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Once I lost a bike that was parked right outside my house. Couple of days later I saw a guy ride around on my bike! I sprinted over and somewhat aggressively ye

Once I lost a bike that was parked right outside my house. Couple of days later I saw a guy ride around on my bike! I sprinted over and somewhat aggressively yelled "you're on my bike, buddy!" He got off, very politely handed me back my bike, and thanked me for letting him borrow it. Almost made me feel like I was the bad guy in the situation. Anyway I guess in some cases, a stolen bike doesn't go far at all.

quacked 4y ago
> Almost made me feel like I was the bad guy in the situation. Many people who choose to live outside square-lawed society rely on people remaining docile and sticking to principle in order to prey on them, or at least to live a lifestyle where they don't have to collaborate with larger society to reap its rewards. It took me years to un-program "assume good intent and empathy" with people I didn't know that were trying to take advantage of me. I simply can't stand thieves. I wish that we had really great public services and transportation--not only would this reduce a huge amount of current theft, it would make actual theft obviously inexcusable.
- jackmott42 4y ago
  Yeah, every homeless person I have ever talked to has had some bullshit story. Its almost as if the impulse to spew bullshit is the primary cause of homelessness. Or some inevitable consequence of most mental health problems. Its so reliable that it makes me question the idea that housing costs are the primary cause of homelessness, but perhaps that just pushes more people on the mental margins over the edge.
  - Gh0stRAT 4y ago
    Humans are narrative creatures. We literally think in stories, so it's not surprising to me that homeless people have a sad story that explains their homelessness. We all tell ourselves stories (whether true or not) to process our actions and their consequences. For people who have been victimized, they sometimes become a slave to the story they tell themselves which can lead to learned helplessness.
  - prawn 4y ago
    My hunch is that talking about your problem can be easier than dealing with it. And people, even capable working homeowners develop a serious expertise in analysing what they should but don't do. I often notice myself doing it.
  - bambam3000 4y ago
    This is a pretty mean-spirited comment, I don't even know where to start. Homeless people are just people like you and me. If you'd been born in their shoes, with their inherited genetic make-up, raised by their parents, surrounded by their friends, living their life experiences etc you'd very possibly be homeless too and 'spewing bullshit' as you put it
    - gilmore606 4y ago
      Sure, and if I'd been born with Ted Bundy's genetic makeup and lived his life, I'd be Ted Bundy. This isn't the slam dunk you seem to think it is.
    - quacked 4y ago
      I don't know that I agree that "the primary cause of homelessness is the tendency to spew bullshit", I but I definitely don't agree with the implication of the assertion "homeless people are just people like you and me". It's true that they're homo sapiens, but this cuts both ways--Donald Trump is just a person like you or me, so is Vladimir Putin, and yet I don't necessarily feel sympathy for either. At some point it behooves us to order ourselves around a set of behaviors or beliefs, and actually begin to make value judgements on what people do, or how they choose to behave. (This includes mental illness and addiction--even if we mentally those people as being in the grip of something beyond themselves, if a peaceful, non-grifting society is desired someone needs to make choices about how to restrict their freedom.)
- 7952 4y ago
  My guess is that it is safer to just return stolen bikes if caught by the owner and avoid police interest.
ajb 4y ago
One of my relatives bikes was stolen and then they noticed it was literally next door. Criminals are criminals often because they can't obtain the higher return than comes from having a) impulse control and b) greater IQ than a toaster.
blamazon 4y ago
I had a ratty bike in college that I never bothered to lock to the bike racks, because I had bought it very cheaply and I had insufficient money to repair it properly. Almost everything that could be broken while still remaining technically rideable, was broken. One day - gone! I breathed a sigh of relief and went about my day. Two years pass. I'm walking to class one day on the same campus and I see a very similar looking bike on the rack. I walked up to inspect it and it was definitely the same bicycle, but entirely fixed up! All new components, nice tires, the works, with a nice lock. I'll never know what happened in the interim but it was such a warm fuzzy feeling to think someone had cared for it and elevated it to a new level, even if it was technically the product of theft. In a ship of Theseus kind of way it wasn't even truly my bike anymore. The whole situation has stuck in my brain a lot better than the classes I was attending....
- netsharc 4y ago
  > In a ship of Theseus kind of way it wasn't even truly my bike anymore. Behold, the bicycle of Theseus. If you stole it back could you say "arguably, this isn't theft!"? But I guess a judge would say you stole the parts of the bike that the new owner fitted.
  - DiggyJohnson 4y ago
    This reminds me of my buddy’s RuneScape account that got hacked. Over five years later he managed to recover the account, and many of his skills has been botted (very against the rules) to max level, as well as being hugely wealthy. That account recovery created some interesting ethical questions.
  - MrVandemar 4y ago
    I guess if the parts were fitted and bolted to the bike you could argue that they were "aggresively gifted".
- toast0 4y ago
  At my old house, a renter across the street was part of a bike theft ring. Stolen bikes would come in and out, sometimes with different pieces. I imagine your bike was stolen by someone, maybe fixed up, maybe sold as-is for cheap and then fixed up by the new possesor, who may not have known it was stolen, just cheap.
klyrs 4y ago
I retrieved a bike that had been stolen while poorly-locked at a university. It was my brother's bike, very recognizable to me as I had done a bunch of work on it. The guy with the bike was nice, apologetic, and explained that he picked it out of the bushes. I asked him to friend my brother on facebook, watched him send the request... and let him ride off with it as I had my own bike to deal with. The next day, my brother got his bike back! Helps to ride a $100 bike. If somebody ends up with it, they won't be too attached.
mycall 4y ago
Is it unethical to buy a "cheap" replacement bicycle if your previous one was stolen?
- fsckboy 4y ago
  it's no less ethical than buying a "cheap" bicycle to begin with
  - distances 4y ago
    It is unethical if you know it's likely stolen. That's what the parent meant with a "cheap" bike.
- latency-guy2 4y ago
  No? What are you trying to get at? I assume there's something you have on your mind that I'm missing to understand why there would be any type of moral quandary here.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - throwaway049 4y ago
    I take cheap to mean stolen in this case.
ChrisRR 4y ago
> "buddy" > politely handed me back my bike Canada?

