So this is something that sparked a lot of debate with me and my friends last fall. One of us had noticed a sweet bike sitting by the side of the road back in August, and would always check it out whenever he drove by there. He said it never moved, but eventually someone had stolen its saddle. He first brought up the idea of "liberating" the bike after it had been there for a few months and not moving, the chain getting rusty and the wheels getting flat. First he had stopped and gone around knocking on doors to see if anyone owned the bike. None of the neighbors knew who it belonged to but they all confirmed that no one had touched it in months and one neighbor even suggested that he was thinking about cutting the lock and throwing the bike in the trash because it was an "eyesore". At first I was adament about not stealing any bike, it just doesn't seem right for whatever reason, but after I saw the bike I started to think about it differently.
We finally cruised over to that neighborhood one time in November, before the snow started to fall, and I took a couple of pictures. It was clear that someone had just forgotten or abandoned the bike, anyone who cared about it would have at least checked up on it or something, right? We all knew that with its location next to the road it wouldn't last long once the Rochester winter started and it would get plowed with snow and road snot all day for months. I finally gave my consent to my friend that I wouldn't stand in his way if he wanted to "liberate" the bike, and even helped him by pointing out that the cable lock had a lot of slack and the sign post it was wrapped around wasn't very tall. Only then did he seem to get cold feet, and while he was waiting and debating himself, it eventually just disappeared anyway, about a few weeks into winter, when it was starting to get covered in snow. We don't know if someone else stole it, or the neighbor who thought it was an eyesore actually got rid of it, or if the city removed it. It was just gone, maybe the original owner finally came and got it? Well, regardless, none of us ended up actually committing any crimes. But does anyone else think we would have been doing a good thing by trying to save this bike? Or were we on a dark path towards damnation? Is there a difference between bicycle theft and rescue?
Anyway, here is the bike, apparently an AMF(?) frame, with a mix of parts, including a 3 speed cassette on the back, and a grip shifter on the front, despite the lack of derailer and cable. If my friend had gotten it he could have done some fun things with it...
We finally cruised over to that neighborhood one time in November, before the snow started to fall, and I took a couple of pictures. It was clear that someone had just forgotten or abandoned the bike, anyone who cared about it would have at least checked up on it or something, right? We all knew that with its location next to the road it wouldn't last long once the Rochester winter started and it would get plowed with snow and road snot all day for months. I finally gave my consent to my friend that I wouldn't stand in his way if he wanted to "liberate" the bike, and even helped him by pointing out that the cable lock had a lot of slack and the sign post it was wrapped around wasn't very tall. Only then did he seem to get cold feet, and while he was waiting and debating himself, it eventually just disappeared anyway, about a few weeks into winter, when it was starting to get covered in snow. We don't know if someone else stole it, or the neighbor who thought it was an eyesore actually got rid of it, or if the city removed it. It was just gone, maybe the original owner finally came and got it? Well, regardless, none of us ended up actually committing any crimes. But does anyone else think we would have been doing a good thing by trying to save this bike? Or were we on a dark path towards damnation? Is there a difference between bicycle theft and rescue?
Anyway, here is the bike, apparently an AMF(?) frame, with a mix of parts, including a 3 speed cassette on the back, and a grip shifter on the front, despite the lack of derailer and cable. If my friend had gotten it he could have done some fun things with it...
