Leo and Maximus the Mighty
Ellen and I biked 47 kilometers to Saumur.
After a couple of hours of sight-seeing, we decide that we are ready to go home.
We bike to the train station to go home.
We decide to leave our bikes outside the small train station, unlocked, just to quickly go inside and buy tickets.
Literally, two minutes after buying tickets- Ellen goes to check on our bikes.
They’re gone.
Our bikes were gone.
I frantically asked the employees at the train station if they had any video footage from the surveillance cameras to see who took our bikes.
Surveillance cameras do not exist in French train stations. So if you were stabbed in a train station and the offender ran out- there would be no evidence, no video of who stabbed you.
So, Ellen and I walked thirty minutes to the police station on the other end of town to file a stolen property disclaimer.
How do I describe the police station? It looked like an empty doctor’s office, the lights were off, and there were at most four police men in the building.
We explain to the police men our problem and we even have pictures of our beautiful blue and red bikes to show them what they look like. The police asked us if they were our bikes. We told them no, they are bikes that belong to the Municipality of Angers (the city we’re from). Then they ask us if we have the serial numbers to the bikes. We said no.
After ten minutes of pointless conversation, they tell us there is nothing they can do because one, we didn’t have serial numbers, and two, we weren’t the victims. The Municipality of Angers was the victim because the bikes belonged to them. Then they asked us how we got to the police station and we told them by foot. They asked how we were going to get back to the train station, we told them- by foot. They said nothing. Just acted surprised. Then Ellen and I decide to leave.
What astonishes me is that they didn’t even offer us a ride back.
Ellen and I finally decided to take the bus into centre ville and agreed that we would walk from there to the train station.
Ellen and I get off the bus and start walking to the train station.
We see a group of kids. One of them is riding a blue bike.
He passes us.
I look at the bike.
It’s our bike.
The kid had taken off all of the stickers and details from the bike. He had completely defaced the bike. But we both knew it was our bike.
We looked at the bike and we looked at the kid.
We start walking towards him, not sure what we should do.
The kid realizes that he stole our bike and he pedals fast down the street, leaving his friends.
Ellen and I run after him.
He turns a corner and Ellen follows him.
I see two young girls on the street and ask them if they know who the kid was and if they knew the number to the police.
They said they didn’t know him but they gave me the number to the police.
I chase after Ellen and I find her.
She couldn’t find the boy. He has disappeared.
We soon realize that we are in a very suspicious neighborhood.
One of those parts of town that you don’t want to be in when it gets dark.
It was 7:40 at night and the sun was almost fully set.
Ellen and I start walking around the neighborhood to find the kid who stole our bikes.
We don’t find him.
We asked some kids in a parked car if they saw him and they said nothing.
But.
We do find the friends the kid was with.
I ask them if they knew the kid on the blue bike.
They said no.
They ask if it was mine.
We tell them that our bikes were stolen.
Some of the kids said they didn’t know what I was talking about and started to walk away.
Two boys stayed and told Ellen and I that they know where our bikes were and we should follow them.
They join up with their friends and tell us we need to follow them.
We start walking into the same dark neighborhood.
They tell us to keep following them.
I start to get nervous.
The kids from the car came over to see what was going on.
They tell us to follow them to their house.
They know where our bikes are and they are going to give them back if we follow them.
I call the police to tell them we found our bikes.
The police tell us to stay where we are and stay on the phone until the police arrive.
One of the kids asks me if I’m talking to the police.
I didn’t answer him.
The kids start to get nervous because they aren’t sure if I’m talking to the police.
They start to talk loudly and they become closer and closer to Ellen and me.
It was pitch black outside and Ellen and I were standing in the middle of the street with 10 kids surrounding us.
I start to get really nervous as the police arrive.
The kids freak out and run off into their ghetto homes right across the street. Some of them stand outside of their doors and stare at us.
Some people are looking at us from their windows.
The police get out of their cars. It’s the same stupid policemen from the police station.
We tell them that those boys have our bikes and they need to give them back.
The police say there is nothing they can do.
I scream at them.
“They told us they have our bikes! They are right there! We need to get our bikes back!”
The police say there is nothing they can do.
I scream at them some more.
“They are RIGHT THERE!! They TOLD US they have OUR BIKES”
The police say there is nothing they can do.
They tell Ellen and me to get into the police car.
I ask why.
They say that it’s not safe to talk in this neighborhood.
So Ellen and I get in the car.
The stupid police man told us that we shouldn’t have followed the kids.
I told him “But we saw one of our bikes! We can’t just leave our bikes! We don’t have the money to replace them!”
He starts to talk about how they are just bikes and it’s not worth risking our lives over. The neighborhood is dangerous and those boys could’ve hurt us- he says. He tells me that I should’ve just called the police straight away when I saw the bike.
He asks me why I went after the bike.
I say to him “You weren’t going to do anything! We had to do something!”
Then I start to get hysterical and beg him.
“Isn’t there something you can do? There has to be some sort of videos at the train station”
And he says that there’s no video surveillance at the train station “This is France”.
I start screaming at him. “This happens all of the time! You need to do something about this! I can’t just let this go! We are students! I don’t have money to pay for the bike! We know who took it! We need to get our bikes!”
Then he starts explaining to me that France is not a paradise and that we should be more careful.
Before I realize it, we’re at the train station.
He finally asks for my information and then tells Ellen and me that we need to be careful and then repeats his speech about how we shouldn’t have chased the boy and followed the kids.
I was so sick of him telling me that. I SAW our bike. We knew who had our bikes. We were so close and he did nothing.
But I was tired of crying and arguing with him, so I told him he was right and I quickly thanked him and Ellen and I walked back into the small train station.
Ellen wanted to go back. She said she knew they were going to give our bikes back.
I told her it was dangerous.
She says she saw one of the boys take his knife out. But it was a small pocket knife that wouldn’t have caused much harm.
I’m tempted to go back to get our bikes. But I’m too scared.
I turned around to look outside and there is still one police car there.
Ellen says they’re there to make sure we don’t go try to go back and get our bikes.
Thirty minutes later, our train comes and the police leave.
Ellen and I get on the train and go home.
"Alex" and "Maxine"
