my appartment recently labelled about half a dozen or so bikes in the parking garage as unused, and announced that they will “dispose” of them in a few days time.
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these bikes have been labelled as unused for 2 weeks now, are covered in dust, and clearly no longer have any owners.
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i’m pretty strapped for cash right now and was considering cutting off the locks with a hack saw, cleaning them up, and listing them on Merucari to make a bit of cash. is this a bad idea? some of them are pretty nice, and I reckon i could make about 20,000yen in a day if i sold them for dirt cheap prices.
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EDIT: i dont use reddit often, i rarely post here at all. im not a thief or a bike burglar. the only bloody reason i asked this question is because these bikes are gonna be heading to the dump or whereever in a few days time. they are 100% unused/abandoned. and im not gonna bother doing anything with them now due to some of the useful advice from this thread. /thread
17 comments
They go through this procedure to cover their butts legally. What you’re thinking about is closer to theft. Don’t.
Ah yes, I figured we were about overdue for the obligatory “can I do this clearly illegal thing?” post.
This is clearly illegal…
And you can’t even pass the ownership of the bikes as you are not the owner, so nobody would want to buy them
I take it you like prison food.
> i’m pretty strapped for cash right now and was considering ~~cutting off the locks with a hack saw, cleaning them up, and listing them on Merucari to make a bit of cash~~ stealing them. is this a bad idea?
FTFY
Short answer : NO
Long answer : NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do not steal. Do not try to involve unsuspected people in your robbery.
Go find whatever arbeito you can, if you need cash. Sometimes you can even find some pay at the end of shift.
It’s illegal, and they are going to be disposed because that bike can no longer legally be used. Well except the owner.
To make it easier to understand, owning bicycle is something like owning a motorbike. You can’t simply just sell them without following legal procedure.
I know the temptation of easy money there, especially when you are short on money.
But don’t risk it.
Dumb way to go to prison. And for peanuts..
>these bikes have been labelled as unused for 2 weeks now, are covered in dust, and clearly no longer have any owners.
Yep… no.
This is how I ended up with a permanent police record here….(No Charges or arrests, just a record)
Even if the bikes are rusted abandoned junk and the owner 100% does not care, would give you the bike.- you are just riding in the parking lot of where it was abandoned where you also live –
If you are in possession of bike that the owner has not directly told you that you can use.
They will still haul you in to the police station, fingerprint you and make a friend come to the police station to pick you up.
Edit: Also, I was certainly not cutting any locks off a bike, the bike was trashed with no lock.
I think the general rule should be: if you aren’t sure, don’t do it.
If you are here on a visa, realize you are a guest who can basically be expelled at any time for any reason – so you want to be a model citizen and don’t do anything “iffy”.
As others mentioned bikes are supposed to be registered, and ownership is tracked by the police.
When bikes are abandoned, eventually the government takes possession and will often refurbish and sell them.
If you buy a bike used, you need to ask for the paperwork and usually transfer ownership at a koban. If you don’t have the papers when the police do a random stop, you are SOL – everyone knows this, so they wouldn’t buy from someone without the paperwork.
I’m sorry you are hard up for money, but this is not the way.
Wondered about this too about the bikes in my bike shed. Thanks for the slightly judgemental replies here y’all!
Not every country has their bikes registered like they do in Japan, and I have to say back home I would totally have talked to the building management to see what would be possible with those bikes. The question makes sense. The only right reply is ‘unfortunately that won’t be possible in Japan, as all bikes are (supposed to be) registered and you’d need the owner to transfer registration’.
Look! An answer which is as useful but without judgement!
Troll post is…. Troll post.
Weird ass dude wants attention.
Don’t give it to him.
This is most likely not a real situation.
I can’t imagine even having the mindset to consider doing this
go for it.let us know how it went in next post
What’s with all the self righteous people here? Is OP saying they want to sell some bikes about to be junked code for “I have a plan for getting into the drug dealing business- what’s your opinion?”
Donate them. Move on.
Do not do it. It is not your property, even if they are abandoned.