Though we occasionally see bits and pieces of long abandoned bicycles, in D.C. it's hard to imagine that one here would last so long without being touched.

Remain vigilant as you exit this building

The Metropolitan Police Department has sent a warning to early tech adopters (like, say, folks picking up the new iPhone 4S this week): Don't make yourself a target. Or, as they put it in a release, "be cautious when making electronic purchases, particularly on days of new releases, when popular devices and gadgets are being sold for the first time." They also include a list of tips:

1) If online tracking systems, like MobileMe, are available, get the extra assistance in the store for setup before exiting the store.

2) Don't be distracted as you exit local cell phone stores and other electronic specialty stores that sell these items. Be deliberate as you exit these stores, concealing your purchase(s) and focusing on getting to your next destination. Cell phones and other music devices are major distractions when in use.

3) Report suspicious people (inside and outside stores). Inside, (these are people who are paying more attention to the purchases being made, rather than checking out new products), especially in smaller stores. Outside, suspicious people standing at or near the exit, for no real purpose should be reported.

4) Try to shop with a friend. Most victims who report crimes that involve snatching new products are people who have shopped alone. If you have an elderly or senior citizen parent, please make preparations to accompany him/her to make these kinds of purchases or suggest online ordering.

5) Never hesitate to point out suspicious activity or people to local officers or security guards. Remember the "See Something, Say Something" campaign and dial 9-1-1 if you need an officer dispatched to your location.

Photo by blakespot via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License

$34.74! Because of a single, rather cheap eBay sale, Leslie Charles Waffen, a 40-year Archives employee, had his home raided. There, investigators found $30,000 worth of the Archives' sound recordings. According to the plea agreement, Waffen will face up to 10 years in prison.

Update: Our own Arts Desk noted yesterday that the raid happened after a government audit noted that the Archives were vulnerable.

Photo by Baseball Backs via Flickr/Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.0 License

Don't Get Mad, Get Even: YouTube is already good for bringing fame and fortune to people, whether they deserve it or not. Now an Arlington man is hoping it's good for bringing justice, too. After someone took a TV he'd ordered online off his porch, Rob Richards posted surveillance video of the delivery and the heist on the Internet. Police say they're not sure how helpful it'll be, but at least the score—"The Blue Danube"—makes for relaxing viewing. +1

Rush Hour Baby: Study after study brings dismal news about D.C. traffic. It's bad; we get it. Just how bad, though, is really only fully realized when some unfortunate woman can't even get through the logjams to deliver a baby. It happened again this morning, around 6:30 a.m., near the intersection of Florida and New York avenues. A 911 dispatcher coached the new mother through birth. No word on whether the baby is to be named Dave Thomas, in honor of the Wendy's that dominates the intersection. +2

Oh Chompie, Why Have You Forsaken Us?: When Discovery executives announced there would not, in fact, be an inflatable shark gracing downtown Silver Spring this year for Shark Week, there was much gnashing of teeth in the area. (Happily, those teeth were mostly of the human, not giant shark, variety.) But only now is there an explanation for the absence of Chompie: The weather got to him. Which means there's really not much difference between giant inflatable sharks and the rest of us in the D.C. area, is there? -1

Don't Throw That Out!: Don't be surprised if retail employees start watching to see what you bring into a store, not just to make sure you haven't taken anything out. Several stores are complaining that they've been hit with fines of up to $200 for stuff customers threw out—from recycling in a trash can, to a couch by the dumpster, to other violations of the trash rules. Remember: You throw it out, you bought it. -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 51 Today's score: +1 Today's Needle rating: 52

It's been griped about on District neighborhood message boards for years now: Packages left out front by delivery drivers will sometimes vanish. Since moving to D.C. in April, that's been Stevenson's experience. She has yet to find even one package addressed to her safely waiting on her doorstep.

Hailing from Charlottesville, Va., Stevenson moved to a two-bedroom apartment off Logan Circle for a new job. After she settled into the ground floor apartment with big windows, she decided to upgrade her wardrobe.

At the beginning of May, she scoured the Web looking for bargains. Eventually, she scored a pair of Prada shoes, a dress and skirt by the Italian fashion company Missoni, and shirts by Banana Republic and Ralph Lauren. Anxious to receive her orders, she paid for priority shipping.

