In that situation, I do not blame you one little bit for taking your bicycle inside the store. If stores/businesses do NOT provide some place for people who choose (or are forced because of circumstances) to ride bicycles for transportation, then they shouldn't be too surprised that those cyclists either bring their bicycles inside or taking their business elsewhere. Particularly when elsewhere DOES provide those customers who choose to ride bicycles for transportation with bicycle racks.

It would be a real big plus IF those bicycle racks were in a secure area, fenced and/or CCTV/security camera and/or out of the elements. Yes, our bicycles are hardy "steeds" and can and do take a lot of punishment. That said, however unlike a car or even a motorcycle/scooter/moped (that have fairing) our bicycles are still more susceptible to the elements.

Which is why, is it not, why certain businesses (laundromats come to mind) have signs clearly posted saying that the they are not responsible for lost, stolen property or property left unattended. Now, I'll be the first one to admit that I do not how legal those signs are, or how much protection they actually give a business owner. But given how prolific they are there is presumably something to them.

An interesting thread, but seems to have gone in 46 directions.
As has been pointed out a number of times, a store owner, (manager, employee, or janitor) has every right to remove your bicycle if left inside without permission.
What is irrelevant to the above, is an outside bike rack, how "clean" your bike is, relative comparisons to shopping carts, motorcycles, scooters and wheelchairs, how "rude" the employee is, and digital coyboy's personal anecdotes about how he is encouraged to bring his bike into business establishments.
Some legal terms have been bandied about. Some are incorrect.
Leaving your bike inside a store with or without permission creates no duty of care, nor does it create a bailment. "With" permission creates an accomodation, not a legal entrustment. "Without" permission needs no explaination.
For the OP, find a new place to shop and next time ask permission.... and buy a lock.

Calling the police and reporting that your bike is stolen when it has not been stolen could be construed as filing a false police report (the actual name of the crime varies from location to location).

If the store employees tell you they moved the bike outside, or you suspect or know that they have done so, the police will take very dim view of being called out as a part of some petty "vengeance".

Oddly enough, the police think their job is to investigate actual crimes.

You must live in a unique area of the country. In all my years of riding a bike, as a kid , and as a adult. I have never experienced or read about (until now) someone so pissed off about someone riding in the street that they stop and actually challenged someone to a fight. That ones hard to believe. If you say it happened then I guess it did. I'm reading all of these posts, some are ridiculous, some make a valid point. But this statement and the one where people park motorcycles inside stores(post #102) I find hard to believe. Ask for permission first, if denied, then park it outside or patronize another business instead.

Usually anywhere in the projects sucks and will not understand your need to have a safe bicycle.
I live in a high crime area and usually if I do anything out of the ordinary, someone will get pissed and try to fight you over it.
I think a lot of the reason for cycling hate in high crime / ****ty areas is because there are the bums on bicycles, which we sometimes get mistaken for.
I've seen bums on bikes to sketchy things..

Scoatw: I have experienced many people stopping their cars and trying to fight me. Both here in Florida and in Michigan where I used to live.
Its for this reason that I have taken an oath to myself to eventually move to a bike friendly / bike safe city. Or at least a city with many bikes where people are more used to road cycling.
Again relating to my above post. I feel like there are so many bums on bikes on the sidewalk, that motorists just think "cycling belongs on the sidewalk" because there simply aren't enough of us riding our roads.

You left your bike unattended in the middle of a shopping lane. What if an elderly woman trying to squeeze by had bumped out and tripped over it. You were inconsiderate as hell to leave it in a lane and I know people leave carts in lanes but they are much more stable than a bike. The employ was in the right.

Last year I had three different people actually get out of their car because I "dared" to ride in/on "their" road. At least two of those actually wanted to fight me over it. Because we disagreed on what was and wasn't a bike lane. The two who wanted to fight were under the impression that ANY space to the right of a white line equals a bike lane. Even though there are no road markings or signs to indicate that it is anything other then a shoulder. Also last year I had two drivers who didn't fully understand the law and who thought that regardless of the risk to me that I shouldn't ever leave the bike lane. With one calling me an "f'en arsehole" for not riding in the bike lane. Part of his "logic" was that the city provide them so we should/need to use them.

