[jjtheblunt]

around 1996 I had my bike, locked up on campus at my University, stolen from a campus bike rack, by the campus police, in essentially a new-employee fuckup. My bike was in the database, labelled, serial number registered.

So i reported it stolen, they facepalmed and said they took it off a campus bike rack (cutting the lock), and sold it, with others, at a campus auction.

I found it locked up at the engineering library some time later, but it was beat to shit by the person who had bought it, whereas i'd taken care of it (it was 15ish years old when stolen) like something expensive that i couldn't even afford when grandparents bought it for me.

Total goofup all around.

[thatguy0900]

So they just take bikes that arnt registered with them? That seems very aggressive and strange to me to begin with. I've never heard of trying to tax bycicles like that.

[jjtheblunt]

My bike was clearly registered with them. It had a clear sticker on it too, besides serial number. It was just a noob mistake, gone haywire.

[bombcar]

University is the key. They're often trying to deal with absolute masses of bikes but even so this sounds like an overreach (and probably should have been handled via small claims court or similar).

[jjtheblunt]

Yep it was a mistake, and they admitted such. I thought of small claims but for a then old 10 speed bike no longer made, i figured i'd squander more time and effort than the cost of replacing it.

[Fatnino]

Small claims court is self serve, no lawyer needed. It's as simple as filling out a form and plonking down $75 or so. And you can add that fee to the damages so it costs you nothing.

[jjtheblunt]

that i did not know at all!

[bombcar]

And usually it results in either the company completely ignoring you (you get a default judgement in your favor) or they just write you a check to make you go away.