That's what happens to cheap bikes, for sure. I've seen it countless times in Italy, people don't even bother buying an expensive bike, they just buy some half

That's what happens to cheap bikes, for sure. I've seen it countless times in Italy, people don't even bother buying an expensive bike, they just buy some half broken bike (usually from the same dodgy guys in the streets who steal them) because they know they will get stolen. The police doesn't even bother fighting it, they often talk to many of the immigrants and rarely do something. I know because, as a second generation immigrant from Africa, the police was always stopping me just to talk. It's kind of like bike sharing, you pay 20 euros until the next time they steal it from you. On the plus side, it's giving a livelihood to poor and desperate immigrants who can't find a job in the sad Italian economy. If it wasn't for bike theft and drug dealing, things would probably escalate to worse crimes.