Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
... it would be easier to cut whatever the lock is attached to then take the lock and the bike home and cut away at the lock unnoticed.
Actually, it would be far, far easier to steal another, less-well secured bike. That's the point.
Speaking of locked bikes being carried away with locks intact, a university I once attended had bike racks for us students to park our bikes and lock them up. Great, right? Well, not so great, a group of 4 guys drove onto the school property in a flatbed pickup truck, they went to one of the racks that were loaded with bikes, I can't remember if they cut the bolts or unbolted the bike rack from the concrete, then they lifted the rack with all the bikes attached and put it on the back of the flatbed and took off. People were wondering about never thought anything of it?! They got away with 18 bikes in one fell swoop.
I've heard variations of that story for 40+ years, with locations indicated all over the world. 18 bikes @ ~25# ea + the weight of a 20+ bike bikerack in mild steel is going to be on the order of 700 pounds - each of the four guys is going to be lifting ~175 pounds up into the back of a flatbed truck with the bikes flopping and snagging all the way. Hmm. Don't suppose your student newspaper covered this story with pictures?