Getting a found bike back to its owner..?

[Darius_Jedburgh]

Unless it can be linked to a crime the police are unlike to accept it as found property. They're a storage and disposal nightmare, so unless a bobby has found it or they can identify it as stolen they'll like as not won't take it from you, and are under no obligation to do so.

You've considered every reasonable avenue if investigation and done as much as a reasonable person can. I'd leave it in the back of the garage for a couple of months and if no one responds to your reasonable efforts to identify the owner I'd be inclined to assume the rights of the owner myself.

As a point of order, it never legally becomes yours. If the real owner spots it in 10 years time and is able to reasonably demonstrate ownership you'd have to give it up. A lost or stolen item remains the property of its owner - the difference is that youd done everything reasonable to identify the owner, and by waiting for a reasonable period you have demonstrated that you have no dishonest intent, so wouldn't be prosecuted for theft by finding, but you never become the owner. Of course, this scenario is soooooo rare I don't think I can recall it ever happening.

A genuine question, so not being awkward!!!
What if it had been dumped/flytipped/thrown out of a car window( obviously not a bike!).
Where does tidying up/recycling/removing a public nuisance etc come into things?

I find loads of stuff on my rides. Water bottles, towels and microfibre cloths by the dozen (useful in the garage), a nice screwdriver this morning, several serious knives probably from the veg cutters in the fields, and I even found a £10 note once. I've found clothing some of it decent bike stuff.

In winter the verges are littered with farm produce.

What should I do? Take 17 microfiber cloths to plod? Offer them a turnip or a cabbage?

Or should I leave everything littering the roadside? There's a pile of asbestos near here. Been there several years and council refuse to move it.

Serious question, serious answer please

 

[wafter]

A genuine question, so not being awkward!!!
What if it had been dumped/flytipped/thrown out of a car window( obviously not a bike!).
Where does tidying up/recycling/removing a public nuisance etc come into things?

I find loads of stuff on my rides. Water bottles, towels and microfibre cloths by the dozen (useful in the garage), a nice screwdriver this morning, several serious knives probably from the veg cutters in the fields, and I even found a £10 note once. I've found clothing some of it decent bike stuff.

In winter the verges are littered with farm produce.

What should I do? Take 17 microfiber cloths to plod? Offer them a turnip or a cabbage?

Or should I leave everything littering the roadside? There's a pile of asbestos near here. Been there several years and council refuse to move it.

Serious question, serious answer please

Surely in practical terms it's a pretty simple question of context, circumstance and motive. In the eyes of the Police, if you find anything and claim it as your own it's only potentially theft if such an allegation is made; and even then I'd assume that they Police would need proof on the part on the legit owner that the item did belong to them (and hence didn't belong to you).

I suspect that you could chop the lock off and subsequently remove a bike in front of Police, and while they'd probably arrest you on the spot without any proof that the bike doesn't belong to you (usually in the form of a reported theft by someone else) long term they've have no mandate to charge you.

So, in your case, in practical terms the items you're acquired are a moot point unless they've been reported stolen... and even if they were and you were subsequently found in possession of them it would be up to the Police to prove that you were responsible for the theft and hadn't just acquired them after they'd been discarded (although in both cases the'll confiscate the items to return to the original owner or insurer).

 

[wafter]

Meh.. no more interest from any potential owners and I've just had another idle poke around.. despite yesterday's oiling many of the spokes on the front wheel are still seized, while over the appropriate amount of links the chain is measuring 12 1/4" so is worn to around 102% of original length (and hence well past the point where it was fit for the bin). The Shimano chain checker tool didn't drop into the chain as it should to indicated excessive wear; but only because it fouled the roller on the opposite inside (as opposed to the outside one it should have been gauging!).

Looks like I'd have been well-advised to have left it where I found it..

 

[classic33]

Meh.. no more interest from any potential owners and I've just had another idle poke around.. despite yesterday's oiling many of the spokes on the front wheel are still seized, while over the appropriate amount of links the chain is measuring 12 1/4" so is worn to around 102% of original length (and hence well past the point where it was fit for the bin). The Shimano chain checker tool didn't drop into the chain as it should to indicated excessive wear; but only because it fouled the roller on the opposite inside (as opposed to the outside one it should have been gauging!).

