Originally Posted by raverson
I agree Don and have considered that. I would love nothing more than to be able to walk up to the rightful owner and say here's your bike back, especially if it was one of the vintage bike lovers in this forum. My main hesitation with going to the police is, one, there is no serial # on the bike, and two, I would hate like heck for the police to say that since it doesn't belong to me that they will have take possession of it and then it wind up being sold at a police auction because it wasn't claimed. Does anyone have experience with a similar situation? One of the reasons I have posted this bike on the forum is the possibility that someone will see it and recognize it as theirs. The original LBS sticker is still on the bike and I have thought about approaching them, although that's a longshot I'm sure. They are about 35 miles from where I found the bike.
Since the dilemma has shown it's horns-don't you just hate morals
, you may find appeasing it brings more satisfaction than keeping the bike ever could.
You could call the police and ask them what their policy is regarding bikes turned in and unclaimed. They may have a waiting period after which the bike may be yours if you want it. Or you could buy it at the auction if that is your only recourse.
The LBS may or may not have records about a bike it sold 20+ years ago, or they may recognize it as the bike of a regular customer. If they can't ID it, certainly they will not care what you do one way or the other.
I did recently pick up for free an 80's era Puch with 531 tubes and Shimano Arabesque componentry. It was sitting outside the local Sheriff's office with about 5 other crap bikes. I went inside and asked the Sheriff what he was going to do with the bikes, and he said if I wanted one to take it, so I did. Right now there is an 80's era Takara MTB laying abandoned in a field not a mile from my home. I've walked my dog past that bike a hundred times. It was a top of the line model in it's day, all cromoly and good components, but I know who threw it there and it's not mine, so, se la vie, there it lays.
Now if I could just make the time to work on the Puch.
