At the Yellowbike here in Austin we just had two pretty awful incidences with theft, and we've talked a lot about what approach we should take. The first one involved a Katrina evacuee who had gotten a bike from us and then took to volunteering upon occasion. We had been allowing him to work on and take kids' bikes every now and again for family members, but at some point this just turned to him stealing bikes off of our completed rack. We noticed this when he tried to sell a brand new donation bike for 25 dollars to a kid during a shop, and then rode off on a refurbed bike later that night.
With this kind of theft, we tell the thief that they are banned from the shop, but allow them to come before our collective and have a discussion with us. Oftentimes just seeing the fact that we are an all volunteer collective and talking with the group changes the person's attitude about their actions and they can be allowed back in. Generally, however, thieves won't make the effort to come back and talk to us so they stay banned, which is at that point I feel totally justified.
On a sadder note more recently, we had two teenage community service volunteers steal our shop computer during a busy open shop, and in the process of running off they coaxed one of our coordinator's dogs across a busy street where noble Argos was hit and killed by a car. As one might imagine this caused a lot of busy soul searching-- mostly around the question of balancing having a secure and safe shop environment while maintaining a shop that's totally inclusive to the community. We realized that oftentimes the mistake is on partially ours, that even the surliest teenagers who might come into the shop can get involved productively and meaningfully. When we put these kids to work immediately and make sure that they've got tasks and aren't just hanging around wrenching or loitering, they'll often see the fact that we're a real organization and not just some weak charity. If they don't want to get involved at that point then we ask them to leave.
I think the point of this is that opening one's arms to the community is one thing but there's a thin line between real inclusiveness and the kind of guilt-based, "charitable" inclusion that leads to the exploitation of the shop.
-sherief
On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 12:57 PM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
I'd like to throw something out to the group for your opinions.
Do any of you have a specific policy about what to do when a known bike thief comes in the shop? Do you turn him/her away?
Last year, we had an incident with a youth EAB'er, who was caught taking bikes. He's since been implicated but not charged or confirmed as being involved in another bike theft, altho that one is not related to our shop, other than we're friends with the victim, and used some of our resources with a local low-income neighborhood to track down the location of this latest theft, leading to the recovery of said stolen bikes.
Since this last incident, the individual was spotted in our shop by a staff member who was around during last year's debacle. Someone swiftly took him aside, and told him that he needs to leave, that he's not welcome in our shop.
I'm not sure how i personally feel about this. I mean, bike thieves are pretty low, and as such I don't want to encourage them...teaching them wrenching skills that they will potentially use on stolen bikes makes my stomach turn...
Being the community shop that we are, i'm wondering if we can't use our position to turn some of these kids around. By bringing him in and welcoming him, do we not stand a chance of befriending him and breaking down the barrier between us, so that he comes to value our bikes (shop's and staff's, and by extension, the general public) by being exposed to what bikes mean to the people in our shop. in theory, come to see the shop as a resource for knowledge, skills, and cheap parts that takes some investment on his part, instead of just a pool of resources for him to pilfer on a whim.
I'm interested in the groups thoughts, policies, experiences.
I also know that bike theft is something that hits close to home for a lot (or all) of us on this list, and would ask that we keep this discussion on the topic of "to welcome or not in the shop", and not get too distracted with how painfully bike thieves should be tortured.
Thanks.
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