Bike Incident II: Lost and found

My bike is one hellofan adventerous bike...It likes to get involved in accidents and likes to get stolen for short periods of time, I believe..

I come out of my department building and usually I just look to where my bike is(20 yards away) and I always find my bike at where I look..Except that tonight it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Were my eyes deceiving me?

What would be your reaction if you were to find your $500 road bike missing?
Mine was.."Oh another one of those unnerving, shocking incidents that's been happening to me lately."

I don't know why but I just ran down the stevens way and as if it were to be, a police car was waiting around the corner and the patrol sergeant was just about to get into the car. I explained to him the situation and he met me again at the scene of theft. The U-lock which is normally supposed to be hooked to the frame of the bike was placed around the parking slot frame..a grave mistake. And the cord that I use to lock the back and front tires of my bike was cut..into two.
The sergeant asked me a couple of questions and most importantly asked if I knew the serial number of the bike. I told him I could get that info. from the bike shop tomorrow. I was given a case number and asked to fill in the serial number of the bike on to the case record asap.
I was kind of annoyed at how casually I was reacting to this situation. I was like, yeah the bike's stolen, but can you do anything about it now? No.

I wondered if the thief was from the campus. Probably. The bike wasn't parked for more than 5 hrs before it was stolen, so this guy probably had to be someone familiar with when and at what frequency people come in and out of buildings, when the roads are deserted and a general familiarity with the workings of the campus: especially with the patrol car doing its rounds every half hour and given that my bike was parked close to the road.

I unlocked the U-lock from the parking frame and placed it in my bag, just in case I was to find my bike stashed somewhere behind the trees or if it were to magically pop up in front of me...somehow.

Now, the thing hit me. It usually takes 5 minutes to get to my home..by bike. Walking would take 15 minutes. I could manage walking daily, but the bike...that's...that's my precious.

I proceeded now in an arbitrary direction towards the gilman trail..Why? I don't know..Some thought that I might somehow find it there. Just as I entered the trail, I saw two bikes of a similar make parked at a nearby parking slot. One of them didn't have a back tire(apparently stolen), the other was ok. The locking mechanisms used in both the bikes were the same U-lock. Lucky bike I thought.
I gave up hope now, the only way I would get my bike was if the guy were to land up at a pawn shop and the pawn shop owner were to notice that the serial number of the bike was one in the stolen bikes list supplied by the campus police.

There's nothing I can do about that too, so I started walking back towards my department and then one guy comes riding a road bike(that looks like mine) and parks it in the exact same spot where I had locked my bike. I run upto him and ask him what the hell is going on. He had an interesting story about his friend stealing my bike and him returning it back. "I had my bike stolen once and it was pretty bad, and I don't know why my friend did that. So I decided to return it."

I was happy that my bike was back and in good shape and after a few more questions I let him go.
A while later, I come out of the department to see a car parked by the road side and our sergeant staring at my bike and going around it and shaking his head. I go towards my bike, and he exclaims, "How..how did you find the bike?"
I thought of telling him that all this was a game, but I let that pass and briefed him on the new development.