lotek 

fify

vjp

vjp

karmat

Well if you don't want to talk to the landlord, then I'd say you're really not asking for solutions other than "take it." If you call the police the bike will be gone--assuming they even cut it off. Since it sounds like you don't really have much of an ethical dilemma with it, just take it. Personally I'd talk to the landlord first. Offer to ditch the other bikes, too, if he balks. But if you don't want to bother, then just do what you want. I kinda get the impression you were just looking for validation for what you wanted to do anyway?

Karl

brockd15 

Pics please...I'm a visual sort of guy.
Definitely need to see what we're talking about here for an accurate evaluation.

Sirrus Rider

+1!

RobbieTunes

File an abandoned vehicle report with the police, volunteering to dispose of it.
It works here.

canonizer

You're probably right. I took the first step of leaving a note and we'll see if that gets any traction in the next week or so. If the majority of the people here had said 'it's always wrong to remove a bike; some day the owner might want it', I might totally leave it alone. To give you an idea of the block, my landlord only controls one of the 4 buildings that are each brick bunkers, so I don't know how the space allocation works in the alleys behind us (the blank spaces in my picture below represent brick buildings, obviously, and the asterisk is the bike). Granted the bike is closest to his but I talk to the dude a-plenty and man is he unresponsive.

.. .. . .....ll
.. . .... ...ll
====== =====
.. ...*. .. ll
... .... ....ll

Robbie, I'll try 311, our local source for non-emergency info, and see if they have any insight.

vinfix

A guy asked this question on the fixed gear forum and got pretty well flamed. Instead of asking us, why not ask yourself what you would say if a cop, or the rightful owner, walked up to you while you were sawing away on the lock? Would you want to explain it at the police station? Or to someone who thinks it's ethical to beat down a bicycle thief and is pummeling you?

canonizer

Vin, I left a note on the bike. If the owner does not see the note for some amount of time and either a cop or the owner comes out, magically (cops don't hang out in alleys behind buildings), the day I decide to bust his chain, I will tell them both the same thing: I believe the bike to be abandoned and have made an offer to pay for it. If it is specifically the owner coming outside, I will reiterate the offer to pay him a pittance for the frame rather than see it rot. If he declines the offer, the most he would be out is one link of a chain. Also, theoretically, I will be holding a power saw, so I can't imagine anyone charging me necessarily.

If it comes to me coordinating with police to liberate it or doing it on my own, I believe my conscious will remain relatively clear about the whole thing, not that I have in anyway exhausted the above options.

trashion

If you left a note on it for a substantial amount of time (at least 2-4 wks) I would take it. After you've taken it, I'd post a note in that area saying you have it and can be contacted if they want it back.

Road Fan

You must have had cops in the family who told you how much they like people who are trying to be "cute!"

prettyshady

I've considered 'liberating' bikes in the past, like this faggin with galli parts. But If I got caught I would have a tough time explaining where I got the other 30 - 40 or so bikes I have. I hope that bike gets back on the road (either by you or the owner), because I'm sure the faggin I posted above didn't

yuoil 

I would say do the wait on the note, then take it if no response. I see bikes abandoned all the time, and I think what most people do when they come back to a bike with no wheels OR come back realizing they lost their key is write it off. I don't mean people who love to bike, but, people who buy a bike to use then get tired of it. I find a surprisingly large number of people who rarely bike have had bought expensive bikes.

Also, you could use a bottle jack if there is room. Supposedly it's what the pros use, rather than a saw. However, you will look like a thief, so keep that in mind during your considerations.

laura*

Put on some greasy overalls that say MAINTENANCE on the back, a Cubs cap, and blue sneakers from Payless. Borrow a beat up pickup truck. Using power tools, remove all the abandoned bikes.

Think about it: Eventually, the landlord will hire someone to do exactly the above. There won't be any notes left on the bikes. There won't be any abandoned property reports with the cops. Instead, one day all the abandoned bikes will just disappear. The bike rack might also disappear.

If you want, toss the bikes into a dumpster. Then go change into your black ninja dumpster diver outfit and liberate the bike you want.

mtnbke

Its as simple as this. Its not yours.

There isn't any other relevant fact. All this about wanting to save the bike, well save the rhetoric. It doesn't belong to you so leave it alone. Even if its abandoned, its not YOUR abandoned bike.

You take the bike, and you become, simply the lowest cad in existence, a BIKE THIEF!

It doesn't matter that the bike gets ruined, doesn't get used, or rots away. None of these things are relevant to you. Its not your bike. Keep your damn hands off it.

There are a myriad reasons why the bike is there. If the owner ever comes back for it, fine. If they don't fine. However, its still their bike, not yours.

End of story.

I can't believe how many cyclists attempt to rationalize theft. Even worse are the ones who take bikes and then call into the police department 'letting them know' that they're holding the bike in case the owner turns up. Like a random call to the police station is going to generate a memo that will sit on top of every cop in the cities desk until the owner returns...

Simple rule, if it ain't yours, keep your damn hands off it.

Theft plain and simple. Stop trying to make it 'okay'.

mtnbke

You know if I had a wish, I'd take the prize bike from every fool posting to this thread the second it hasn't been ridden for a 14 day period, and leave a note saying 'thanks'...