Looks like I'd have been well-advised to have left it where I found it..

But you said "Hypothetically speaking had an otherwise discarded old bike followed me home", now you found it.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

If it's capable of being ridden, then just ride it. I don't worry about seized spokes and knackered chains. if I get a skip bike and something on it is totally knackered, I usually replace it with a less knackered secondhand part from another donor. Either way, I don't plough money into stuff found on the street or out of a bin. I just get the thing into a physically working condition and use it like that, no matter how tatty it may look.

 

[wafter]

But you said "Hypothetically speaking had an otherwise discarded old bike followed me home", now you found it.

Well, yeah... when was the last time an inanimate object exercised its own free will and motive power in deciding to literally follow you home?

Figure of speech, as I'd have thought was fairly obvious

If it's capable of being ridden, then just ride it. I don't worry about seized spokes and knackered chains. if I get a skip bike and something on it is totally knackered, I usually replace it with a less knackered secondhand part from another donor. Either way, I don't plough money into stuff found on the street or out of a bin. I just get the thing into a physically working condition and use it like that, no matter how tatty it may look.

Ta - certainly less concerned about looks, although I would like the brakes to work which would most likely require some work to correct the front wheel. Don't intend to spend much (any!) money on it, so if I can't get it in a useable state sans cash I might just move it on..

 

[classic33]

Well, yeah... when was the last time an inanimate object exercised its own free will and motive power in deciding to literally follow you home?

Figure of speech, as I'd have thought was fairly obvious

Just the picture in my head of a bike following you. Possibly because it had seen you were riding one.

 

[wafter]

Just the picture in my head of a bike following you. Possibly because it had seen you were riding one.

Sadly the reality of pushing two relatively heavy, unruly bikes up the bloody great hill home falls somewhat short of this romantacised image

 

[confusedcyclist]

If you don't want it, list it on gumtree with the known problems, someone will come along who can turn it into a bit of profit, using parts from another bike like skipdiverjohn said, keeping one more bike out of landfill and people moving.

 

[wafter]

If you don't want it, list it on gumtree with the known problems, someone will come along who can turn it into a bit of profit, using parts from another bike like skipdiverjohn said, keeping one more bike out of landfill and people moving.

Thanks and indeed - I'd either let it go to a mate or move it on to someone capable of sorting it out. As you say, anything to keep it out of the scapper

 

[Arjimlad]

In Bristol we have various bike projects which take in waifs & strays and turn them to good. Might be similar in Oxford ?

 

[wafter]

In Bristol we have various bike projects which take in waifs & strays and turn them to good. Might be similar in Oxford ?

Yeah, there is a local bike co-op I could donate it to. Depends how charitable I'm feeling I guess.

Kicking myself to an extent as this might have made a good frame to hang all the bits off my old Giant upon, altough it wouldn't have been that straightforward given the rear axle spacing etc.. moot point now anyway since I no longer have that bike.

Think I might just give it a week to satisfy myself that it's prevous owner's not going to come forward then try to move it on. Otherwise I'll just end up chucking money at it and in any case don't really have the space to keep it.

 

[Gazjacko]

Bikes are like children, they’re all different and you can have a favourite but you can’t tell the others that. A bike is for life not just for Xmas! N+1 .....just sayin’
Maybe foster it out?

 

[wafter]

Bikes are like children, they’re all different and you can have a favourite but you can’t tell the others that. A bike is for life not just for Xmas! N+1 .....just sayin’
Maybe foster it out?

lol - the one difference in my case being I'm happy to have lots of bikes, kids on the other hand...

I've had no further responses from potential owners so it'll either go to a mate if he wants / needs it (not sure if it's better or worse than the current rusty old deathtrap he uses to get to the pub and back) or I'll chuck it on one of the free sites as a project. As much as I yearn to sort it I'm not throwing any money at is as costs could easily snowball.

 

[Badger_Boom]

Well, yeah... when was the last time an inanimate object exercised its own free will and motive power in deciding to literally follow you home?

You’ve obviously never read any Flann O’Brien on the subject of bicycles, their riders, and the atomic theory of existence.