arej00dazed

I found a newish looking 20” bicycle in my yard the other day (dunno how long its been in my yard). I snatched it up before it got rained on. I’m planning to call the police to report it, however, would they let me keep it til the owners are found OR if they are req’d to take it, whats the chances I could get it back if no one claims it? It would save me a lot of money next year because both my kids will be needing 20” bikes.

I also thought bout stripping it, repainting and use it as a stunt/whatever bike. Its a freestyle girls bike, so it would be great for a stunt bike (save my son a few possible painful memories with a lower top tube). "You want to do WHAT with that bike?.......OK, let me get the camera first.........."

Wait For Me

Before you plan your paint job, how would you feel if it was your kids bike in someone else's yard? It's probably stolen, call the police and give it to them! Free bikes dont just pop up in yards. And make your boy learn about the top tube like the rest of us, giving a boy a girls bike is like giving him, well it's like giving him a GIRLS BIKE!

Rootman

Depends on your community, a some communities unclaimed bikes are donated / sold to outreach organizations, others the bike will languish in storage till it is disposed of. You should ASK the cops when they come - if they DO come, bike theft / recovers is not very high on many communities priorities.

arej00dazed

My gawd, ddin't you even read my post?! Did I say I was going to paint it right away or even keep it? NO I DID NOT!!! Painting was just mentioned if I COULD keep it. And let me worry bout my sons "pride".....


Come on ppl, read posts before running off at the lips/fingers........

Also, if it was my kids bike that was stolen/lost, then it would be their fault for not putting it in the shed. I learned to take care of my stuff and to lock it up, they need to also. And the best way to learn is from mistakes. They broke their DS over half a year ago. I'm teaching them responsibilty by taking my sweet ass time fixing it. They now regret mishandling it.

Hyperventilate

arej00dazed

My gawd, did read what you wrote? You writing is poor!

arej00dazed

OMG, da GRAMAR PO PO IS HERE!!!

GrandaddyBiker

You did say in your third sentence that you planned to call the police. However, the rest of your post was about what you intended to do with the bike not about getting it back to its owner. Did you plan to tell your son he is riding some other kid’s bike and not one that you bought with your money?

arej00dazed

the rest of the post is what I had in mind IF I could have kept it. Why are all of you being jerks? Damn, I said I was going to call the police and "IF" I could keep it, that what I had in mind. I never said that I'm PLANNING TO KEEP IT and I'm not going to UNLESS no one claims it. Quit being so damn touchy!

Not to worry, I will NEVER ask another question or advice here again.

Wait For Me

The police should have been called BEFORE you started this thread!!!!!
Do what's right already and move on.

alaskanb3arcub

Locally, a call to the cops would have them coming by to fetch it, then storing it until the annual police auction. Unfortunately, the pathetic bike rack they use is located RIGHT NEXT TO a salt water slough. Bikes that are actually decent, once stolen, either get dumped, or disappear onto a boat and leave the island.

GrandaddyBiker

The bottom line here is that a little girl somewhere is separated from her bike. If the OP does get the police to let him keep it, he should definitely paint it. It could be embarrassing if one of his neighbors drives by one day and seeing the bike says, hey that’s my daughter’s bike.

Blinkie

Perhaps a couple "Found child's bike. Contact me, describe it to claim it" adverts on CL and a local paper would reunite the bike with its former owner, in stead of it ending up in impound.

Mondo734

Here is how I see it. Call the police and ask if its stolen. Provide them with the serial number and have them run it to see if its registered to anyone. If its not registered or been reported stolen then post some flyers around the neighborhood. I'm not talkin about a 10 mile radius but within a few blocks. If no contacts you within a month keep the bike. If you just hand it over to the police it will end up at an auction and from what I have seen at the police auctions the kids bikes only sell for like 10-50 dollars. I don't see how its any better to just give it to the police if its not stolen or registered to an owner when all they are gonna do is sell it.

tagaproject6

How does one leave a bike on someone else's yard? Chances are, it is a neighbor's kid's bike. Do you have neighbors? Did you ask around the neighborhood or are you one of those neighbors that really don't associate much with anyone. Are you the one they will be talking about on the news and be described as "a loner, didn't bother anybody and he pretty much kept to himself!"?

You don't know how long it's been on your yard...you don't get out of your house much?

Or, did you use a can of computer duster to break its lock

bud16415

Years ago I lived in a house in the inner city and at least 3 days a week I would have a bike in the front yard or driveway. I would carefully roll them behind the house being careful of fingerprints. I would then call the police and report I had a new one. They would say thanks and never show up to get the bikes or investigate. Sometimes I would have 6 bikes back there some of them quite nice road bikes. The number would go down as whoever was stealing them and leaving them would re steal them and take them someplace else. I never did figure out who was taking them but it wouldn’t have taken Sherlock Holmes to stake it out and catch someone. There was zero interest on the part of the city. They would tell me if I could bring them down to the impound they would have them there for people reporting a bike missing to look at. I didn’t have a good way to get them there so I said you want them come get them, but they never did. People would grab a bike and ride it close to home dump it in my front yard and then cut thru my back yard to the street behind. I was tempted a few times when a nice bike showed up but no way was I going to keep these bikes. There was no need to ask around the neighborhood about these adult bikes, a kids bike I might and a girls bike might be different. Back in those days bikes were being taken mostly for one way transportation not for trying to sell them.