Also several years ago when I was going to a site with a Geocache I had a JAM pass me on the left in the left hand turn lane because he was in a hurry to get to McDonalds to get a hamburger. We exchanged words while he was sitting in the drive-thru and he also wanted to fight me over our difference in opinion. He seemed to think that I was taking too long go through the intersection.

I wish things were better and generally they are, but as I am sure others can tell you, we don't have to make this crap up. Just remember the old saying "Truth is stranger then fiction."

Sadly, I think that you're right about that. My former landlord referred to them as B.O.B.'s for Bums on Bikes. I'm not knocking the homeless, or poor. But when the average person sees "nothing" but bums, poor/homeless people, or people who have lost their license due to DUI/DWI on bikes they sadly tend to paint all cyclists with the same brush. :(

And as I said in the reply above, "the truth IS stranger then fiction," and we do NOT need to make anything up.

Sounds the desire to fight resulted from an exchange of words over what constituted a bike lane rather than just the fact that you were riding on the street. That's a little bit different than somebody who jumps out of their car swinging at the mere sight of bike in the road.

What if that hypothetical elderly woman in walking down the sidewalk past the OP's bike had bumped into it and injured herself?

To the OP, just where inside the store did you park your bike? I know that when I bring my bike inside that I will park it up front where they store their shopping carts. Or in the case of one store that I go to right alongside their customer curtsey counter. So OP, where exactly did you park your bike? Your description does make it sound as if you parked it somewhere where a customer could have bumped into it and injured themselves.

As I said in my original posts on this topic. Both drivers before getting out of their cars were driving towards me in a dangerous manner, i.e. acting like they were going to turn into the intersection and hit me. Before they got out of their cars and threatened me. I take their actions as an indication that:

a) they're not all there
b) they didn't want me on "their" roads

It wasn't until after the threat/challenge to fight that I attempted to point out to them that what they thought of as being a "bike lane" was in fact (and until such time that the city designates it as such) is just the shoulder.

Agreed, if the person making the call/report is in fact making a false police report. BUT in the OP's description (to me at least) it seems as if the OP had gone back to where he had parked his bike and was looking for it and was approached by the employee who had evidently moved his bike. So that if he had gone to where he had parked his bike (inside the store) and pulled out his cell phone and called 911 right a way how would that be filing a "false police report?"

Again, from the way the OP described it, it didn't sound as if he know (right away) that a store employee had moved his bike outside.

Granted fortunately in this case it turns out that the OP's bike hadn't been stolen, BUT until such time that the employee finally approached him and told him what he had done what else was the OP to think other then that someone had stolen his bicycle?

There are places where you are banned from leaving your bike on the sidewalk too, but presumably it's going to be out of the way if you chain it to a sign post.

I don't know if the OP is still following the thread or not. Also not sure what kind of store he was in but it sounds like he was talking either about an unused checkout lane or a merchandise aisle. Neither is a good place to leave a bike. If he left it in a merchandise aisle he's basically asking for somebody else to lay their hands on his bike. How else would they be able to get to whatever might be behind it on the shelves? By the same token sticking it in an unused checkout lane is simply wrong. He's got no business putting anything there unless he gets permission.

I worked my way through college in a couple of different grocery stores. There was no place inside of either of those that you could put a bike where it wouldn't be in the way. Floor space was for the purpose of selling product. Allowing enough room for carts to navigate was a necessary evil. Anyplace something could be stacked or where some sort of display erected did not go un-utilized. Leaving stock in the back room when a place could be found for it on the floor was to be avoided unless is was something that would sell quickly and you had to maintain some overstock.

Of course depending on the circumstances a manager could allow somebody to keep their bike inside (though I never saw it) but I couldn't imagine it ever being allowed when the store was busy.

It sounds like he knew within seconds of realizing his bike wasn't there. In any case I doubt a responding police officer would have been very sympathetic. The first thing the OP should have done upon finding his bike was not where he left it was check with the store manager. If I were to leave my wallet in a cart unattended and come back to find it gone, I would freak, but I'd check with the store before calling the cops.

