Ethics and abandoned bikes

There’s a bike locked to a bike stand near my work which is a wreck:

– The front wheel is gone
– The rear derailleur is gone
– The rear skewer is gone
– There’s a lot of cobwebs and muck on it.

It hasn’t moved since I noticed it a year ago.

The frame looks ok.

It’s not mine, obviously, but I’m tempted to ‘liberate’ it with a view to putting some old working bits on the frame and either using it as a pub bike or selling it and donating the proceeds to charity.

Would it make me a bad person, would I end up in jail or should I stop my angsty nonsense and get on with hacksawing the lock?

In theory it’s theft.

In practise, if it’s been there for a year, it’s been abandoned and nobody will care and the place will look tidier once it’s gone. Consider it a public service. 🙂

Leave it – you just know you’ll get nabbed – its not worth getting criminal record for.

And Mr. Plod won’t give a damn what story you make up!

Brilliant – 2 posts perfectly summarising both extremes of the debate raging in my head!

Maybe we need a vote!

What sort of area is it? Busy, quiet, inner city, industrial estate, any cctv. How fast do you think you can get through the lock? Can you park next to it and just stick it in the boot of your car after getting the lock off? Can you go back at night and get it?

You could always put a note on it stating your intent, and a date upon which you will take it in an attempt to clean up the area.

Then stick to it.

Job done

It’s in a big bike park on NHS property.

Fairly busy and fairly accessible.

I Ache’s post makes it sound very covert and naughty and is pushing me towards ‘leave it’!

Willard – nice idea.

Abandoned property cannot be subject to an allegation of theft, since it no longer belongs to anybody

there’s your proper legal answer 🙂

If its on NHS property, ask the security guards to place a note on it before they remove it under the guise of health and safety. You can then “buy” it from them (I’m sure a pack of beer would do).

get the longest bolt cutters you can find.

remove it, hand it in at the local nick, reclaim in 40 days later?

I like the “proper legal answer” but have you got a source for it?

Does the 40 day rule still work for lost and found?

The security guards there are a basically a bunch of pirates.

Take it. Look on it as picking up litter.

APF

Just use the frame as a lever if it has a u lock on it, it takes about 3 seconds. Take it, you’re doing a service.

Take it to Plod and say where you found it and ask when you can re-claim it

Perhaps the thought of riding that bike is all thats keeping some poor sod alive in intensive care, after his ingrowing toenail op went hideously wrong?

In that case, the op should do it up with spangly parts in anticipation of the poor fellow’s recovery.

I’m in Essex currently. Where are all these abandoned bikes? Oh…….
IGMC

move it(take)Consider it a public service 8)

put a hi viz jacket on and no one will question you!

I took a pair of tyres of an abandoned bike. It had been there a year and had been vandalised several times as it was strategically placed to fall infront of drunk on a street corner. I didn’t take the bent wheels

Have it… set the poor thing free! (Like the high viz jacket idea too)

I found a Specialized Roubaix (presumably) stolen and thrown off a bridge. Took it to the Police, nobody claimed it and a month later it was mine. It was a 2006 model but so unused that the rims were unworn, it was my size, all it needed was new wheels. I have done 3500 miles on it in the last 2 years.

My karmic reward for being mostly good.

I say go for it. I take it you work on the NHS site. In that case when you finish work in a few weeks and it’s dark bring your car round so, your not walking around with what could look like a stolen bike. Use bolt cutters even if you have to buy some as these will be quiet and fast, you can also keep them in the car so you don’t end up walking round holding bolt cutters looking like a bike theif. High vis or/and a boiler suit will mean nobody asks you any questions. I genuinly would do it if I were you and am often looking for opportunitys to get a free bike.

Inform the hospital you have lost the key to your bike lock for your red / blue etc bike and you wish to collect it.

I love the Roubaix find – you must have been a really good boy in a previous life!

I’ve had another scout around. It’s well covered by cctv and I’m fairly well-known around the area so I’ve decided not to bother – it would be more trouble than it’s worth if I’m caught.

While I think it would be the ‘right’ thing to do, others may not!

Can you tell me where it is so I can have it?