On a slightly more sinister note...

Phnom Penh--Cambodia. I made the rather entrepreneurial investment of buying a motorbike in the province of Bantey Meanchey while visiting a good friend there. Since motorbikes arrive by land via Thailand and there is considerable sale competition, the price that bikes fetch in border towns is necessarily cheaper. The general idea is to shave off $90 from the price while only adding $10 to have your bike follow you on a truck with some sacks of rice to Phnom Penh the next day. In the end, I was (and still am) the proud owner of a 2008 Honda Wave 100cc - red and black.

Now, our family has quite a history of buying junkers in order to avoid having to worry about theft. Since a lot of my ability to deal with traders, officials, and brokers depends on making a good "show", I needed a bike that would attract some attention--so the old family way was not going to work. But, as the title of this entry suggests, having a junker does help you avoid theft.

On the evening in question, I pulled up to my local internet shop and parked my bike next to a load of other bikes, some even more expensive than mine. None of them had any extra security employed additional to the normal steering lock. I locked my handlebars like the rest and sat in a booth where my bike my visible. Over the next hour or so, I kept glancing out at the bike to make sure she was still there and never saw anything out of the order. When I emerged, I saw a little boy running down the street but just thought he was as delivery boy. But when I sat down on my bike, I noticed my key would not go into the ignition. I sat perplexed for a moment until I realized what had happened. A thief had jammed a Vietnamese-designed t-shaped key into the ignition and tried to use brute force to turn the ignition. He was actually successful--my handlebar was no longer locked. After playing around with the ignition I actually turned it without having to insert my key. The thief was clearly a few minutes away from making off with my bike.

I drove off with no key in the ignition after having arranged to secure my bike indoors for the night. As I pulled up to a stoplight, I noticed some fellow motorists looking at my bike with its lack of key in the ignition. You can imagine the cognitive dissonance: a foreigner stole a motorbike?!

The next morning, I met with a friend to get my lock replaced and install some new security features. When the ignition came out at the locksmith (also a Vietnamese boy, incidentally), we discovered the the thief had broken all but one of the pins with his little tool. We replaced the whole thing for $1.50, parts and labor. Next, we went to one of the motorbike centers in Phnom Penh-- O'Russey Market. For $15, I outfitted her with a U-lock on the front and bought an extra chain lock for the back. The salesman proudly gave me a hacksaw to exhibit that the lock could not be sawed through easily. After one attempt, I was convinced as well.

I am determined now not to have my secured bike stolen, but I've heard some stories of muggers cordoning off roads in order to rob motorbikes from people, grand-theft-auto style. Will definitely take the lit roads at night.

On a secondary note about security in general: I admit that my view of Cambodia is a bit tarnished now that I actually own valuable things and have an apartment. I think I spend at least 20 minutes every day extra on securing my home and motorbike, even though I have bars on all the doors and windows and live on the third floor with no easily accessible climbing route. In order to avoid being a victim, I have to think like a thief. How would I rob my own house? How can I secure things so that doesn't happen? At this point, my valuables are behind two locked doors, but a thief could try to fish things through the bars in the bedroom windows. To that effect, I have a lockbox but am still trying to figure out a way to secure my laptops which are the perfect size to go through the bars.

But after all that creativity in securing my things--I still hear stories about superhero thieves who manage to steal heavy motorbikes from 4-floor stairwells and out of 60-foot drops--all after disabling security systems. How can I compete with that?