Lets abandon the nonsense here. There is no spiritual notion here about a bike needing to be ridden, not being 'wasted', bicycles are property. It isn't for anyone here to determine when a bicycle has been abandoned and when a bicycle is just being ignored.

All this about 'rescuing' the bike, and bikes needing to be appreciated and ridden.

Well, would you accept those arguments from your neighbor if he thought your wife needed to be rescued from your mundane relationship, because you didn't appreciate what you had, from his perspective, that she needed to be 'ridden'?

It it ain't yours leave it alone. Period. A good rule for bikes, wives, and anything else.

banjo_mole 

Great argument, pal!

Your false equivocation of wives and bicycles certainly makes your argument a sound one!

What if the owner of the locked up bicycle is dead? What then?

Is it still his to keep?

Or what if the owner lives in Oregon, doesn't give a damn about the bike, and isn't going to return for it, ever?

Hmm?

I argue that the OP should do his research. Ask a landlord if he knows whose it is.

Or let a maintainence man cut it off and haul it to the dump.

What about people that leave their bike locks on a rack and never get them?

Most of us have seen those racks covered in rusty locks.

Should the maintainence people who take those locks (someone's property) be charged for theft?

Or is the cutting of those locks at the discretion of the owner of the bike rack?

Likewise, would the removal of an abandonded bike be at the discretion of the owner of the land on which the bicycle is locked, in the extended, indefinite absence of the owner of the bicycle?



Or, as you said, bikes = wives.

canonizer

If something has actually been abandoned (and there are legal, as well as commonsense, ways of determining that) it is fair game. The hinge, for me, is that determination. Honestly, at some point it is litter chained to a fence if the owner is not willing to take the responsibility of removing it.

jtgotsjets

As long as we're using exaggerated, emotionally charged metaphors, what if someone left their baby chained to a fence for a few weeks? Leave it alone, it's not your baby. You never know when they're going to come back for it.

rhm

Hold on. "Spiritual notion" and "property" are incompatible terms. You are confusing what is right with what is legal.

Property is a uniquely human notion, and respecting it is a fundamental part of the social contract. Taking someone else's property is theft, which is universally a crime. Crime, by the way, is another uniquely human notion. All these human notions, as if humans are the only thing that matters on this planet.

I am so very very tired of this notion that "since I own this, I can do anything I want with it." I have seen people take perfectly good clothes, furniture, bicycles etc. and systematically destroy them before throwing them in the trash, to make sure no one takes them out of the trash. That is waste, and it is fundamentally wrong at many levels regardless of the law. It deprives someone of the benefit of the use of what is wasted; it wastes valuable landfill space; it leads to the extraction of more resources; it leads to pollution in the reprocessing of the recyclables, and so on. All of this may be perfectly legal, but it is a crime against the whole planet.

Willfully demolishing your bicycle (or anything) and throwing it in a dumpster may be legal, but it's not right. Ditto to abandoning a bicycle to the ravages of the elements. If (yes, if; this is an important point) the bike is abandoned, then I encourage OP to lay his hands on it all he wants. It's the right thing to do even if it is also a crime.

Summation: take the bike but don't get caught.

negator

i lost the key. you can have what's left.

mtnbke

It doesn't matter if the owner is dead, in Oregon, or in prison. What matters is that the bike does not belong to the person rationalizing how they can make it okay to take.

What the heck is the matter leaving something alone that doesn't belong to you? Where is the injustice in that? All this nonsense about wanting to save or wanting to preserve the bike is a just rhetoric to justify taking something that belongs to someone else.

They may have moved. Its possible. They may be dead. Its possible. They may be in prison for a very long time. They may be in Iraq. They may be on a religious mission. They may be in the Peace Corps, on Sabbatical, or really anywhere. It doesn't matter.

The simple fact is it doesn't belong to the person that just wants it. Barring actually getting in touch with the rightful owner, leave the bike alone.

At the end of the day its there because that is where the owner left it. Their claim to the bike doesn't terminate upon the failure of your character to suppress your covetous nature.

oh...and don't complain when karma visits and makes things right in kind, either.

mtnbke

Rationalization.

If you are not the owner, if you are not the agent for the property owner, well you've stolen the bike.

Finding a bunch of idiots on the internet to enable your decision just makes you a bike theif and a moral coward.

I mean if you're going to steal someone's bike at least have the fortitude to steal it without going through the nonsense of a enabling 'do you think its okay if...' nonsense.

Sheesh. Think for yourself. Don't ask an anonymous 'community' to hold your freakin' hand through every decision you make, right or wrong. If you're going to be a bike thief, so be it, but be a man, at least, while you're stealing the bikes.

linux_author

buy your own bike, don't steal an abandoned one...

canonizer

You cannot steal something that has been abandoned! Take a look at the definition of the word. Abandoned property does not retain its ownership.

However, this bike is deemed not abandoned. I very loudly went out to take a look at the lock and chain with a friend. It turns out that it has one of the old krypto locks, capable of being unlocked with a plastic pen. Whether the owner saw my note or heard us loudly discussing liberating his bike on Saturday, I am not sure. But 2 days later there was a tarp hanging over it and one of the neighboring rust buckets.