*Possible* stolen bike found, need advice!

Antiundead

So yesterday coming home on the luas late in the evening I got off at my stop as usual (it's near the end of the luas green line), headed up the stairs only to see two people, a well dressed girl and a not so well dressed young lad, trying to desperately fix an upturned bmx bike.
The guy mentions that he needs to cycle home to rathfarnham, and that he was just in the area visiting a friend. However the bike was going nowhere as the chain looped on itself and was quite rusted and tangled. I offered help and began to unscrew the axel when the girl announced she had to go to get the luas. (Turns out the guy was in no way associated with the girl).

So here I am crouched beside a bike and some complete stranger who I notice is quite drunk. Realising my silly mistake I get up and move away from the bike and young lad and ask him where he got it. He said he found it in a skip nearby. Realising he could have stolen it and might try to sell it, I convince him that it's quite broken. Giving up on the bike he says I can have it and goes down to get a luas to town, leaving me with this bmx bike.

So I got the chain untangled two minutes after the guy left, cycle it a bit and realise the chain is quite loose and jumps a good bit due to slack. The wheels are wobbly too. I brought the bike home anyway. I'm in work now but this evening I was thinking I will bring it over to the local Garda station.

My question is: would it be a good idea to put up adverts and found posters for a lost bmx bike in my area, possibly wait a while, or should I immediately wash my hands of it and let the Garda deal with it (and maybe not find the owner)? Or do you think it could truly be from a skip? (It's got a botched half-done spray painting job and it's quite beaten up.)

Also, does anyone know how the Garda go about looking for owners and what do they do if the bike is not claimed? Do they trash it?

Harrybelafonte

Antiundead wrote: »

So yesterday coming home on the luas late in the evening I got off at my stop as usual (it's near the end of the luas green line), headed up the stairs only to see two people, a well dressed girl and a not so well dressed young lad, trying to desperately fix an upturned bmx bike.
The guy mentions that he needs to cycle home to rathfarnham, and that he was just in the area visiting a friend. However the bike was going nowhere as the chain looped on itself and was quite rusted and tangled. I offered help and began to unscrew the axel when the girl announced she had to go to get the luas. (Turns out the guy was in no way associated with the girl).

So here I am crouched beside a bike and some complete stranger who I notice is quite drunk. Realising my silly mistake I get up and move away from the bike and young lad and ask him where he got it. He said he found it in a skip nearby. Realising he could have stolen it and might try to sell it, I convince him that it's quite broken. Giving up on the bike he says I can have it and goes down to get a luas to town, leaving me with this bmx bike.

So I got the chain untangled two minutes after the guy left, cycle it a bit and realise the chain is quite loose and jumps a good bit due to slack. The wheels are wobbly too. I brought the bike home anyway. I'm in work now but this evening I was thinking I will bring it over to the local Garda station.

My question is: would it be a good idea to put up adverts and found posters for a lost bmx bike in my area, possibly wait a while, or should I immediately wash my hands of it and let the Garda deal with it (and maybe not find the owner)? Or do you think it could truly be from a skip? (It's got a botched half-done spray painting job and it's quite beaten up.)

Also, does anyone know how the Garda go about looking for owners and what do they do if the bike is not claimed? Do they trash it?

Sounds a bit like he may have actually found it in a skip? I've seen better than that taken from skips. Is it a cheapo brand thing?

Antiundead

Unsure, will look into it when I get home.

It was ok looking but nothing expensive, model looks quite old though. If it is from a skip then it's all well and good, but the moral thing to do is take it to the Garda I guess. Though I should also take the man on what he said and give him the benifit of the doubt that he was telling the truth...