If you turn it in to the police DO NOT FIX IT, you won't get it back if it's any good, and for most people 'good' means looking nice and rideable. I have had a worthless but 'pretty' and rideable Huffy stolen from right next to a nice Fuji simply because the huffy looked good, and the fuji was covered with stickers had 'custom' paint the PO applied, and mismatched tires (gumwall/blackwall).

I don't trust the cops, I had the Grand Rapids police impound a bike I was riding at the time and had owned for over 8 years, because it wasn't licensed in grand rapids, and because I couldn't produce a sales reciept (I lived in dorr, 18 miles south of GR, why should I register it in GR? and why would I keep a sales slip in my pocket for 8 years?)

call the police, let them know you found a bike and ask what the procedure should be to determine if it's stolen. Most likely they'll tell you to throw it out, Keep the officers name the date and time of the call. then fix and ride the bike. You're covered so there'll be no headaches later on.

Also, I've found the best way to secure a found bike is to go get a license for it, that way if it is stolen they'll inform you of the fact and impound the bike asking you where it came from, if it's not stolen, you have 'legal' paperwork on it.

No I don't condone picking up every bike you find sitting around, but in many cases a found bike is truly abandoned, up here you see them everywhere with a flat tire laying on the side of the road, a few weeks later you'll see them getting tossed on the trash truck.

ken.