A friend who used to live in New York writes,
I had the occasion the other day to be on the street outside my dentist’s office using all kinds of tools to try to break my own bicycle lock (which had gotten jammed or something and wouldn’t open as normal, very annoying). It felt a little bit like New York to be out in public doing something highly suspicious and be totally ignored. Eventually I got the biggest pair of bolt cutters I could find, which eventually worked.
Andrew,
Please ask your friend to google for "Kitty Genovese."
I recently saw a fun video along those lines on youtube – some guy left his bike locked in highly public places, then came back later and "stole" it in various blatant ways, to widespread indifference.
Funny you should mention that today. Today my bicycle lock jammed when I tried to unlock it outside the cafe where I had just had lunch. It was a hefty motorbike lock that cost me 60 quid (about 120 US dollars). (Well, it's worth paying extra for peace of mind, isn't it?) Eventually I called out a locksmith who cut it off in about 15 seconds using a small, battery-powered angle grinder. This was in Chelmsford (UK).