Anybody here use a skinny cable lock? Fun exercise: Get yourself a pair of wire cutters 6" ought to do. Park and lock your bike, Franklin. Hold the cutters behind your back, Franklin. Back up innocently to your bike but pretend it is somebody else's bike.
Pretend to be a bike thief (lol) and whistle Dixie while you, by feel, nip through the woven steel cable we see in that lunchtime photo atop the thread.
I bet you won't get past, look away, look away, look away, Dixieland, grin, and you will be done with that advertisment of a cable that says steal this bike.
All in jest, but hey, it's true stuff, ain't it? Lots of bikes are cable locked here in my village. They don't much get stolen, though, because A) the owner is right nearby like you were or B) the bike is not desirable.
I spent 50 months in Dade County Jail for denouncing a crime my alleged victim committed against me. While in that garden spot I met a number of professional thieves. Rick, for one particular example, is a very nice fellow, charming, affable, generous and well groomed. But he has a crack habit and the bikes he steals (his success rate is over 99%) are those momentarily left unattended or those locked with a cable lock like the one you used. He sells a $3,000 bike to his fence for $50 and gets high and never thinks about the repercussions to you or himself at all.