Liberating a stolen bike with a pedal-powered angle grinder

This is almost as rad as the time that guy tracked down the guy who stole his bike on Craigslist and traveled all the way from Portland to Seattle to set up a sting operation.  From Fossil Fool:

Stolen bike recovered in heroic fashion on Bartlett St. as members of the Rock The Bike crew pedal power their way through a U-Lock. If your bike is stolen in the Mission, mobilize your networks to get lots of eyeballs working for you, pattern matching your bike against all the ones they see. Bike thieves aren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree…

Nice work SF cyclist community!

21 Responses to “Liberating a stolen bike with a pedal-powered angle grinder”

  1. scum says:

    I know one of those guys, I could have got that lock off faster.

  2. biglippedkneegro says:

    well all that was uneccesary.

  3. Erik says:

    I’m not sure if anything that encourages people to ignore someone cutting through a u-lock in broad daylight is a good idea.

  4. brandx says:

    I’m a little concerned about one thing. How do they know they are liberating the bike from the actual thief? What if they are liberating it from some person who purchased the stolen bike unknowingly? Do two wrongs make it right?

    • TinyTim says:

      It’s still receiving stolen goods–n’est-ce pas–even if you innocently purchased it?

      • brandx says:

        Point taken…then this “liberation” is still stealing.

        • plumpy says:

          I don’t know about wrongs versus rights, but legally speaking this bike still belongs to the person from whom it was stolen, regardless of whether or not the person who locked it there stole it or innocently re-purchased it. That’s just how the law works, and yes, it is sort of weird.

      • mushmouth says:

        Except you are destroying their lock, really you should contact the police and let them deal with it.

        • Jay B says:

          I’m in the video. They did call the police. The cops told them to be there at a certain time and never showed up. Do you really think the cops would have paid a locksmith to come out to pick the lock and then wait around so they could return it to the shitbag thief?

    • mattod says:

      huh? Taking back your stolen bike is not a “wrong”.
      If my bike was stolen I wouldn’t care if it had been sold 10 times. Still my bike. And I’ll take it back, thank you.

  5. Erik says:

    I’m picturing a infinite loop of a few people constantly re-reclaiming a bike that none of them knew was stolen in the first place.

  6. Frank says:

    wow. what great heroism. and so glad you brought it to our attention.
    meanwhile, there are evictions and increasing poverty in the ‘hood’ you name your blog after. Meanwhile some lady that has lived here for longer than I have, just got evicted and is now in a shelter from what I here. Meanwhile, there is a huge financial bubble happening in the MIssion and elsewhere. Not something you all care about though. Bikes dudes you are so fucking cool BROS. Goddamn
    THIEVES….those petty street thieves. THEY MAKE ME SO MAD.

  7. chalkman says:

    can’t you just bust a u-lock with a car jack in 2 minutes?

  8. andrew says:

    There is only one valid thing to care about, duh.

  9. James says:

    Oops – wrong blue giant cargo bike. Since when is retrieving your stolen bike wrong? Since you started believing something about the universe talking to you, which is a hippy way of saying god is talking to you, which is closely related to psychosis.

  10. JOHN says:

    I’m pretty sure OJ went to prison for something like this

    • caffeinated cabbie says:

      I think OJ did it with weapons and liberated his stolen items from a person not what appears to be a pole. Yeah thats totally not a human, its a pole.