Well tbh I would never leave a bike locked up in any kind of busy public place in the UK and expect it to be there when I got back either. But otoh I don't think bike theft has been turned into quite such a readily available service here!
I actually witnessed someone stealing a bike in the UK, followed them home and phoned the police. Guess what happened next - yes exactly, nothing.
I saw someone stealing a bike in Oxford once. There were two policemen just 50 yards away. They did eventually come over to find out why I was shouting at the guy to stop stealing the bike.
Punish the law-abiding - a pretty well known and used policy in the UK (sadly).
I've never lived somewhere where cars weren't the most common method of transportation and I've only heard about bikes being stolen. Probably because it's just so much harder to steal a car whereas you can feasibly just carry a bicycle on your back.