quacked 4y ago

> Almost made me feel like I was the bad guy in the situation. Many people who choose to live outside square-lawed society rely on people remaining docile and sticking to principle in order to prey on them, or at least to live a lifestyle where they don't have to collaborate with larger society to reap its rewards. It took me years to un-program "assume good intent and empathy" with people I didn't know that were trying to take advantage of me. I simply can't stand thieves. I wish that we had really great public services and transportation--not only would this reduce a huge amount of current theft, it would make actual theft obviously inexcusable.

jackmott42 4y ago
Yeah, every homeless person I have ever talked to has had some bullshit story. Its almost as if the impulse to spew bullshit is the primary cause of homelessness. Or some inevitable consequence of most mental health problems. Its so reliable that it makes me question the idea that housing costs are the primary cause of homelessness, but perhaps that just pushes more people on the mental margins over the edge.
- Gh0stRAT 4y ago
  Humans are narrative creatures. We literally think in stories, so it's not surprising to me that homeless people have a sad story that explains their homelessness. We all tell ourselves stories (whether true or not) to process our actions and their consequences. For people who have been victimized, they sometimes become a slave to the story they tell themselves which can lead to learned helplessness.
- prawn 4y ago
  My hunch is that talking about your problem can be easier than dealing with it. And people, even capable working homeowners develop a serious expertise in analysing what they should but don't do. I often notice myself doing it.
- bambam3000 4y ago
  This is a pretty mean-spirited comment, I don't even know where to start. Homeless people are just people like you and me. If you'd been born in their shoes, with their inherited genetic make-up, raised by their parents, surrounded by their friends, living their life experiences etc you'd very possibly be homeless too and 'spewing bullshit' as you put it
  - gilmore606 4y ago
    Sure, and if I'd been born with Ted Bundy's genetic makeup and lived his life, I'd be Ted Bundy. This isn't the slam dunk you seem to think it is.
  - quacked 4y ago
    I don't know that I agree that "the primary cause of homelessness is the tendency to spew bullshit", I but I definitely don't agree with the implication of the assertion "homeless people are just people like you and me". It's true that they're homo sapiens, but this cuts both ways--Donald Trump is just a person like you or me, so is Vladimir Putin, and yet I don't necessarily feel sympathy for either. At some point it behooves us to order ourselves around a set of behaviors or beliefs, and actually begin to make value judgements on what people do, or how they choose to behave. (This includes mental illness and addiction--even if we mentally those people as being in the grip of something beyond themselves, if a peaceful, non-grifting society is desired someone needs to make choices about how to restrict their freedom.)
7952 4y ago
My guess is that it is safer to just return stolen bikes if caught by the owner and avoid police interest.

