Originally Posted by Kabuki12

Like Russel , I have tried to help the homeless at my shop. They come around and rifle through the dumpster on their bikes . I give them whatever recyclables I have and even hired them for cash work like cleaning and painting. I have stopped doing it as it got a bit out of hand. It does not take long for the word to get out. I hired a man to paint my shop floor and he obviously has mental health issues. He showed up on foot right after I hired him and I asked him what happened to his bike. He told me it got stolen while he was asleep in the river bottom. I had an old mountain bike , a mid level Specialized that I had bought in 1990 but didn’t use anymore. I tuned it up and gave it to him with a nice lock. He showed very little emotion when I gave it to him and the next day he had taken the handlebars off and put hi-rise bars on. The grip shifters and brake levers were dangling off the bike as the cables were too short for his “new” bars. The front derailleur was completely bent and he traded the original front wheel for some painted one off a beach cruiser. Two days later the bike was stolen . I asked about the lock I gave him and he just looked at me. He clearly did not have the capacity to be on his own . It is very sad and in my area there are hundreds living without the help they need , and I’m not talking about hand outs .