Caught on camera

Stealing a bike isn't as easy as you'd think, even when they are left lying around unlocked - like this one in Argentina.

Somebody sees the unlocked bike and spends a long time checking the area - perhaps for law enforcement, booby traps, or just the bicycle's owner.

Maybe the thief has to weigh up the merits of doing right or wrong.

What they don't realise is that video of their crime is being posted on the internet, by Buenos Aires resident Mariano Pasik:

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARIANO PASIK SAYING:

"You see the person thinking and thinking and thinking, coming and going. Sometimes they talk by phone. They go away. They come back. It's more about an internal dilemma between good and bad than about the bicycle itself."

His website shows speeded-up video with a clock to show how long the bicycle lasted.

To Pasik, this is somewhere between an art project and social research:

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARIANO PASIK SAYING:

"It shows that the places where the bicycle gets robbed really quickly perhaps the quality of life is poorer. Safety and respect for other people's property are lower."

As your reporter can testify, if you're going to leave a bike on the city streets, you need a very strong lock.

Benet Allen, Reuters