I had somehing like that a few winters back. A beautiful well preserved old Raleigh Sports with a Brooks leather saddle and matching saddlebag, and rod brakes was locked up outside a store for weeks that turned to months. I assumed it belonged to someone who lived in a nearby apartment. As it turned to winter christmas tree lights appeared on the bike. I asked about it in the art store it was parked outside. No one knew who it belonged to, and they had been asked before. Snow began to pile up on it. Friends and I at the bike coop debated the ethics of liberating it before it was ruined, but we did nothing. In February a huge snowstore dumped several feet of snow. It took a week for the city to clean up from it, but when they did, the bike was gone. I'm pretty sure the city cut it off the pole so they could plow the sidewalk, and it almost certainly wound up in a dumpster somewhere. This was one of the best looking Rod Braked Raleigh Sports I've ever seen, and now it's just not in the world anymore. Now I really really don't believe in stealing bikes, but in hindsight I really wish someone had.