Trailtrekker

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - 13-year-old Cody Young parked his bike in the wrong place at the local Goodwill store, where the rule is that anything on the floor goes. He didn't have a lock, but friends said they had parked inside the store before. On Sunday, though, the black BMX bike was sold.

But the teen got his bike back, Goodwill officials said, after the buyer saw a newspaper story about the mix-up and returned it to the store.

The buyer got the bike for just $6.99 but will get a $100 gift certificate from Goodwill for coming forth.

It's not the first such mix-up in Goodwill's busy stores, Goodwill spokesman Dale Emanuel said. A janitor once left a bucket and mop on a store's sales floor, and they were sold the next day.

Bill Kapaun

You didn't mention the part about the kid parking his bike next to the BIKES!
The clerk should have known it was a customers bike because the tires weren't flat

spinnaker

Gives you a little faith in humanity.

$6.99? Wow I really should check out the thrift stores!

rmfnla

I wonder if any of the emplyees have ever been sold that way...

DukeArcher 

They do so little at work they'd be sold as mannequins

Azndude51

Who came up with the $6.99 price if the bike didn't have a tag?

Trailtrekker

I can't speak for the store in the story, but here in my town there is a standard boilerplate price for almost every item, and many things aren't marked. For instance, at Goodwill Industries, all adult bikes sell for $12.38, no matter if they are a tandem, a BMX, a recumbent, a carbon fiber racer or a 35-year-old rustbucket Huffy. I don't know how they determined that price. And no, I haven't seen any carbon fiber racers for sale; but I have missed out on a few great buys that had been tagged as 'sold' for later pickup before I arrived. I'm still hoping to come across a chrome Schwinn Paramount someday.

Thrift store bikes are definitely 'buy at your own risk.' Many of them have rotted-out tires, petrified or completely missing brake pads, chains frozen by rust, loose or unattached control cables, etc. One time I bought an old Schwinn LeTour mixte at the Salvation Army outlet with the intention of donating it back after I harvested its vintage chrome fenders. Before I re-donated it, I repaired several minor problems I found ... including breaking and rethreading the chain, which someone somewhere had re-routed to bypass the bottom jockey wheel of the rear derailleur!