As always, we had a wonderful week in Germany and Switzerland over the holidays, but there was a nadir moment: my son’s bike was stolen in Switzerland.
My Son’s Bike Was Stolen In Switzerland
One of my favorite things to do when I am visiting my in-laws is to ride my bike through the Tüllinger Berg from Lörrach, Germany to Basel, Switzerland. We start the 7km bike ride at the house and wind up at the Anglican church in Basel I enjoy attending when we are in the area. My son Augustine likes to accompany me it has become a great father-son tradition.
This year was a very dry in Germany, but also very cold…at or below freezing for most of the trip.
We began our journey and about halfway through the forest, poor Augustine’s rear tire deflated. He tried to go on, but bikers know what it is like to try to ride a bike when you have a flat tire: grueling.
At this point, we were in the middle of the forest on the Swiss side and had a choice to make? Turn around and go back, which would take quite a long time, considering we’d have to walk, or hide the bike and put Augustine in the basket on my bike, lol?
We chose the latter. First, we took the bike off a trail into the forest and laid it down, placing leaves and a large log over it. Augustine then climbed into the basket of my bike and I rapidly biked into Basel. We must have been quite a spectacle riding down the main streets of Basel with a 9-year-old plopped into a basket intended for groceries, but we made it safely and time to church, which meets in a chapel of the main cathedral in Basel, the Basler Münster.
The church service was excellent with lovely Christmas carols and a stirring sermon on the massacre of the innocents (the infant boys Herod ordered killed in the gospel according to Matthew over fear of the Christ) gave Augustine and me much to contemplate.
Augustine did not enjoy the ride in the basket as much as I did, so we just rode back to the train station…no need to ride through the forest in sub-freezing weather at 7:00 pm.
Next morning, Augustine and I returned to the forest to claim his bike…but it was gone. Who in the heck would go to the trouble to steal a kid’s bike that was hidden in the forest (apparently not hidden well enough).
I guess it should not come as a huge surprise that even in Switzerland, there is theft. After all, 20 years ago, during my first trip to Switzerland, my car was broken into in Geneva and my luggage stolen…
> Read More: Remembering My First Trip To Europe
But I guess I’m hopelessly naive to think that such theft would not take place in a place like Switzerland or Germany. Yes, they have locks on their doors too. Sad…
CONCLUSION
Thankfully, this particular bike was just a “hand-me-down” from a neighbor and my son had largely outgrown it anyway, but my daughter could have used it in a year or two.
I guess the lesson is that even when you bury your bike in the Swiss forest, you should not expect to find it in the morning…
Or someone saw it abandoned (after being possibly stolen) and turned it in to lost and found.
A bike in the forest under stuff doesn’t look as if it is someone’s property they will come back for – you littered the pristine woods 😉
Yes, I don’t think it was stolen either. A good Samaritan must have thought it was just trash.
It was there for like 14 hours and well off the road and deliberately hidden. Are you trying to tell me there are people who sift through the forests in Switzerland looking for trash that requires wandering well off the hiking trail to see?
Der Wilde Mann?
I mean, about as likely as people sifting through the forests of Switzerland looking for stuff to steal that requires wandering well off the hiking trail to see, no?
Some people – at least in Poland – actually clean forests as a hobby. Maybe it’s the same way in Switzerland? I find it plausible that someone was hiking or went for a walk and decided to clean it up rather than take it for themselves.
Reading the story my thought was that by hiding the bike it signals it has been abandoned. If you had set it against the tree with the flat tire people might have assumed it was left behind due to the flat tire. Obviously doing the latter it would be a more inviting target for thieves but hiding it gives the perception that no one wanted it.
If I was a kid playing in the woods and saw a ball or whatever under leaves/brush I would assume it was abandoned and no one wanted it.
AirTag everything. On a bike, you could use one as a decoy to deter theft, while hiding in operating AirTag actual tracking. Thus saving the good Samaritan a trip to drop it off….
Oh no! That’s horrible. Sorry to hear this, Matt. Yes, theft can happen anywhere, and often when you least expect it. I’m not sure what you could’ve honestly done. Ideally, your insurance can help cover the cost of the damage. Good to have documentation via official police report. I’m sure you’ve dealt with claims before over the years. It is surprising for this to happen in CH, of all places. I imagine it was hard for kids to understand; there are lessons in everything. Wishing you the best with this.
Why wasn’t it locked? Was the plan to park it unlocked at the destination?
Yes, Switzerland is not heaven. They have evil. On the other hand, European health care can be bad but Switzerland has some real and positive advantages over Germany and Italy. Online, there are lots of propaganda memes wrongly slamming America. I suspect some are Russian bots.
Among European nations, Switzerland was really bullied by Trump, but how satisfying for CH that after a little gift from Rolex, Trump relaxed the tariff.
I only had one lock and while Aug’s bike was a cheap free gift, my bike was an expensive one…I needed the lock for that while we were at church.
Even in your post about bicycle theft in Switzerland, your TDS rears its ugly head…… SMH
Yes, crime and evil exist in Switzerlamd as they do everywhere else. Just at much lower rates than one finds in the rest of the developed world. Nothing to do with propaganda memes slamming America by suspected bots, Russian or otherwise.
Are you sure you went back and looked in the right spot!
Positive.
I did my Swiss tour 30 years ago with a dear friend born and raised there. She remarked with anger that… times had changed since she was young. Leave it at that.
I found it interesting someone was clever enough to find the hidden bike that fast. Technically it appeared abandoned.
Funny, in early December I was in that very area, even at that Christmas market (with the giant tree) in Basel and then took the train to Lorrach to rent a car before getting some zoom zoom Autobahn time up to visit some friends in Dortmund. The Basel area is supremely underrated – great city, bike disappearance notwithstanding.
Remember that no place on this planet is safe enough anymore…
Was there any way you could have left a note on it your name and contact info in case it was found?
In retrospect, I wish I had, but I had no pen and paper with me.
Two points:
As any Swiss (including my mom – frequently) will tell you, Geneva is not Switzerland. They’re pretty vehement about it. Accordingly I wouldn’t count what happened there as being indicative of the country as a whole.
On Augustine’s bike I’d say that it’s 50/50 on whether it might have been considered abandoned. If I found a bike literally off the beaten path that was under leaves and a log as a child I’d at least consider that it was abandoned. If not, even Switzerland has some bad apples. I’d still go back a couple of days later in case some kid took the bike out of ignorance but their parents thought it might not be abandoned and made them put it back.
I’ve been to Switzerland a few times and the only place I did not like was Geneva. It definitely did not feel like Switzerland.
What is it about Geneva that doesn’t “feel like Switzerland”?