So I'm fliping around on the TV. I land on Court TV for a second and see some cops in an office with a bicycle. Bicycle enthusist that I am, I stop and watch for a second, I figured it was about bike cops. Turns out, it was the Albuquerque NM police doing busts for larceny. They specifically selected a $3900 (what the cop on TV said) Mercedes Benz bicycle. I did a little seaching and this article shows what looked like the bike, minus all the "police" labels on it and no bag on the rear rack.

The cop on the show said that it was a class II felony due to the value of the bike (if it were stolen).

So, one cop in plainclothes walks the bike to a convience store and parks it against the wall without locking it up. He then walks off and he and the other cops sit and watch from some distance away. Well, sure enough, some dude (who appears to be an immigrant) looks at the bike and then procedes to walk off with it. Then the cops pounce. The dude gives no resistance, and then says that he thought that someone left the bike so he took it. And then they cuff and arrest him.

Bust #2: This time, the undercover cop leaves the bike outside a liquor store (which isn't in view from inside the store, it is on a outside wall with no windows). This time, two dudes walk by. One of them grabs the bike and starts walking with it. The cops pounce. One of the undercover cops gets hit by the dude, and they scuffle. He gets arrested, and they tell him he is charged with a felony. The dude acts suprised. The cop tells him it is a $3900 bike and the guy is like "what!?" The police officer then tells him it is a mercedes benz bike. and they arrest him.

Now, here is my problem. They purposely leave the bike in a depressed part of town. They choose a super expensive bike, and they leave it unlocked in a "bad" part of town, at night. Now, I keep up with bikes a little, and I did not recognize this bike. It didn't look much different than some of the cheaper bikes out there with the exception of the disk brakes and suspension. The brand wasn't obvious from the TV show. I believe that if the cops had left a lesser value new bike in the same circumstances, they still would have been stolen. They might have even left a completely beater bike and the same result would have happened. Then the dude who grabs it, gets charged with a class II felony due to the value of the bike.

My second problem is that the bike is completely unlocked. Now I often leave my bike unlocked outside a convience store (at night) when I'm just running in to grab something. But I leave mine in view from the cash register, so I can keep an eye on it (or the cashier would have the opportunity to see someone else grab it). I do lock it up if I'm leaving it for some time. Of course, my bike is worth a lot less than $3900 (or $2000 according to the link I provided above). Now, the bike did look to be expensive, and to my trained eye (provided I didn't realize it was a MB brand bike) I would have guessed that it was maybe a $1000 bike. To the untrained eye, it could have been confused for a $100-$300 bike.

I mean, they could have at least put a cheap lock on the bike, and I could have been OK with the bust (except I believe it is over the top to select a "$3900" or a $2000 bike as bait) but to leave a bike unlocked in an urban area, out of sight from anyone from inside the store late at night I believe is excessive. And I believe it was particularly cruel to select a bike with a high enough value to get a class II felony.

I just felt that the busts that the cops were doing was way out of line and unreasonable. To choose such an expensive bike made it that much more revolting. To leave it unlocked was the icing on the cake.

My next problem is this. This was in a depressed part of town (the cops admitted this much). Now, in poorer parts of town, there are people without transportation other than walking. A bike can be a godsend. It can enable someone to ride to a job, and get things done in a timely manner. A bike with a rack (which this one had) is even better, because you can carry things like groceries on it. It can be a really useful tool, especially for a poor person. The whole episode on TV just left me as being really low down and dirty. I mean, if they had locked it, and someone busted the lock, I would have felt much better about the busts (aside from the fact that they chose a rediculously expensive bike).

Now, I'm not so much defending the dudes who grabbed a bike which they knew wasn't theirs, as much as I feel the cops were baiting them. I mean, if they left an ipod on the ground, wouldn't you expect someone to pick it up and take it? Why did they (the cops) feel the need to use such an expensive bike? Why didn't they at least lock it up with a cheap lock? Why did they leave a bike out at night which would have been illegal to ride (in this case the bike didn't have a headlight , and it didn't appear to have a tail light, would some one think: "did the owner just ride up, or has it been there all day?"). It my town (a college town) bikes are often abandoned. Some are tossed out, some are left locked up (and sometimes partially stripped) and some are just plain left. The abandoned ones which are locked are eventually grabbed by the cops and sold at auction. Now I own a bike. I like it, it is a beater but it is mine. I wouldn't want anyone stealing it, but I know that if I leave it unlocked in town and out of sight, there is a strong possibility that it would be stolen. Not so much for someone to pawn, but stolen for riding. I have picked up tossed out bikes. In the past, I have cut a lock on a stripped frame, after observing it for a month or two (it was an LL Bean bike, so don't jump on my case). That bike was eventually built up from spare parts and given to a friend. I have also picked up an unlocked bike that again was observed for weeks(in this case, it was on public property, not outside someone's house or apartment). I gave that one to someone who needed a bike. I've bought a $10 diamond back at an estate sale(again, for someone eles). Maybe I'm justifying my actions, but I feel that if someone leaves a bike unlocked on public space for weeks at a time with a flat tire, then they are giving it away. I'm not advocating bicycle thievery, but I feel that if someone can use a bike, and it is just sitting there apparently abandoned, than get that bike to persons in need. Friends of mine have had bikes stolen from their residence (left outside) and I feel that is wrong. Am I wrong, or is it just my own "honor among thieves" morality? My own bike was purchased from a university auction, so it was probably abandoned. Am I just cutting the state out of its share of the spoils?

I don't want to confuse the issue. In my first cases, the ones on the TV show, it is obvious that the persons who took the bike didn't wait for the owner to claim it. I can accept that it is a crime of opportunity but I feel the cops weren't exactly doing the right thing. In my own case, I do leave a bike for the owner to get it (sometimes weeks, sometimes months). What is the proper "grace" period on an abandoned bike?

What do you think?

Sorry if this was long, but I would like others' opinions on these issues.