A month later, Stevenson hadn't received a thing. She pestered the sellers and asked her mail carrier if something was wrong. He said he'd left her items outside her door, and didn't know anything more. It wasn't just the clothes, though.

Stevenson says she later learned that two "care packages" were also missing. One of them was a welcome to the neighborhood snack made by a neighbor that hadn't even gone through the mail; the neighbor simply left the box of cashew nuts with rosemary on Stevenson's stoop. Stevenson has since figured out that she's dealing with a package absconder and gone to the police.

"The police were really responsive," says the upbeat Stevenson. But they told her that there wasn't much they could do. If she "set up some fake packages they would try to watch the house." They also encouraged her to set up a video camera to catch the mail thief like "that one guy," says Stevenson. She’ll likely do both, she says.

Stevenson says she isn't worried about revealing her future ruse on City Desk; it's unlikely the prowler will see it. She's hoping to get her stuff back once the thief is caught, but isn't counting on it. Stevenson says she understands police have more important things to do than track down mail thieves. Still, she wouldn't mind getting some justice. "I just think it's wrong," she says.

Photo by Perfecto Insecto via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0 (Stevenson not pictured)

Read Scott Martin says he never left his bike—a silver Specialized Rockhopper he bought used– untended or unlocked until, one afternoon, he did. Stopping off at a friend's Capitol Hill office building for a quick chat, Martin left his bike outside, behind a wrought iron gate and leaned into the storefront's doorway. The bike was in full view of the office's bay window, so he figured it was safe.

Loquacious in a Harvard-math-professor kind of way, the sandy-haired 43-year-old was unlikely to keep his tète-à-tète brief.

After talking over a "business matter" for about 30 minutes, Martin left the office, planning to hop on his mountain bike and pedal four blocks to his house on A Street NE. Not a chance. The bike had vanished.

Despite feeling "dumb" for neglecting to use his U-lock (it was attached to the bike, so the thief got that too) the marketing consultant called 911. "A squad car was there in 10 minutes," Martin says. "The thing that stood out was the officer was very familiar with the problem."

The other thing that stood out for Martin was that the cop didn't blame or criticize him. "I kept waiting for her to roll her eyes and say 'You stupid turkey,’...she didn't." In fact, she did the opposite, assuring him it wasn't his fault.

Though District cyclists might think a dude like Martin, naive enough to leave his bike unprotected while he runs an errand, got what he deserved, Sgt. Christopher Micciche of the D.C. Police Department’s Crime Reduction Team doesn't see it that way: "If you leave your car unlocked while you pump your gas, you probably do not want someone coming along and stealing your laptop out the passenger side door. And if you run into 7-11, it would be nice if you didn't have to worry about someone coming along and riding off on your bike."

That's one of the reasons he and the CRT plant bait bikes on D.C. streets. Micciche explains in an e-mail that the unlocked, decoy bikes are leaned "in a plausible location, such as in front of an occupied home, or on the porch, or outside of a business establishment-where one might likely find that an individual left their bike to transact their business momentarily."

When a bike hustler tries to wheel away the bait, the officers swarm.

The stings have produced 13 arrests so far, and have yielded some odd moments: Micciche remembers how two bike thieves were warned by officers to not take the bike, but then moments later "did so anyway" and how another "waited until his Metro bus arrived, then hustled over and grabbed the bike, placing it into the bus bike rack and boarding the bus."

He also remembers how most of the perps saw nothing wrong with what they did.  Almost every person who stole a bike “could not understand the concept of not taking property that didn't belong to them," Micciche says.

Some consider it their occupation.

An admitted bike thief, who would not allow his name to be printed, is likely the guy who stole Read’s bike for two reasons: He operates exclusively in Capitol Hill and Georgetown and his favorite  boost is an unlocked bike. "If a bike is unlocked," he says, "how's that stealing? It can't be stealing–you just found a bike."

The thief, a middle-aged guy built like an ex-athlete, stakes out a dimly-lit spot on a curb. This is where people can find him if they’re in the market for a stolen bike. Some he’s sold over the three or four years he’s been at this retail for thousands, but the thief has never let a hot cycle go for more than $75, he says.

He's never been yelled at or chased, much less arrested by the police. Really, he says, he’s providing a service: When he takes someone's wheels, it encourages people he robs to register their bikes next time.