Ok well obviously I'm not just gonna take it guys, that'd be stealing. @
TugaDude is right, I mainly want to find out if it has truly been abandoned by a previous tennant or if its just neglected and the owner still lives here. Yeah, maybe its none of my business and I should just ignore it and ride my own bike, but it just kills me to see such a nice bike going to waste.
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Gotcha38 I think I may try this. I've thought about leaving a note with an offer to buy it before but it really looks like this bike hasn't been touched in ages. I'm afraid if I left a note with the bike, the owner would never see it, even if they still live in the building. Do you guys think posting something in the elevator is too tacky? Its a big building so I can't just ask around.
If I was able to make contact with the owner, that would be ideal. Maybe I'd be able to get a good deal on it since it looks like they don't use it.
If not, then we start having a discussion about claiming abandoned bikes. I think this is an interesting situation to talk about (hence the reason I posted this thread) because, like @
seau grateau pointed out, determining whether a bike is truly abandoned in a private lockup is difficult, if not impossible, without any info on the bike's owner. If you ask me, its ultimately going to come down to my management company to determine what bikes are abandoned because the racks will eventually get so crowded that they need to start removing the abandoned ones.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone has experience legally claiming abandoned property. I'll probably look into it but due to the nature of this lockup, I don't think I would feel comfortable laying claim to this bike, even through the proper channels, unless the management company was already removing and disposing of it anyway.