The More Things Change...

...the more they stay the same. The year was 1910, it was January and Charles Chambers had just been arrested in Chinatown for bicycle theft by Los Angeles Police. It was widely believed that Mr. Chambers was responsible for a wave of bike thefts in the nearby city of Pasadena.

"The theft of bicycles has grown to alarming proportions in Pasadena in the last few months. Shortly after the legislature made the crime of bicycle stealing a felony, there was a marked decrease in such crimes, but when the law was again changed and bicycle stealing was restored to the class of a misdemeanor there was almost instantly a big increase in the number of bicycles taken.

While the police have made public no statistics, it is said that the average in Pasadena for the last several months has been at least one bicycle stolen every day while on an occasion like yesterday the known number has totaled as much as five in a single twenty-four hours."

Alas, three more thefts from the Crown City after the arrest of sticky fingers Chambers, largely debunked the theory of his thieving acumen.