white and black uniforms.  As they say, criminals aren't very attentive to details.  I strongly urge people to buy a white helmet like this...at the very least, you'll be amused by the reactions of some people.

As I turned around and up onto NW Kearney, they stopped what they were doing.  I directed my bike headlight towards them and my suspicion was verified -- they started walking away quickly.  So here's the dilemma....call the police or follow them on my bike?  I decide that if I follow them on my bike, I'll figure out a way to call the police at the same time.

This is going to seem strange, but have you ever seen a comedy sketch where people are trying to run away on foot, chased by a bike?  That's what I was doing...but I couldn't tell if they had a weapon, so I had to chase them slowly, staying about 100 feet behind them.

At this point, I'm trying to call the police while on the bike -- didn't work.  They split up, I followed one guy, and kept trying to call the police, when I saw a security guy (they look just like Portland Police on bikes) on his bike.

Okay, don't do what I did next: phone in one hand, I used my other hand to brake suddenly, front brake no less.  You can guess what happened, right?  Well, on the ground, I'm telling the security guy to go chase the guy in the hoodie who just broke into a car.  Meanwhile, I finally talk to police, and tell them what's going on.

Whew...got through to police.  But wait, I crashed the bike!  Thankfully, it appeared the only problem was that I pushed the alignment of the gears off, and I could fix that; a couple of scrapes (no blood), no big deal.  But now I felt that I should ride back to the broken into car, and wait until police arrived, so off I went back to NW Kearney and 12th.

I got back there and realized that they had broken into the rear passenger side window...my heart's still thumping when the police finally show up and I flag them down.  It's not easy to think and talk straight when your adrenaline is pumping.  I offered up a repeat description of what the two guys were wearing and off I went on my bike ride.  Actually, I wasn't sure whether to continue or go back -- after all, my gears were not aligned well.  I rode a few blocks, then decided heck, I'm going to circle around and see if I can't spot one of the two guys.

I got all the way to NW Couch and 12th, but I didn't see anyone, so I started back home.  As I cross NW Everett, out of the corner of my eye, there was a skinny guy wearing a light grey hoodie with a dark backpack.  Not the same hoodie, but the same backpack and the same build (thin, about 5'-9 or so), talking on the phone and walking up on NW Everett.

Again, I figure I'll do the behavioral test on this guy.  I stop, then turn around, and pull my phone out.  Sure enough he looks back at me and starts walking away from me.  He keeps looking back, so I called the police one more time to let them know that this guy may be the suspect and that he changed his clothes.

Okay, good enough.  I rode back home, and heard a car alarm go off in the direction of the vehicle that was broken into.  There's no way I'm going to let it go...I'm too damned pissed at my neighbors in the Pearl who generally suffer from apathy, and won't get up when they hear a car alarm going off.

So I followed the sound, and it was the police who set the alarm off to get the owner of the car (whose window was broken) to come down and grab their stuff from their car.  So I ask you, what's wrong with this picture?

First, the car owner left a BUNCH of stuff in the rear seat of the car, which is why someone tried to break into it, in the first place.  Second, why the hell didn't the car alarm go off when those two guys broke into the vehicle?!?

I felt bad for the owner of the car, that his / her window was broken into, but at the same time, damn....you left a bunch of stuff in the car and on top of that, used a crappy car alarm or had it set improperly.

So the bottom line is: I prevented this person from losing a bunch of personal stuff, even though I couldn't prevent their car window from being broken into.  The result on my end, is a couple of scrapes and a misaligned bike.

Crazy night.

And you know what I kept thinking about, while chasing on bike?  I don't want to be a George Zimmerman.