Steal This JRA!

Now I've almost seen it all.
I mean we've all seen the cables, the chains and U-locks.
Then we've all seen the goofy ways folks lock their bikes up, like chaining them to four foot tall poles and locking them to other bikes that are not chained to anything themselves.
To tell you the truth, I don't carry a lock anymore.
At least not on the Celeste Devil.
I used to carry one, I had a Kryptonite U-lock with a bracket thingy that attached to the frame, and I also carried a cable to secure my wheels.
Well on my usual rides, I don't really stop places where my bicycle is out of sight for more than a few seconds.
Besides, lighter is faster, non?
Well okay, with the Bike With The Funny Name(BWTFN) I do carry a cable lock in my basket for I use it to pick up things from the store like kim chee and cheese rolls and potato chips and I usually lock that up outside the store.
I'm not really worried about the BWTFN for in reality, who would want that clunker?
So anyways, ever since Mr. JRA of One Speed: Go! fame and Steve A. of DFW Point-to-Point glory have been posting up about locking up your bike, I've started to take notice of how other folks secure their rides.
Nothing unusual to report.
Until now.
The other day, I spied a nice looking MTB at the rack next to the bank.
Okay, I wasn't really interested in how it was locked up, I was more interested in the frame for it was an older Rockhopper, and I'm still sort of looking for one of those.
It was also black and nasty!
Well as I cruised on by, I noticed this:



The first thing that came to mind was one of those sting decoy bikes, the ones folks leave out in the open waiting for a thief to come along and when he starts to ride off, he realizes the bicycle has no brakes!
Hilarity ensues.
Or something.
I circled around to have a better look.
It was an older steel Rockhopper in pretty good shape.
It was well enough maintained that I didn't think the owner was interested in letting it go on the cheap.
I was about to leave when I spied this:



WTF?
Apparently, this was the reason for the disconnected rear brake.
The owner had pulled the rear brake cable out and snaked it around the bicycle rack and connected it to the front brake cable with a combination lock.
A theft deterrent system already built into the bike!
Ingenious!
Inconceivable!
Idiotic!
I'm still shaking my head.
Actually, I thought the idea pretty novel until I sat down and really thought it through.
Still, you gotta give the rider credit for thinking it up.
I mean I would have never dreamed this scheme up myself.
For one thing, I don't have that much play in my cables.
I do though have a Power Link on the chain on the BWTFN so maybe if I disconnect the chain and wrap it around a rack and reattach it, it will stop folks from riding off with it.
The BWTFN I mean.
Then again, you gotta be pretty desperate for a bike to ride off with that.
Or maybe I can just take off my rear derailleur cable and loop that right around the bike rack!
Instant security!
Awesomeness!
All this time I had my very own theft deterrent device built right into my bicycle!
No need to carry my cable lock anymore.
After all, lighter is faster don't you know.