As Seen in Real Life #3: Natcho Shoes

People have been asking me a lot about my shoes lately. The ones that were stolen from our rowing dock. For the fourth time.

I bought some new ones and tried to make these less appealing. A little mud, a little permanent ink, a few messages. We'll see if it works.

Would you want these? I hope not.

Twice my shoes were removed by well-intentioned members of my own rowing club. I'm baffled by this.

I'm not sure what goes on in the minds of people who take my shoes. I imagine three scenarios:

1. It's really unpleasant weather. No rower would be out in these conditions. Ergo, this pair of shoes doesn't belong to a rower. I'll take them. Syllogistic genius.
2. There are no other shoes on the dock besides these. Our group is done rowing, therefore someone must have forgotten to put their shoes on and walked in their socks up to the boathouse. Brilliant logician.
   
   
3. Whoever owned these shoes was abducted by aliens. This is clearly the Occam's razor explanation. 

By the way, the "make ugly strategy" is an apparently widely known anti-theft technique, as evidenced by this blog post: 16 Anti-Theft Gadgets and Designs To Deter Thieves.