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THE NAMEPLATE: We admit that if your name is distinctive like Paula Israel, you might have better luck...
"I'VE ALWAYS WANTED to pry off that nameplate that says Custom Built for Paula Israel, and now I am so glad I didn't."
Queen Voice of Bike Friday Gaylynn just got a call from New World Tourist owner Paula Israel of Vermont, telling us of the fortuitous recovery of her Bike Friday, thanks to that little rectangular nameplate we insist on sticking on all our folding bicycles.
Paula was holidaying in Michigan when her bike was snatched from outside a coffee shop. That same day, a pawn shop reported to the police that they had received a strange small wheeled bike. (The pawn shop owners also read the nameplate, and presumeably using whitepages.com or directory assistance, tried to contact Paula - makes you think rather more kindly of them than you otherwise would, right?).
The Police told Paula that they had been contacted by the pawn shop about a bike, and as long as she could produce ID and the frame number of the bike (which Gaylynn looked up and told her), it was hers.
Thus, bike and rider were reunited.
Moral: Don't peel off the nameplate and remember that frame number - it's stamped on the underside of the bottom bracket like so:
Oh, and thanks to Jim Haskell and Walter Lapchynski who informed me that unlike in Australia, the pronunciation of "pawn shop" has a different twang than "porn shop" here in the USA... luckily I mostly write ...