Mountain of stolen bikes in man's backyard visible on Google Earth satellite image

My bike was registered with the police, so if I had seen it I wouldn’t have hesitated to buy or rent an angle grinder and steal it back. Odds are that passersby would have ignored me anyway.

5 Likes

I easily could have gotten it back and if it hadn’t been a bike I bought used 10 years before for $40, I may have. It felt like more work to get it back than it was worth.

3 Likes

As a cyclist who uses a bike for local transport, I’m with you 100% . I’m normally extremely anti-death penalty / anti overreaction of justice… but I view bike theft the way people viewed horse theft. You’re not just taking someone’s hobby , for some people you’re taking their mode of transit to work , school, and life activities. You’ve impeded their ability to function in a society in a drastic way.

So… it makes me very angry.

16 Likes

You can see my disappointment from space.

3 Likes

Why would Glen Hansard be the responsible party? I feel like there’s a joke here I’m missing…

2 Likes

The source of the band name The Frames:

The name The Frames arose from Hansard’s habit of fixing bicycles of his friends. The large number of bicycle frames lying around his house led neighbours to dub it the “house with the frames”. In a 2001 interview, Hansard said, “I worked in a bicycle shop for a little while, but the name came from … my back garden was so full of frames, my house became known as The Frames house, much to my mother’s distaste, she hated it. But my garden was full of frames, old bikes, I would make up bikes for my friends out of all the old bikes. So it sort of became known if anybody found a bike up on the hill on the way home they would throw it into my garden, a graveyard for old bikes.”

7 Likes

Do people insure their bikes, if it’s their primary mode of transportation?

2 Likes

Should be covered by homeowner’s/renter’s insurance, but with a $500 deductable for many it’s not worth a claim

8 Likes

If they can afford it, yeah, it falls under homeowners insurance usually. Or renters insurance. There aren’t many companies that will take a policy out on a bike exclusively if it’s a cheaper commuter bike or a station bike. But there are hoops to jump through with insurance, biggest being deductible. There’s also a fair bit of paperwork and duty to go through, like getting active police reports and doing due dilligence to attempt to recover the bike. It’s often just a loss and that’s it.

10 Likes

Cool, I thought that would be the case, thanks.

3 Likes

Sorry, but no. That’s an aerial image from a plane, which is what you get when you zoom in.

3 Likes

No those are bikes, this is an aerial image –

17 Likes

Ha! He’s missed out, then - it’s already around £6.30/gallon, $8.30/gallon!
A bit unfortunate if you drive something that delivers around 17 miles/gallon, like a Merc C63 AMG. I had a Ford Puma from 2003 for several years, with the 1.7 Zetec engine, and driven ‘enthusiastically’, which it rather encouraged, I’d be lucky to get 25/gallon out of it - glad I don’t have it any longer, it would bankrupt me!

4 Likes

Kenk had quite a kink.

2 Likes

no, this is an aerial image

download

5 Likes

No! This is an Ariel image!

the little mermaid disney GIF

16 Likes

That is awesome history! Thank you! I had no idea. :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Technically, that’s an Ariel gif. I believe images are static.

4 Likes

My image has always been dynamic and ever changing

4 Likes

tenor

4 Likes