Friday Mystery

[eminva]

This bike has been in the bike cage at my office building for a few days. Both the down tube and the cables are sliced clean through. No lock to be seen if there ever was one.

I’ve been scratching my head and can’t figure out for the life of me . . . what happened here? Any ideas?

Liz

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[Tim Kelley]

Looks like someone really wanted to steal a fancy lock, and even having rusted beater bike connected to it wasn’t going to get in their way!

[DSalovesh]

I’d bet this bike was locked to another, by accident or on purpose. The owner of the other bike cut this one.

[CCrew]

I wouldn’t think a crappy Roadmaster would be worth the hacksaw blades to make that cut

[OneEighth]

This is the work of a weight-weenie.
Pretty soon this will become a unicycle.

[eminva]

I stopped by the property management office, just to alert them to this mystery. I was told that this bike had been locked for an extended period to the wrought iron grating around one of the tree boxes outside the building and had to be removed. I guess the building engineer didn’t have the tools to sever the lock (which I’m told is still attached to the grating, though I didn’t see it when I went out to run an errand), so he cut through the bike to get it away. He placed it in the bike cage in case the owner returns for the bike.

I think they meant well, but there did not seem to be an understanding that this rendered the bike unusable. Oh well.

Liz

[DSalovesh]

Uh oh.

As I understand it, in DC that would be illegal. The building probably doesn’t own the tree box (even if they provide landscaping and care for it) and all they could do would be report the bike to MPD / DDOT / DPW.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I think police have a process of tagging a bike for 2 or 4 weeks basically announcing to the owner that if you don’t move it the police are going to consider it abandoned and take it. I don’t have a problem that process. I don’t have a problem with a private property owner doing the same; same method, same result, police aren’t bothered.

[SteveTheTech]

@CCrew 6860 wrote:

I wouldn’t think a crappy Roadmaster would be worth the hacksaw blades to make that cut

That sounds like what whomever in charge was thinking, when they decided to move it.
I’m bike friendly and that would drive me nuts after the third time it happened, I think it’s pretty funny that they left it there just for the lolz, maybe they will want to cash the aluminum (up side of a heavy sled) in at a scrap yard.
It’s still a little sad to see a still usable vehicle (wasn’t really in the bicycle level but close) rendered useless and left out to be mocked by the commuters’ bikes. But it is still there is the owner actually returns.

I was in Boston recently and there are bikes everywhere…chained to everything, private property, public land. Maybe the owner thought the two cities were similar.

@DSalovesh 6863 wrote:

As I understand it, in DC that would be illegal.

Do you think that applies to the feds though?
I’m guessing for security and aesthetic purposes the fed can find justification to remove the left bike. I would be surprised if the let it sit there for more than a weekend.

[Author]

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