Dutch say Unlocked Bike not enticement to steal

Published: 10/28/08, 1:05 PM EDT

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - The Dutch Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a bicycle thief who stole a decoy bike planted by police. Lawyers for the convicted thief - a repeat offender who was sentenced to 22 days in jail - had argued that leaving the bike unlocked amounted to entrapment. But the five-judge court has rejected that, saying the man wasn't personally targeted. His name has not been released. Police arrested him in Deventer in March 2006 after he took a bike they left near a train station that was being plagued by thefts.

Tuesday's court ruling said placing an unlocked decoy bike didn't make the suspect do anything he had not intended doing beforehand.

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So, in this culture of victimhood, we see people who actually believe that it is entrapment to leave an unlocked bike for someone to steal... and it took several levels of lower courts that were not able to conclude that the argument was complete nonsense.

It might be very naive of a person to leave their bike unlocked, but this was hardly an "invitation" to steal any more than a woman dressed in an unchaste manner is "asking" to be raped.

What a shame it is that culture is so much geared to saying "It is not my fault" that this kind of claim can go all the way to a Supreme Court hearing to be rejected.

Get out the duct tape...