If you have an ugly bike, you might want to think twice about leaving it locked up outside on Union Station, from the Washington Post letters page.
I went to the nearest security guard to report the apparent theft, and he promptly retrieved my “stolen” bike. As it turned out, my bike had been judged to be “unsightly” by Union Station standards and had been impounded. They had cut the lock and confiscated the machine, obviously without bothering to verify whether it was abandoned or just a little beat up.