abandoned bike

[deptfordmarmoset]

Ping @deptfordmarmoset and his story of an abandoned bike that turned out to have been stolen.

Yes, but I was only able to get it back to its owner because it had been registered. Though I came very close to taking it out of the way of opportunists before I'd contacted the company holding the owner's details.

 

[Cubist]

From the description you give it sound abandoned, but may be stolen. Go and get it, put it in your shed then ring the local police and file a found report. Give them an accurate description including frame number and tell them you'll look after it until they find an owner. The police DO NOT WANT IT CLUTTERING UP THEIR SCANT STORAGE SPACE. Many less scrupulous people find hedges a more suitable and convenient last resting place than the local Household waste Depot, and you'd be surprised how many people think a rusting £50 tesco wonder is a decent bike, so we tend to get literally hundreds of abandoned heaps of scrap brought in by Gordon Goodcitizen.

You have then shown that you are acting honestly, and not stealing the bike. If it remains unclaimed after a month or so you can then do with it as you wish, with one small caveat, and that is that the original owner never loses claim to their property. In the unlikely event that you restore the bike to concourse condition and the original owner comes along, you would then have to (theoretically) give back what was once theirs.

 

[mr_cellophane]

The police DO NOT WANT IT CLUTTERING UP THEIR SCANT STORAGE SPACE.

Have you ever been in the yard at a poilce station ?
There is one in south London that has so many bikes round the back that the local lads climb over the wall, open the gate and ride them out. It happens so often that the police know where to go to get them back. Mind you most of those in the yards have been out in all weathers for years and most of them are rusted to the spot. Shame really as there are one or two nice bikes out there, but they have to stay untill they are claimed or the relevant tea leaf gets his day in court.

 

[Globalti]

When I took the bike I'd found to my local Police station the clerk yawned and said: "Oh yeah, another bike? We'll chuck it on top of the heap of bikes in the shed round the back!"

I replied: "Don't do that, this isn't just another bike, this one is quite valuable."

When I collected it a month later she told me she had had quite a job keeping the young constables off it.

 

[Cavalol]

Desolate?

Has nature made a man of you, yet?