Originally Posted by comradehoser
well-biked: I'm sorry that you've had bad experiences with bike thieves. Who exactly is "THEM", though? To quote a rural south-centralian such as yourself: "We have met the enemy and he is us". WE are all in bed with thieves--or have been thieves--even if we won't admit that to ourselves. Just a point of fact to counter your somewhat black & white moral universe. As for being a thief personally, especially of cherished property, that is not something I relish or can ethically support.
As far as I'm concerned, reusing abandoned stuff is a positive virtue, and a social good, for the reasons peripatetic states. We live in a stupid, throw-away society. Foolish people throw good stuff away all the time. my mom and dad found a washer/dryer that was perfectly fine except for a $1 switch. my bro found a fully functional, perfect breadmaker. Guess it's in my genes.
If a bike is in any way secured and functional, then by my lights, that's probably somebody's bike (although at UMd., they finally cut off a bike that had been u-locked to a mall rail for a year.) Bikes I consider to be abandoned are in clearly public spaces (open fields) and/or are non-functional (broken chain stay, missing/tacoed wheels, no chain, etc.)
Anyways, thanks all for the feedback. Posting's up on craig's list, so hopefully somebody gets their bike back, or I get a lot of parts I couldn't normally afford. Win-win situation? I think so.
Comradehoser, you're doing the right thing in regard to trying to find out if the bike was abandoned, stolen, whatever. However, the problem I have with your situation and I think the problem you have with it, too, (as evidenced by the fact that you say you suspect it's stolen and you don't know exactly what to do) is in the fact that you're dealing in an area sometimes called "subjective morality." Subjective morality deals with the grey area of morality. We all agree that outright stealing is wrong, that's black and white, as you say, also known as "objective morality." The problem I have with this business of scavenging is that unless a bike is clearly IN THE TRASH WITH OTHER TRASH ITEMS IN AN AREA THAT A TRASH PICKUP IS REASONABLY EXPECTED, or is expressly given to you by the rightful owner, then you have to make a decision (and practice a form of subjective morality) as to whether you can make it yours without being morally, ethically, or legally wrong. You could say that this bike was indeed given to you by the guy in the van, but you seem to think the guy in the van was somewhat suspicious, so herein lies the ethical and moral dilemna. What did I mean when I referred to THEM? Well, assuming your suspicions are correct and the dude in the van stole the bike, AND assuming you were suspicious of the guy from the very beginning, I personally think you are on the wrong side of the ethical, moral, and possibly even legal line, and therefore you've become like a thief if you're willing to accept what you think to be stolen merchandise from a thief. If you don't agree with that, then so be it. Personally, I think if you really want to know about the bike you should go back to the place you found it and ask whoever lives there what the deal is. If it was thrown out by the legitimate owner, would it not be logical that it would have been done by the person that lives there? I don't see why you didn't do that in the first place-