[deleted]
Why not just remove ego from humanity?
Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
51–60 of 151 posts
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because potential buyers would instantly know that they are buying stolen goods. People who would be fine with that might just as easily steal a bike for themselves, making the definitely-stolen-bike market a really weak one.
>People who would be fine with that might just as easily steal a bike for themselves This isn't true. I know several people that don't care much about buying things with a shady history but would never steal anything themselves. The logic was something like, "Would you still accept a $20 bill if it had been stolen at some point since it was printed?"
That wouldn't hold up in court :)
If they could prove you knew or suspected it might have been stolen, you can get charged (depending on your state's laws).
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the police simply do not care about bike thefts so the criminals know they can get away with it.
Flagrantly flouting the law and thumbing their nose at the police eventually causes the police to come into disrepute if they consistently show they don't care about theft. The police force can only really enforce the law because society gives them permission to do so. The instant that you have mobs of Bike Batmans the police will act because now you have increased vigilantism - and people taking the law into their o…
If bike batman shot someone, he would be guilty of murder.
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#54I wonder if there is more that bicycle manufacturers/dealers can do to prevent theft or help recover stolen bikes - not because they're obligated but just to improve sales. Especially as the price approaches four digits, "what if this gets stolen?" has to be near the top of most potential buyers' list of concerns and probably chills sales to some degree.
There are commercially available trackers, e.g. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Bicycle-gps-tracker-GPS-GSM-G...
One problem is that, even if you have your device GPS tracked, it can be hard to get the police to intervene, especially in large cities.
Someone once stole my iPhone 5. I had find my iPhone enabled, and the phone was locked down. The thief began texting me from his own phone, demanding ransoms ranging from $100-$1000 for the return of the phone, while aggressively threatening to throw my phone into the Potomac.
So I called the police.
I reported the theft, and the address of the thief's residence, and the fact that the phone was tracked by GPS. They transferred me to a Detective, who told me that they would file a stolen property report.
Throughout the week, I continued to receive increasingly erratic messages from the thief. The one consistent message was that if I didn't pay, he was insistent on throwing my phone into the river.
So I arranged to meet him at my bank at the Dupont Circle branch (a busy location with guards.) I would make out a check to cash for $200, he would give me my iPhone, and I would stick around until the check was cashed.
So when he arrived (we arranged to meet via picture exchange, so I had that as well as evidence), the thief approached me at the bank door. There was a police car immediately outside the bank, and I shouted to the officer "HELP!"
The man ran.
I went to the officer and said, "That man stole my phone!" Instantly, he jumped in his vehicle, told me to hop in the passenger seat, and we took off down P street. The officer stopped the car, sprinted after the thief, and he obeyed the cop's order to stop.
The man was taken to jail for theft and resisting arrest.
I said I didn't want to press charges as he was obviously severely disturbed. I asked if he could be given rehabilitation or treatment. They said they would place him on a 72-hour psychiatric hold.
As far as I know, that maybe only got him a shower, a few meals, and three days in a psych ward at GW Hospital, but I thought it better than anything else I could do.
I still wonder if I could have done something else to help the guy.
But the real moral of my story, is that even with a GPS beacon, it can be very very difficult to get the police to recover stolen property.
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're assuming thieves are acting rationally.
They are. They're choosing the rational response when balancing a low-risk, high-reward activity such as bicycle theft.
They are, sometimes.
Other times they're strung out and looking for a fix. A bike takes 5 minutes to steal and they know where they can pawn it for crack.
You can't assume you're dealing with rational agents. When you're actively looking for bike thieves, you're going to run into an irrational one fairly often.
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#56I wonder if there is more that bicycle manufacturers/dealers can do to prevent theft or help recover stolen bikes - not because they're obligated but just to improve sales. Especially as the price approaches four digits, "what if this gets stolen?" has to be near the top of most potential buyers' list of concerns and probably chills sales to some degree.
> Especially as the price approaches four digits, "what if this gets stolen?" has to be near the top of most potential buyers' list of concerns and probably chills sales to some degree.
If you're spending that much on a bike then you're cycling regularly (communter and/or every weekend type). You're not going to ride a shitty bike if you're riding that often. Bikes aren't like cars -- a Corolla will get you from point A to point B just as well as a Cadillac, but a doubling in the price point of a bike (esp. 500 to 1000 range!) has a massive impact.
Of course there are people who buy racing bikes and ride them a few times a year. But those people rare enough that it doesn't make sense to spend the money designing and stocking a product just for them. And anyways, the guy on the sales floor is probably going to be the most important factor in their purchasing decision.
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#57I wonder if there is more that bicycle manufacturers/dealers can do to prevent theft or help recover stolen bikes - not because they're obligated but just to improve sales. Especially as the price approaches four digits, "what if this gets stolen?" has to be near the top of most potential buyers' list of concerns and probably chills sales to some degree.
Exploding bike seats? http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlBT1d_GWo Seriously though, GPS receivers and GSM radios are a few dollars each these days. Seems like an easy thing to hide in the frame (of course a thief could still part out everything except the frame)
Finding your bike is not helpful if the police is not interested. And they usually aren't where I live.
Except if you're yourself willing to enforce your retrieval with violence... at which point the police will be interested if everything does not go easily.
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#58So awesome! I like this as a service I'd pay money for
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flagrantly flouting the law and thumbing their nose at the police eventually causes the police to come into disrepute if they consistently show they don't care about theft. The police force can only really enforce the law because society gives them permission to do so. The instant that you have mobs of Bike Batmans the police will act because now you have increased vigilantism - and people taking the law into their o…
If bike batman shot someone, he would be guilty of murder.
That simply isn't true. These people are stealing bikes!
Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners
#60Sounds like a problem for neural networks to solve!