Hacker News Reader

Comment by andywood | Hacker News Reader

I know that I'm the weird one, because everybody I know never lets me forget it, particularly on this issue. But I've always thought the opposite: I always thought it was weird that everybody thought somebody would steal their stuff. What are the odds of that? I've always left everything unlocked and left my stuff wherever if I needed to walk away. In all my 35 years, I've only ever had one item stolen: a cheap bicycle. Granted, it wouldn't have been stolen if I'd locked it up :)

View on HN

i started getting paranoid when it actually happened to me. Think about this girl who got her laptop stolen. Do you think she'll ever not be paranoid about leaving a laptop in a cafe? She'll be packing that up before she goes to the bathroom for the rest of her life.

It's not weird at all, in my opinion, because it's just so TRUE. There ARE weird people out there that simply want everything that you have and will take it all when they get the opportunity. Not to mention the people who are stealing because they really need the money, and people with Alzheimer's who can't help stealing things.

I've never had a flat tire in my life, but I'm still driving with a spare tire in the trunk.

People with Alzheimer's can't help stealing things?

probably meant kleptomaniacs

The odds are probably not high, just high enough. It's more of a statistics game, and even with a relatively low rate of theft, occurrences will happen.

And when they do happen, they'll be very loud and publicized. That's probably what we see more often than first-person cases.

I still leave my bicycle unlocked even though I've had one stolen.

The bike cost $30. If I get one stolen every 10 years, I figure I'm paying $3 / year for the convenience of not having to bother with locking or carrying a key.

In a sense, it's the replacement that someone who has their bike stolen is paying for, not the original. If it gets stolen, you'd need to get a ride home, find a new bike without transportation for a bit, and put in a decent amount of time and money to fix a bicycle at that price.

The odds of getting your stuff stolen are very low. But having your stuff stolen is so bad, that it is worth doing stuff to avoid it, like taking it with you to the bathroom.

That's not necessarily true. There is a cost to lowering the risk of theft. In this case, it's mostly the time it takes to pack up the stuff, and potentially losing your seat in the coffee shop. There must be point where it's not worth lowering the risk of theft. It would be highly dependent on the cost of your possessions, the likelihood of theft, and the cost of risk-lowering activity over one's lifetime.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com