That doesn’t really match my perception/experience. It might apply to fairly fancy bikes, which I’d speculate are targetted by pros, but unlocked scruffy bikes seem to last a lot longer here than they would in the UK.
I’d always assumed this was due to a mixture of Taiwanese honesty, love of the shiny, and aversion to anything describable as maintenance, but I guess I now have to add ludicrously severe and arbitrary penalties to the list.
The arbitrary bit isn’t really a surprise, applying The Redwagon Rule of Taiwan Behavioural Determinism.
“If it made sense, they wouldn’t do it that way”
Example of Maintenance Aversion Security
As I said I’'ve “stolen” a lot of bikes here. I was keeping an eye on a fairly nice one parked unlocked outside the admin building for over a year, and had oiled it a few times. Eventually I decided to put it into service, pumped up the flat tyre, and went for lunch.
Gone when I came back:)
The pros don’t seem to take many whole low end bikes but they do pick them over for spares (which is perhaps safer for them), so I’ve had to mix and match to put together whole bikes off the dump, using tools, so probably aggravating the offence. At the NCKU dump (now secured) I was in competition with the pros, who would try to deter me by shouting.
It’s common sense that if you have a bike that’s worth more than about 300 USD you should NOT be leaving them out under any circumstances, whether or not you have a lock. For professional bike thieves even the best locks on the market is nothing for them to break. So if you have a piece of junk looking bike, leave it outside, without a lock and nobody takes them. If it’s expensive then take it in.
I talked to my dad about this issue. He had found out because they send notices to both your registered address and the address you live at. My registered address belongs to my dad so naturally he found out about it. I asked if I should appeal and he said it’s my choice but my sentence is the most lenient possible under the laws I was charged with, so appealing is risky unless I can somehow say that I was not guilty of the laws they charged me under (which I have no idea how I can argue for).
My biggest worry is the prosecutor deciding to be difficult and denying my ability to pay a fine or do community service and my dad said it’s very unlikely because I have no prior offenses. From what I read all cases of where the prosecutor denied the defendant from being able to pay a fine and avoid jail was because he had 3 or more prior convictions within the last 5 years, meaning he was “difficult to correct without jail”.
I am meeting with a lawyer at LAF Monday to confirm procedures… I want to make sure that if I want to petition for community service that I am not missing deadlines.
To be honest with you I wouldn’t know because I’m not a professional bike thief. Whatever it is they can steal bikes silently and quickly. An angle grinder does not count, they are quite loud.
Americans are fixated on power tools, to the extent that many of them believe they are essential for removing a car wheel, so your average American probably makes a poor bike thief.
New thing in The Yook is stealing catalytic converters off cars. You might need power tools for that.
The bike seems to fit the definition of abandoned quite well. It was left without the necessary protection, care, or support. It was also left to fall into a state of disuse.
Problem is there have been scooters and other vehicles left in that state, a person would take it, fix it up, take it apart for scrapping, etc. and ends up charged with aggravated theft as well. Seems a lot of those people selling scrap for a living gets charged this way. Because technically even though it fell into a state of disuse someone still owns it…
I read the correct way to take an abandoned vehicle is basically call the police, EPA, etc. and find out who owns the vehicle (they can find out based on the license plate) and EPA can confirm if the title has been canceled or something. But merely seeing the big yellow sticker doesn’t constitute “abandoned” and taking it risks a theft charge.
The big yellow sticker is a huge sticker with red borders that says EPA has identified this vehicle as abandoned and will take it on the date written unless the owner removes it or something.
There have always been companies who have contracts with the city to collect officially abandoned motorbikes/scooters. They load them as is into containers and ship them in bulk to places in SE Asia and African countries where they are fixed up on the cheap and resold.
Anyone besides the actual contractor caught grabbing up the abandoned vehicles is regarded as thieving them.
Used to be when visiting places like Phnomers and Saigers you’d see guys riding around on old Taiwan cop bikes.
Interestingly they used to steal huge amounts of scooters and ship them out as well. I doubt they stole the police bikes but you never know.
I came across a blue truck stealing scooters at night once. Simply load them on the truck and drive off.
I THINK the EPA sticker also tells you to Leave It The Alone if you are not the owner (or Mandarin Smoke-and-Mirrors to that effect).
I tried the DMV to trace the owner of a couple of abandoned Vespas when I was first here, and they would’nt tell me anything.
Compare and Contrast the equivalent Yook Govt outfit, who had no problem providing a registration document to the guy who stole my rare-as-hens-teeth-supercute Honda Acty Romahome.
Alone if you are not the owner (or Mandarin Smoke-and-Mirrors to that effect).