Around here about the only activity involving bicycles and sidewalks that bicycles are banned from are from riding on them. Not from parking them on the sidewalk or also other then the public sidewalks there really aren't that many places (malls, shopping centers, etc) that I've seen that have had signs mounted in the sidewalk.

It would have been nice if he had provided us with a little more information. And you're right if he had left it in a merchandise aisle unlocked then he was more or less asking for trouble. Which is why I asked him for more information regarding where he left it.

Fortunately as I've said, I've been lucky enough to have owners or managers tell me to bring my bike inside.

tjspiel,

Actually he didn't go to where he had parked his bike and found it missing, he was being followed by a stranger. Here is the entire OP:

Nowhere in it do I see anything to indicate that the person who was following the OP was a store employee. From what the OP said he may not have even been aware that the person following him was even a store employee. He said that "someone" was following him, not that a store employee was following him.

Also from the exchange as posted by the OP suggests that the employee did it on his own and wasn't instructed to do so.

I don't see how the police would (not saying that it couldn't happen) charge a person with filing a false police report for making a police report in good faith.

I'm wondering whether yep202 will be carrying a lock from now on. I generally do, myself. If I forget to take it (which happens once in a while- I have 5 bikes but only 2 locks), and I have to stop in somewhere, I usually take the bike in with me and walk it through the store. So far no problems.

Ok, I actually blame the city for all this. Surely they are responsible for all parking. When the business submitted their building plans to council, council should have ensured adequate parking for ALL vehicles be it car, motorbike, bicycles, unicycles, scooters .... when the building permit was approved.

Simple solution is that if the business doesn't have parking, and doesn't display a sign to say it's ok to bring your car, motorbike, bicycles, unicycles, scooters .... inside, then do your business elsewhere.

If you want to still use the business, ask them first if it's ok. Maybe that's the polite thing to do.

I hesitate to use a technical legal term like "in good faith" when I don't understand its legal meaning.

If you sincerely believe that a crime has been committed, calling the police makes sense.

I wasn't responding to the OP - in the followup I quoted, someone had suggested that were his bike moved, and he suspected that employees had done so, he would call the police within earshot of the employees.

That would be a false police report.

My guess is that even if you didn't suspect that your bike had been stolen, if a responding officer found your bike outside the store when you reported it stolen, that officer would be extremely annoyed. You would most likely get away with that puerile tactic once, and only once. You would most likely hear about the penalties for filling a false police report.

At least from my experience (working in a bar to which police officers were often summoned :)), officers hate to be drawn into stupid petty disputes where no crime has been committed.

My actual comment was that you might be surprised at who was arrested - only because the only person who might be arrested in that circumstance would be the caller. He or she might not be arrested, but there is no chance that anyone else would be arrested.

I bring my bike into all sorts of places: Grocery store and hardware store being the most frequent, electronics shop next after those. I've gotten an complaint *once* from each place, and never had a problem afterwards. When asked to remove my bicycle from the store, I ask why. It has always been the same list of reasons -
1) It is a hazard and someone could be injured by it.
2) It is dirty and tracking "the outside" into the store.
3) It's taking up too much space.

My counterpoints are -
1) It is only a hazard if I leave it somewhere unattended, and I do not. It is next to me at all times and fully under my control. It is only as hazardous as an unattended grocery cart and less so than flatbed full of PVC pipe.
2) Would you make the same complaint regarding my wife's mobility scooter, which is her primary means of transport? It too, "tracks the outside into the store".
3) Place bicycle next to large grocery cart and ask, "Which one takes up more space?"

This thread would be a lot more interesting if the OP would actually call the place, talk to the manager and describe what happened. Ya never know, you might just get results.

There's just a bunch of posturing and anecdotal stories now. http://www.thegearpage.net/board/ima.../deadhorse.gif

I do the same.

Thanks for sharing that anecdote.


;)

lol - I figured I would catch some flack for that.