Originally Posted by Cyclaholic
once you cut his lock you assumed responsibility for the security of his bike, leaving it there to be potentially stolen
How dim could the person be to not realize that locking it to somebody else's bike would cause a problem that
mmac had the right to rectify? Locking somebody else's bike--whether intentionally or by mistake--is a wrongful assumption of control, depriving the rightful owner of its use without permission or compensation. What right did the other person have to assume that it would not work severe hardship on
mmac such as causing an appointment, class, lab, or exam to be missed, or inability to get to work (or a long walk home, since s/he can't reasonably assume that the owner would have access to alternative transportation--at least 1 round trip, including to retrieve the bike when
mmac could correctly predict it might be found unlocked)?
The person who locked the bikes together assumed the responsibility for his or her actions, as well as the reasonably foreseeable corrective measures that would be required.
mmac had no duty to correct the resulting problems the person who locked the bikes together caused him or herself. I can't imagine a way the cut cable could be fixed or replaced afterward.
And one reason why somebody might intentionally lock somebody else's bike is to come back later and steal it.
If
mmac had the ability and time to do more to make the extra effort to help the person who locked the bikes under the belief that it was an innocent human mistake, then that would be a charitable thing to do, not a responsibility.