"The licorice lock was my first mistake."

Despite its allusion to Lifehacker's deservedly harsh characterization of cable locks, the title of this post is not my favorite line from Kashmir Hill's piece in Forbes last week about recovering a bike that was stolen from her. That designation belongs to this charmer:

It’s hard to describe the feeling of seeing your stolen property listed for sale; it’s perhaps comparable to watching your significant other make out with a stranger.

Granted I've yet to spot an ad for my onetime Cannondale (or, for that matter, observe a boyfriend lock lips with someone else), but I imagine that with the above comparison Hill pretty handily captures the cocktail of emotions I'd experience if I did.

Hill's piece, "I Did Everything Wrong But Still Got My Stolen Bike Back," enumerates the mistakes the Forbes staffer made immediately before and after the Trek she was borrowing from her landlord got stolen from San Francisco's Kearney Street:

1. She locked the bike using only a flimsy cable lock.
2. She left this insufficiently secured ride in a neighborhood plagued by bike theft.
3. She alerted the Craigslist seller that she was onto him/her.
4. She didn't have the bike's serial number.

Hill told her story so that others might learn from her experience. One of her recommendations I followed ASAP:

If you’re a bike owner, I encourage you now to take a photo of your bike’s serial number and email it to yourself.

Read and learn, people, read and learn.