True Stories from The Jing {Bikes & Italian Food}

Tonight we rode our bikes to the new Annie's just south of Central Park & east of The Place for dinner. We parked our four bikes directly in front of the restaurant door & 2-3 meters from a guard box. The area had two security cameras pointing at it.

We had a wonderful, leisurely dinner at Annie's (a local kid friendly Italian place with consistently good food & reasonable prices - hard to find in Beijing) with impecable service including free make your own pizzas for the kids, fresh bread basket and extra special treatment to the kids.

The manager checked on us more than once, but the service was not agressive or pushy, just attentive.

When we left to get our bikes, the one bike that was locked to itself and not locked to a tree was gone. The manager at Annie's immediately came to our aid and accompanied my husband to the building's room with security cameras. After 20 minutes of looking around the lost bike area and talking with the security guards, it was determined that the camera was too dirty to find any footage of our missing bike.

It seemed illogical that someone could take a bike that had a lock around the tire past the two guards directly next to the bikes and make it past both security cameras without being seen. And funny that both security cameras were too dirty to view any footage.  Hmm...

The kind manager at Annie's never left my husband's side and they walked around the property to see if they could figure out what happened.

Just when they had given up, they spotted the bike, hidden behind a wall! Who knows why it was there or how it got there, but the lesson learned is:

1) Lock your bike to something when in the CBD (About 15-20 bikes weres stolen in broad daylight (all parked together) about a year ago right outside The Place.)

2) Eat at Annie's because not only is the food good, but the service goes above and beyond expectations. And in our experience, they look after their customers. A big thanks to the manager at Annie's!

 

I posted this story to our Yahoo group (for foreign passport holders living in Beijing) as a warning to neighbors and as a thank you to a local business for helping us out. I couldn't pass up a good story that we will want to remember so I copied and pasted for the blog today. Our oldest son is so excited that we found the bike. He loved the excitement and you could feel it when he came to report to me that they were checking the security camers to see if they could locate the bike. I'm so glad this story had a happy ending or else it would be the third bike our family had lost in Beijing!

I'm linking up at Sian's blog for Storytelling Sunday. She hosts it the first Sunday of every month. Do you have a story to tell? Post it on your blog and join us!

And since I totally forgot to link up last month, I wrote my story a couple of weeks later when I realized it. Here it is, if you care to read.

Comments

[Amy]

A friend of mine lives in Den Haag; he says they need to have two bikes, the good one for when you want to go on a long ride and then the commuter bike ... for situations just like this!

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Yes, Amy, sounds just like here. Everyone says it is not IF you will get your bike stolen, but WHEN! Part of the experience, I suppose.

[Alexa]

Phew - glad it all had a happy ending!

[Chipper]

Glad you found the bike! That was an eventful dinner out :-)

[Wanda Jorgensen]

Hurrah for happy endings!

[Irene]

Great storytelling. Glad there was a good outcome and you were helped by the Manager at Annie's. Sounds a great family restaurant.

[Miriam]

Now that kind of service is rare indeed. So glad it had a happy ending for you all.

[Ruth]

Gorgeous photo of your boy. Great story to share and glad you got the bike back.

[Sian]

Hi Margie, thanks for joining us again this month with a great story-with-a-happy ending :) It's so good to record something like this when it's fresh in your mind, and then when it becomes family legend in years to come, you have all the little details right there!

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Yes! Thanks for an excuse to get it documented. :)

[furrypig]

lucky you getting the bike back my hubby had his stolen from our local station a few years ago and although the thief was caught on cctv the police weren't that interested thank goodness for insurance!

[Melissa]

I'm so glad this story had a happy ending. It sounds like it was a nice evening to begin with, too.

[Helen B]

What a great place to eat with service like that!

[Becky]

Glad your story had a happy ending and you got your bike back :)

[Jo]

I'm glad the bike was found in the end, sounds like you received excellent customer service

[Gail]

What a neat looking picture. So glad your story had a happy ending and a bonus - a lesson learned.

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thank you! Definitely a happy ending. :)

[Michelle Easters]

Glad they decided against taking your bike and what a cute photo :)

[Jimjams]

Glad it turned up again - my DH had his locked-to-itself bike stolen in Holland outside our friends' block of flats - apparently it's not unusual to have removal lorries drive up and simply load all the "unattached" ones inside and drive off! The insurance paid up as he had both keys to the lock, but inconvenient nonetheless!

[Missus Wookie]

Fun that you got your bike back - we had Ewok's stole in the first week of moving to London the police said "welcome to London" when we reported it.

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks for sharing. That made me smile. I think theyd say the same thing here! :)