Wednesday 10-10-2018 - 11:54

If you have come to read a story with a happy ending, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is the story of my most recent heartbreak. People have told me that talking helps to process the pain, so here goes…

His name was Brad – we’d only been together for six months but it was a match made in heaven. He was absolutely ‘the one’. I don’t know how to describe him really, he was perfect, so slick, so strong – life was just easier with him around. He used to belong to my friend, but she brought him round to my flat one day and it just went from there. From that day, we were inseparable and went everywhere together – uni, the park… we had some great times down the side of the canal.

Everyone was jealous of Brad and wanted a piece of him – he was hard to keep hold of at times, but he was always mine. Well… he was… until someone stole him from me forever.

We’d had the most amazing morning, we went to into uni together and even had plans for the evening. All day, I couldn’t help aching to get out of the library to take him home with me. But as I left the library… he was nowhere to be seen.

He’d vanished… I’d been ghosted. I searched long and hard, but I realized pretty quickly – it was the end for me and Brad.

I could feel my heart breaking as the realization really kicked in. I cried like I’ve never cried before, the anger that pulsed through me was on a scale I never knew was possible. I tried to rationalise it and search for any other explanation – maybe he hadn’t disappeared… maybe he’d gone back to my friend? I rang her and blurted down the phone: “have you got Brad?!” but despite my tears and desperation for an answer… she didn’t.

With time, the anger turned to a sinking realization that Brad had been mutilated and kidnapped by Manchester’s worst type of human… BIKE THIEVES!!!

Brad – I’ll find you, I’ll get you back, and next time I’ll make it impossible for you to be taken away from me, and I’ll treat you right. I’ll always leave you in the designated cycle parking area, locked up with a gold standard lock. That discounted price £10 for a lock* seems like nothing now… I’d give anything to take away my heartbreak. Or, I’ll leave you in the park cycles or cycle pods to be extra sure. I’ll even register you as mine forever on the Immobilise database**. If I could rewind the clock, I’d do anything to still have you with me.

*For a discounted D-Lock, contact Security Operations Cambridge Halls South on 0161 247 1334

**Immobilise is the national database that the police use when checking stolen/found cycles. More advice on how to register cycles can be found at: https://www.immobilise.com/articles/bikesecurity