To the Editor:
Middle of the day, Monday, a busy day at the Maine Coast Book Shop, some sleazy no-account idler, probably someone who frequents the place and maybe hangs out in the café, someone who probably didn’t have a job to go to or at least some good purpose to occupy himself (yes, probably a “he”), who also probably doesn’t read this newspaper much and so has me wasting my time trying to help him reform and undo his crime, has stolen a bike parked just outside our back door.
It’s a black Beach Cruiser, a sensible old single speed bike with fat tires, that Sandy, who works at the bookshop, has owned for years and years and has taken to riding back and forth to work morning, noon and evening.
Sandy is one of the hardworking people at our establishment who make it the popular and very pleasant social center in our community it is. He now has been deprived of the simple pleasure of pedaling to work and around town to do a little shopping and even taking along his dog, Pepper, trotting on her leash beside him.
Not only that, Jerk, yes you; your weasily thieving has also had the effect of angering the entire rest of our crew and now putting us all on our guard. That takes time, wastes resources and puts a negative edge on much of our daily interactions with the public we have always preferred to think of as friends.
If you had a job and any sense of responsibility to your community, you might have pondered the ramifications of what you were doing. Maybe a bicycle thief is not a hardcore criminal, but he turns a neighborhood into one of uneasy watchfulness with a proliferation of padlocks and chains.
You have done damage to your hometown. Nice going.
Barnaby Porter, Damariscotta
PS: Just leave the bike somewhere in the open. A note with Sandy’s name on it would help. That would be a good move.
