Still from the 1948 De Sica film “The Bicycle Thief,” courtesy of filmnight.org
You know how sometimes something happens in the wink of an eye, and you’re left with your mouth hanging open and an endless loop of ‘I should haves’ playing in your brain? That’s what happened to us last evening.
We parked at the train station on the way to a friend’s house for dinner. As we approached the section reserved for parked motor scooters I saw a large man who looked… well, he just looked suspicious. So I stopped and watched him. He was bent over a very expensive bicycle that was chained to the metal railing of the parking lot, next to some old junky old bikes. As I watched he went snick, snick, the chain, which was very thin, fell away from the bike, and he began to turn. Then he saw me watching.
The man I saw was using a much smaller tool. Photo courtesy superstock.com
“E il mio bici! E il mio!” he said, brandishing his chain cutter. This pegged him immediately as a non-Italian. ‘Bici’ (pronounced bee-chee) is feminine because it’s short for ‘bicicleta,’ a feminine noun.
‘ I bet. E la tua adesso,’ I thought to myself as he hopped on and pedaled off. Speedy hadn’t noticed what was going on and had walked ahead a little, but turned back when he sensed my absence. By now the thief, because surely he was a thief, was pedaling out of the parking lot.
I felt so stupidly helpless. There I was with a camera in my purse, but my hands full of umbrealla and a focaccia in tinfoil. If only I had gotten a photo of the ladro! But I didn’t, and it’s been driving me nuts ever since.
When we arrived at the dinner party we told our hostess and the other guests what had happened. “What should we do?” I asked, “Should we call the police?”
“Eh, beh!” said one friend. “What are the police going to do? When the thieves broke through my wall and stole my safe the police didn’t come for three days, even though I called immediately.” So last night, on advice of all present, we did nothing. Besides, I had an ace up my sleeve.
I knew our friend the policeman would be coming by for a visit this afternoon, so I decided to wait and ask him, which I did. He just shrugged. “It happens every day,” he said. “There’s nothing to do.” So there’s an end to it. I’m not sure I could identify the thief if I saw him; everyone says it’s good I didn’t take his photo as he might have become violent (I disagree, but…). It just doesn’t sit right with me, though.
Putting this together with two other incidents that have occurred since we returned has taken a bit of the shine off our joy at being reunited with Rapallo. The first thing we saw when we got home was that someone had destroyed the facing around the sewer pozetta (box) that Speedy had worked hard at making attractive.
Evidently a very large, heavy something was brought down on the heavy, solid metal cover over the box; it has a big rusty dent in the top. All the facing stones popped out of their cement base from the force of the blow. Well, maybe it was an accident (though honestly, it didn’t look like one).
Then we realized that none of our outdoor lights were functioning. Why not? Probably water got into the lines, we surmised, because it has been exceptionally rainy of late. But no. On further examination today I realized that the light bulbs have been stolen. Three lightbulbs. How lame is that??! And note that in order to take them someone had to go to the trouble of unscrewing and removing the glass globes. We were lucky, I think, that they replaced them – yet more work!
It all got me thinking about how different some things are in the States. What I sometimes don’t feel so much here is a sense of all of us in a community looking out for each other’s welfare. The police evidently have so much to do that something like a stolen bicycle just doesn’t register on their crime-meters. (I’m not being sarcastic, there’s an enormous amount of crime here it seems, and the police have to jump through hoops to follow correct procedure. Read about it here.) If we don’t look out for our fellow citizens, who will? I was guilty last night for not doing something, anything; the police are guilty for not caring about petty crime; the thieves are guilty for breaking the social contract, and we’re all guilty for looking the other way when we see something wrong. It’s all disturbing, and I hate that I’m part of the problem. I’m not in favor of armed vigilantes prowling neighborhoods (ahem), but I certainly think we should all take an interest in looking out for each other.*
Am I crazy?
*Disclaimer. Having had a good rant, I have to say that our neighbors are very kind about keeping an eye on our house when we’re not at home, and even when we are. I’m sure they’ve saved us no end of problems with their watchfulness. Are they the exception that proves the rule?
An Ex-Expatriate 
Let’s not get all hot and bothered by broken social contracts – if the thieves weren’t your friends, but simply miscreants, you’re ahead of the game entirely …..trust and care are rare commodities…. self-interest, curiosity, greed, may be more the norm….
Do I detect a slight note of cynicism here? But in fact I agree with you. Trust and care are rare, and all the more to be treasured for that. I might quibble with curiosity, but it does seem self-interest and greed are the biggest gears in the social engine. bah.
I think you nailed it with “difficult and transitional time,” Fern. With the advent of computer science, Industrialized countries have shifted away from human labor, greatly reducing the number of jobs availabe while they simultaneously have decreased funding for social safety nets. My hope is the capitalist world will return to Keynsian economic theory, reinstate the needed social programs and find a better balance between privatized and national ownership of corproations. That could create the opportunity for a different kind of politics. Fingers crossed!
What you said. Except I don’t know what Keynsian economic theory posits, so will have to do some research. Actually, I think there’s probably still a lot of work for humans, even in the West – but no one wants to do the lowly work that is available. Look at AZ – now that all the illegals have been scared off there’s no one to pick fruit and veggies. Too menial, too hard, and too low-paying.
I also feel there is little community spirit here in our village, which surpised me. We haven’t had problems with our place probably because it is on the first floor and is in full view of the piazza, but when I asked if someone might water the plants I put on the bridge (at my expense and time) while I am not here in summer they all said no immediately. They feel it is the comune’s duty to do this. They would rather watch them die than put some water on them as they walk across it every day. I pay someone (a foreigner) to do it. They all complain about the lack of things to do here, but if someone does creat an event they don’t go.
I will never figure out how the mind works here.
Amen. It is definitely a different way of thinking. I’m amazed no one would water the plants – too silly.
Thoughtful, well told. In a way it made me feel better about the things that happen in Athens, but stolen light bulbs, so petty, but so indicative of what’s happening to society in southern Europe (and probably in the north too), where so many people are resorting to petty crime (and major burglaries, murders even) to survive. And of course, the fact that we will always be foreigners no matter how much we love our adopted countries. But when I first moved to Rapallo in 71, burglaries were so common and everyone suspected the security guards of being in cahoots with the thieves. Probably still true?
Haven’t heard that theory (security guards) but nothing would surprise me. The petty crime is disturbing, though as Speedy points out, when you think of something like murder a bicycle theft is pretty small patooties. Thank goodness murder is still pretty rare here, unlike the U.S. You have to wonder about why someone would steal light bulbs – and if they can’t afford to buy their own maybe we shouldn’t care that they have taken ours. But sometimes I think people take things simply because they are there and can be taken. Such a puzzle. One thing’s for sure, we’re living in a difficult and transitional time – you in Athens know that better than any of the rest of us. What will happen?