ajb 4y ago

One of my relatives bikes was stolen and then they noticed it was literally next door. Criminals are criminals often because they can't obtain the higher return than comes from having a) impulse control and b) greater IQ than a toaster.

blamazon 4y ago

I had a ratty bike in college that I never bothered to lock to the bike racks, because I had bought it very cheaply and I had insufficient money to repair it properly. Almost everything that could be broken while still remaining technically rideable, was broken. One day - gone! I breathed a sigh of relief and went about my day. Two years pass. I'm walking to class one day on the same campus and I see a very similar looking bike on the rack. I walked up to inspect it and it was definitely the same bicycle, but entirely fixed up! All new components, nice tires, the works, with a nice lock. I'll never know what happened in the interim but it was such a warm fuzzy feeling to think someone had cared for it and elevated it to a new level, even if it was technically the product of theft. In a ship of Theseus kind of way it wasn't even truly my bike anymore. The whole situation has stuck in my brain a lot better than the classes I was attending....

netsharc 4y ago
> In a ship of Theseus kind of way it wasn't even truly my bike anymore. Behold, the bicycle of Theseus. If you stole it back could you say "arguably, this isn't theft!"? But I guess a judge would say you stole the parts of the bike that the new owner fitted.
- DiggyJohnson 4y ago
  This reminds me of my buddy’s RuneScape account that got hacked. Over five years later he managed to recover the account, and many of his skills has been botted (very against the rules) to max level, as well as being hugely wealthy. That account recovery created some interesting ethical questions.
- MrVandemar 4y ago
  I guess if the parts were fitted and bolted to the bike you could argue that they were "aggresively gifted".
toast0 4y ago
At my old house, a renter across the street was part of a bike theft ring. Stolen bikes would come in and out, sometimes with different pieces. I imagine your bike was stolen by someone, maybe fixed up, maybe sold as-is for cheap and then fixed up by the new possesor, who may not have known it was stolen, just cheap.

klyrs 4y ago

I retrieved a bike that had been stolen while poorly-locked at a university. It was my brother's bike, very recognizable to me as I had done a bunch of work on it. The guy with the bike was nice, apologetic, and explained that he picked it out of the bushes. I asked him to friend my brother on facebook, watched him send the request... and let him ride off with it as I had my own bike to deal with. The next day, my brother got his bike back! Helps to ride a $100 bike. If somebody ends up with it, they won't be too attached.

mycall 4y ago

Is it unethical to buy a "cheap" replacement bicycle if your previous one was stolen?

fsckboy 4y ago
it's no less ethical than buying a "cheap" bicycle to begin with
- distances 4y ago
  It is unethical if you know it's likely stolen. That's what the parent meant with a "cheap" bike.
latency-guy2 4y ago
No? What are you trying to get at? I assume there's something you have on your mind that I'm missing to understand why there would be any type of moral quandary here.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway049 4y ago
  I take cheap to mean stolen in this case.

ChrisRR 4y ago

> "buddy" > politely handed me back my bike Canada?