Has someone tried to pinch my wheel (or, worse, kill me)?

[zoxed]

In the late 70s my roadie late-cousin had just crested a climb when his front QR skewer split and the 2 ends literally popped out sideways (due to the springs) !! He was very lucky this did not happen on the following downhill, and it is one of the reasons I feel so much safer on a recumbent trike !!
(Another time he managed to snap a crank, which left him temporarily unconscious at the side of the ride !)

 

[Amanda P]

One possible explanation is that a washer or spacer somewhere along the axle split or disintegrated and dropped off the bike as you were riding. That might remove enough tension from the QR for it to come loose.

I know this because a spacer split and disappeared from the rear axle of my bike last week. Fortunately, it wasn't a QR.

 

[John the Monkey]

Either someone was halfway through taking my wheels or it had been done for a joke (yeah, very funny)

Chatting to my son over getting his bike out of the garage he was telling me that stuff like this (and undoing v-brake noodles) on the locked up bikes is par for the course among the more boneheaded at his school. He has a routine of checking the brakes & QR levers before setting off on a ride.