Bike Stealing by Victims of Stolen Bikes

I've lived in Marina Del Rey for about 10 years and have had 3 bikes stolen to date. My neighbors have had their bikes stolen at one time. In the local newspaper there are always reports of bikes stolen. Who's stealing our bikes?

I was talking with a colleague about this yesterday and she told me about a study/sting operation (still confirming) conducted by the University of Santa Barbara (USB). According to her, they setup cameras where bikes tend to get stolen.

The big surprise was that the bikes were not being stolen by one or two individuals but by several people who've had their own bikes stolen. Somehow they had justified in their heads that it was alright to steal a bike because they were also victims of bike thievery.

Mind boggling if true.

What if the very first person "thought" they had their bike stolen and had actually misplaced it. Thinking they were a victim, they decided to steal someone else's bike and thus bike thievery was born.

Assuming the USB story is true, can an individual start a mental process today that will cause the next person to do the same and the next and so on? What subprocesses are in play now in our heads that are the result of someone else's actions.

Very interesting.