Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Is stealing a bike ever okay?

Outside of a building where I spend most of my time at my college is an Electra bike that has been locked to the bike rack for about 4 months. It's in the same place, covered in dirt, flat tire, soon to be snowed on.

I've thought about asking about it on craigslist, but figured that would just alert people that there was a bike that is easy to steal. This is one of the few brands of bicycles sold in town. I'm assuming some kid came to school, bought a bike, dropped out, went home, and abandoned it. Either way it seems abandoned.

It's locked with one of those walmart combination cable locks that can be removed in less than five minutes with no tools.

Any opinions about a course of action? Forget about it? Take and donate?

Why do you want an Electra bike?

Wasn't there a similar thread?

here it is
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=549505&highlight=stealing

It's only stealing if you get caught.

Why do you want an Electra bike?

I don't really. Could use it to get around the neighborhood, give it to my girlfriend, it's got a basket that could fit a six pack from the corner store. It just seems like a shame for any bike in good condition to go to **** because some kid with money to waste decided it wasn't worth his time.

If it's locked up in the same spot for weeks/months and is just wasting away, I'd consider it fair game.

Or you could wait until campus security comes around, cuts the locks off, and then has their bike auction. The owner might suddenly decide that he/she wants it if you help yourself, and that hassle is not worth a free bike, to me. Doesn't matter how long it's sitting there, it's still their bike. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and all that.

Also, it's an Electra.

Don't steal bikes bro.

Try to pull some strings with campus security.... Like run into an officer and tell them about the bike and your concerns and slowly try to convince them to give you the bike after like a waiting period or something.....

there's a special place in hell for child molesters and bike thieves...

Unless it's your bike that you are stealing back, no it's never ok. People who steal bikes are bike thieves, and just because you want it doesn't make you any different from them. In fact it makes you a bike thief

there's a special place in hell for child molesters and bike thieves...

Satan's bed. I heard he goes both ways.

Try to pull some strings with campus security.... Like run into an officer and tell them about the bike and your concerns and slowly try to convince them to give you the bike after like a waiting period or something.....

there's a special place in hell for child molesters and bike thieves...

I hate bike thieves. I emailed the campus police to see how they deal with this sort of thing, but there are scavenged bikes in varying states of decay that I'm reasonable sure have been locked to racks for a couple of years.

I really hate to see a usable bike not be used, but I guess I don't want to cross the line to "bike thief."

there have been two bikes i've considered stealing. one was a lemond cross bike that was locked just by the QR front wheel. I saw it for the first time last November, and it was still locked to the same spot at the end of january(no idea how it lasted that long). the other was just an old road bike(i needed a geared bike at the time) that was in horrible shape and locked outside the library at my school for 4 months. They both eventually disappeared.

Is it stealing? I don't know, what do you call it when you take something that isn't yours?

There was a GTB U-locked to a pole in my town for months and months. Stuff began disappearing from it and before long, it was just a frame, fork, bottom bracket, headset and seatpost clamp. Finally, I approached a cop downtown who was writing a ticket right near where the frame was laying on the ground still locked to the pole and asked him what the deal was. He chuckled and told me that if I could get it off the pole, I could have it. He proceeded to give me his name and info in case anyone tried to stop me or whatever. Later that day, my friend went down there to get it and he's been riding it ever since.

It wasn't exactly stealing, though...

The key here is determining if it's abandoned or not.

People who call you a thief assume that it's not abandoned. If it's abandoned it seems that the previous owner doesn't claim property rights on it anymore (in a negative sense), and at that, it's yours for the taking.

Stealing involves taking someone's property that's not yours and claiming it as your own... in this case, since you're asking the question if it's legitimate to steal the bike, you seem to say that it's not abandoned. By virtue of your own question, yes, taking the electra would be wrong.

Abandoned property is considered free game until the original owner comes looking to get it back. You would have to give the property back given they can prove it was theirs. IMO if you are sure it is abandoned and you've asked the campus pd about it, then it would be fine. I've seen bikes in the same spot for years at my old school...the campus didn't even move them or anything.

in b4 lightningcow

stealing a bike is always okay.

If it's locked up in the same spot for weeks/months and is just wasting away, I'd consider it fair game.

And who gets to decide what the appropriate period of abandonment is? The thief?

- Mark

if you steal the bike you will turn into a pillar of salt

Steal IT!!!! First maybe put a note on it for a couple of days to see if it is truly abandon. If it is, go nutzo on that mofo!

Stealing is stealing. Once it is at the curb, in the trash, at the dump, it is then fair game.

Again, special spot in hell for bike thieves.

There was a bike parked in front of the dorm with flats. It's been there all summer and even had a tag on it saying it was going to be taken to the dump if no-one picked it up, so my girlfriend decided to take it instead of it being taken to the dump.