Gnosis

Unfortunately, LEO’s (Law Enforcement Officers) of various demographics simply don’t concern themselves with bicycle theft, so giving them a bicycle’s serial number amounts to little more than an exercise in futility. Naturally, it’s worth a try, as LEO’s in some precincts actually work for a living, but as was demonstrated per my precinct, it was purely a wasted effort on my behalf, as they wouldn’t lift a single pork-riddled finger to check if the bicycle I had brought to their station had been stolen. When I tried to hand them its serial number, which I had written on a piece of paper, they declined to accept it! That’s how useless these gun-toting imbeciles are around here and this is why “We The People” are finding it increasingly necessary to take the law into our own hands, as these poor excuses for law enforcement have failed us on so many levels!

gregjones

That is as incorrect a statement as I have read in 15+ years of Internet surfing.

During my training as a Correctional Officer at a maximum security prison, one thing that was drilled into our heads is that "CRIMINAL INTENT RESIDES WITHIN THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE PERSON THAT COMMITS THE CRIME IS THE SOLE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COMMISSION OF THE CRIME".

There is no one on the face of the earth that can stop a bike thief until the bike thief takes it upon their self not to steal a bike. It does not matter if the bike is not left in the shed or if it's left in a MARTA bike rack unlocked. The person stealing the bike is the sole person responsible for the crime. Anything else is an excuse. It may be stupid not to put your bike in the shed or not to lock it up but it is not your fault it gets stolen.


If you are set upon sending your son out on a girls bike, why not paint it pink and shout "Go Sue Go" from the sidelines. Johnny Cash would be proud!!!

Ramona_W

I have a theory that if more people rode pink girl's bikes there would be a lot fewer bikes stolen.

ditchbanker

I'm sure it's not underfunding, over work, the fact that your local cops have to deal with folks as appreciative as you, or that maybe 1% of bike theft victims have a serial number to go with the report. You must be right.

Cookiemonsta

If this was in my neighborhood it would be likely that the bike was stolen and ditched. I would want the police to take it out of my hands. But you know your own circumstances best and can evaluate the situation better than I can. Regardless of the specifics, I would be extremely hesitant. I had bikes stolen from me, one of them a Jan Janssen roadbike worth 1200-1400 euros. Probably part of the reason why I would not want any part in it.

arej00dazed

For all the asshats here, I did turn it in to the police station. Some kid stole it and ditched it when he got scared. I didn't know how long it was back there cause 1) I have fairly large size yard and 2) we left for cedar point on friday and didn't get back to saturday evening, so it wasn't noticed til the next day. After all the bull**** I got here for no reason (once again, I NEVER SAID I WAS GOING TO KEEP IT, I WAS BASICALLY DAY DREAMING BOUT WHAT IF I COULD KEEP IT), I was gonna chuck back out where I found it, let someone else deal with it. But I didn't come back here and cooled down a bit and finally managed to get some extra time to take care of it. So supposedly it got back to the owner. Did I get anything out of it, no, not even a thank you. I kept it for up to a week just to see if anybody came door to door looking for it.

Once again, if something happens to my kids stuff do to their neglect, its their fault. Mistakes is the best teacher.

Next time I would suggest getting your head out of you ass for a change! If it even matters at all to any of you, you lost a member. But I doubt any of you even care, self centered, holier than thou jerks.

Wolfwerx

You are not a very nice person, it seems. Impolite, at the very least.

Wolfwerx

Speaking of holier-than-thou, why would you assume that the girl that lost her bike was at fault? While it's certainly possible (probable, even) that the child didn't secure her bike properly, how would you have even known if it wasn't, in fact, the parent that left their shed open/unlocked (or whatever other scenario would have left the bike out in the open). Additionally, how would you have know that the bike wasn't properly secured, and the thief didn't break into a shed/garage/whatever, as they are known to do?


In my opinion, the initial post was an awful lot of "counting your chickens before they hatch", which had people doubting the sincerity of your effort to return the bike to it's rightful owner. Right or wrong, surely you could understand why a group of people that are passionate about bikes were getting upset when hearing about a bike being taken away from it's rightful owner, especially a child?



I don't know why I'm putting any thought into this. Bored, I guess.

tagaproject6

must be tiring playing "victim" all the time

CbadRider

It's time for everyone to go outside and take a ride around the block.

Thread closed.