4 ms·

As explained in the piece, the law does not consider the act stealing but voluntary parting, making it a civil matter. The author did go to the police and their

As explained in the piece, the law does not consider the act stealing but voluntary parting, making it a civil matter. The author did go to the police and their insurance company, and both said the same thing. I think this issue kills KitSplit as a service.

microtherion 7y ago
I wonder how rental car companies deal with this. The setup there seem very similar, but somehow not returning a rental car (beyond some grace period) DOES seem to be treated as theft. What's the difference between the scenarios? Politically better connected victims?
- saalweachter 7y ago
  I'm sure car rental companies occasionally have trouble, but they have three things going for them: 1. They verify your identity in person. 2. Cars are special-case property, that is registered, licensed and hard to hide. 3. They have a large enough volume of legitimate rentals that their insurance rates against any losses make sense.
  - jjwhitaker 7y ago
    Maybe they need a competitor that primarily offers full registration and partner insurance for gear creating a national registry for proof of ownership and history. This would be amazing for bikes too (there are state registries that overlap but much done to optimize them) but mostly exists for cars/etc given states and insurance companies communicate who owns/registers/covers what serial numbers. If it's for sale by owner, check the serial against the database to see if it pings as stolen or lost. Then, as a secondary service, it links owners with renters through a much more complex vetting/data gathering process. Operate more like Wikimedia/pedia where the loftier goal (for Wiki* preserving and serving human knowledge) of protecting owners via the registry is more important than profiting off questionable practices or no liability in cases like this. I'm big on this ever since my bike was stolen and sat in a local bike co-op shop before getting sold because the co-op didn't legally check the serial against the state's stolen bikes database. Some kid I went to high school with basically got a "Sorry, it's his bike," speech from a cop as they cut the lock and gave me back my property after I found it, serial and all, outside a local park. If the co-op had followed the process, my bike would have been returned earlier and the kid wouldn't have wasted his time and money. Nobody followed the rules and we all lost out.

microtherion 7y ago

I wonder how rental car companies deal with this. The setup there seem very similar, but somehow not returning a rental car (beyond some grace period) DOES seem to be treated as theft. What's the difference between the scenarios? Politically better connected victims?

saalweachter 7y ago
I'm sure car rental companies occasionally have trouble, but they have three things going for them: 1. They verify your identity in person. 2. Cars are special-case property, that is registered, licensed and hard to hide. 3. They have a large enough volume of legitimate rentals that their insurance rates against any losses make sense.
- jjwhitaker 7y ago
  Maybe they need a competitor that primarily offers full registration and partner insurance for gear creating a national registry for proof of ownership and history. This would be amazing for bikes too (there are state registries that overlap but much done to optimize them) but mostly exists for cars/etc given states and insurance companies communicate who owns/registers/covers what serial numbers. If it's for sale by owner, check the serial against the database to see if it pings as stolen or lost. Then, as a secondary service, it links owners with renters through a much more complex vetting/data gathering process. Operate more like Wikimedia/pedia where the loftier goal (for Wiki* preserving and serving human knowledge) of protecting owners via the registry is more important than profiting off questionable practices or no liability in cases like this. I'm big on this ever since my bike was stolen and sat in a local bike co-op shop before getting sold because the co-op didn't legally check the serial against the state's stolen bikes database. Some kid I went to high school with basically got a "Sorry, it's his bike," speech from a cop as they cut the lock and gave me back my property after I found it, serial and all, outside a local park. If the co-op had followed the process, my bike would have been returned earlier and the kid wouldn't have wasted his time and money. Nobody followed the rules and we all lost out.