What if you locked your bike up and was then hospitalized for god knows what? Maybe the owner of that bike is lying in the hospital unable to retrieve his bike. Sure, if it's been there for a few months, that probably isn't the case, but who just leaves a bike out and forgets about it? Maybe you should take it off the pole, then put an ad up on craigslist.

I have taken several abandoned bikes in the last few years. Again, always a situation surrounding a college campus. Once it was at my old apartment, and I could verify the abandoned state of the bike. Other times, I waited for the summer and usually donated them to people I knew needed a bike or goodwill or some such.

I took a Schwinn suburban once. It had been locked outside of my apartment for months. Then one day while walking home I found it laying on the sidewalk a few blocks away. I guess somebody cut the lock then decided they didn't want it after realizing it's impossible to make a quick get away on two flat tires.

I put a found ad on craigslist, but ended up giving it away after a couple of months passed.

i'd probably call it abandoned, but there's an easy test to see if you're stealing it or not.

1. go down there and cut the cable.

2. If what you are doing makes you nervous you probably think it's stealing.

3. If you aren't nervous then it seems like you're ok and you got a nice piece of abandoned bike.

:crash::notamused::wtf::trainwreck:

The key here is determining if it's abandoned or not.

People who call you a thief assume that it's not abandoned. If it's abandoned it seems that the previous owner doesn't claim property rights on it anymore (in a negative sense), and at that, it's yours for the taking.

Stealing involves taking someone's property that's not yours and claiming it as your own... in this case, since you're asking the question if it's legitimate to steal the bike, you seem to say that it's not abandoned. By virtue of your own question, yes, taking the electra would be wrong.


Listen to this fellow.
Glad to see there is someone with a brain on here who is capable of more than impulsive bursts of bull****.
In this case, I'd say take the bike and post your story on craigslist. See if anyone comes forward.

Also, it's an Electra.

yep...so is this one:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/2883500657_1559f0bb32_o.jpg

I should've originally distinguished between abandoned abandoned and stolen.

The school is going to take the abandoned bikes all over campus in about two weeks. I guess they are stealing them, except they can get a court order for it.

Ask campus security about it, if they don't say you'll be arrested for stealing if you cut the lock, then do it.

If you are still feeling uneasy about it, turn it into the police station as lost property, and if nobody claims it within 2 weeks or something like that, it legally becomes your.

It's funny, because I've got an Electra sitting on campus that I literally never ride, it's probably been sitting there since last fall. No one has touched it except to rip off my Obama spoke card. I thought it would be fun to have a "for campus" bike but I was wrong.

you in new mexico?

I honestly don't consider my friend taking what was left of that GTB to be stealing, as I did talk to a cop about it and he told me it was going to end up in the junkyard if the town had to remove it. It had been there for over 6 months. I've always wondered why someone left it there in the first place, though. It was a pretty nice bike.

I have taken several abandoned bikes in the last few years. Again, always a situation surrounding a college campus. Once it was at my old apartment, and I could verify the abandoned state of the bike. Other times, I waited for the summer and usually donated them to people I knew needed a bike or goodwill or some such.

+1

There are some cases where you just KNOW that the bike's owner is long gone. When you post it online, people who are not actually familiar with the situation are understandably hesitant to tell you to take the bike but sometimes you just know. As for involving the police...the real police down here will laugh at you and they don't have any sort of waiting period before you can claim it...if they come get it, it will be donated to the bike coop (and sold back to you at somewhat high prices)

I have rescued a few basement bikes (or helped friends fix them) from the student apartment ghettos although I have never had to cut a lock to do so. Around here, you end up with trash piles of old bikes in the dark corners of these 90 year old walkups. The management company has come around at some point and cut all of the locks on the bikes they deemed abandoned but not wanting to deal with disposal (or accidentally taking a bike that wasn't abandoned), they just throw them in the corner. It frees up the primo locking spots for current residents and leaves behind a bunch of secondhand bikes with rusty chains that were abandoned when someone graduated.

As another poster has mentioned...go take it...If you feel like you are truly doing something wrong and your heart starts racing, stop. If not, enjoy your new mediocre ride (realistically anything nice would have not been abandoned or already stolen so its probably nothing special) or give it to a friend who needs a bike.

Back when I lived in a college town, I saw a lot of expensive bikes unceremoniously abandoned. I think the ethics of it hinge heavily on knowing that it's abandoned. After that, I think it's a matter of whether or not the bike is better off being salvaged. I personally think that bikes are meant to be ridden, not to rot away on bike racks. Still, I'd be absolutely positive that it's actually abandoned. That is the hard part.

Last spring, after all the kids had moved off campus, there was a fairly nice Trek mountain bike sitting on the rack with the back wheel missing. It had a tag on the handlebars saying that in less than a week it was going to be claimed by campus public safety. Not only that, but I realized that it was locked to the rack by the front wheel only. I could flip a lever and carry off the frame with no difficulty whatsoever. In the end, I stopped myself only because I had no need for the bike. Knowing that it's probably rotting away in an outdoor pen behind campus right now, I regret not taking it.