Lent one of my mountain bikes to my neighbor. Well after a week and a half I go to retrieve it tonight. He says it was stolen a couple days ago. he doesn't make a police report or even mention it to me. WTF. Of course he doesn't have the cash to pay me back either. God that pisses me off. ******* thieves. He didn't chain it up either!?

 

Oh **** don't get me started. I'm the neighborhood home ******* depot that everyone comes to every time they need to "borrow" something. Problem is I always have to run after them to get it back. And I lent one of my neighbors my cannondale bad boy because he had just got out of rehab and asked to borrow it, and as usual I can never say no. Figured it was a positive activity for him. Never mind that his wife's family is LOADED and could buy him 10 of them, or that the bike was worth more than the car I was driving. A week later I pass his garage-door open, bike in plain view and some ghetto types who don't live here hanging out right across the little street with the other ghetto lowlifes who rent there. So, I walk into his garage and take my bike back. He comes home and starts in a frenzy about how my bike's all fucked up and doesn't shift right and how the tires are going to kill him (the bike's like brand new, it shift(ed) perfect and the tires are slicks). Grabs it away from me so he can "show" me and I cringe just by the way he's shifting it. A few seconds later I hear a screetch and a crash and my bike is flipped over and he's on the ground. Bikes scratched, bar end broken, and the end result is I had to get it fixed and had to finally tell him off as it was the last straw with him ( I could write a book). Wonderful how people thank you when you continually go out of your way for them.

 

Yeah, I'm not a selfish person when it comes to material ****. I enjoy helping people out. I know he didn't mean for it to happen. But WTF, I just expect mutual respect for others peoples property.. Like locking it up would have been nice.

 

Honestly, It was a $600 bike brand new in '05....I could have prolly gotten $2-300 for it in its present condition.

 

Invest in a high quality flame thrower and do some much needed purging.

Or simply tell them NO and rest assured that your stuff won't go missing or get trashed.

Screw it, get the damn flame thrower.

 

That sucks! But why should he chain it up, it wasn't his.

I learned that lesson a long time ago, but I will lend some items to a "good" friend. About 25 years ago I went to get a tool back that I'd loaned to my next door neighbor about a month earlier (not a "good" friend). He said "I gave it back to you a few weeks ago".

My KHS mountain bike, motorcycle, surfboards...no way. If it comes back damaged, and they don't offer to fix/replace it, you either accept it and don't say anything, or you lose a friend. (who wasn't much of a friend to begin with)

 

wow you guys are too nice....really.

way i look at it, if i borrow something to someone i practically wrote it off as never seeing it again because chances are you're not.

so some things i never lend out.

my tools, my vehicles and my electronics

tools i cringe when another mech reaches for my tool box. i've already lost a few sockets and ratchets when it goes from hand to hand and all of a sudden nobody knows where it is.... so from now on i just say "hey, you've been in the business for well over 10 years, you know how other mechs feel about their tool boxes, why do u think i feel any different?"

EDIT: there is only one friend who i'll lend stuff to and he'll lend me anything too...but then again i'm basically his car mechanic so i get access to his car all the time if hes not using it. his way of paying me back lol.

 

I've had both good and bad experiences lending stuff. I had a friend in high school who borrowed a socket set. He only used 2 of the sockets, but cleaned the entire set. I have to track him down and loan him a bunch more stuff, whether he needs it or not.

 

There's just a right way to treat people and go about doing things. Another neighbor/friend of mine also borrowed the cannondale for a race he did. I'm always fixing for him too-his frig, his motorcycle, bicycle, whatever, but I don't mind. Before he gave it back he took it to the bike shop and had it tuned up for me. Nice! I borrowed his tw200 to teach my girl to ride on. Put all of about 2 miles on it. Before I gave it back I spend several days cleaning and fixing and servicing it for him. Full detail, oil change,clean/lube/adjusted chain, fixed his broken fairing, fuel filter, air in the tires, etc, etc. He never touches it-I've had to charge his dead battery several times and had to drive up to fix it when his chain jumped the sprocket and got jammed in the swingarm. Anyway the point is to say "thanks" and show a little respect and appreciation. He can't fix stuff so him or his girl will drop off some food or something like that. But you don't borrow **** and have to have someone run after you to get it back and then give it back to them dirty. WTF?

One summer a college friend was going back to europe and didn't have a place to keep his ZX6. He asked if I could keep it in my garage for a few months and in return I could ride it. When he got it back I had done so much cosmetic fix up work it looked like a different bike. I didn't have to. Just to say "thanks" for letting me ride it.

 

Clarity is your friend.

I will only lend items of value to trusted friends, neighbors and relatives. In my case at least, that isn't a whole lot of people.

Even then, I make sure we both agree on a few things.

1) what they need it for

2) how long before they return it.

3) If it gets stolen or lost, they owe me full replacement value, paid in cash.

4) If they damage it, they owe me repair or replacement value (which means they pay full price for what's left of it), my choice.

 

+1

 

I have a real good friend who has a drilling rig, and does foundation piers.
You know the 3 foot wide holes that extend about 30 feet below the surface ...

 

With the damage done, you've got several options.

I'd consider sending them a registered letter demanding payment within a few days.

If they don't, you can take them to small claims court. If they tell the truth you will win and they'll pay or you can attach their bank account, house, whatever.

If they lie in court and you don't win, you can slash their tires and pour sulfuric acid on their car or truck.

 

I've had both good and bad experiences also with lending tools, equipment, etc... I have one neighbor that i lent him my miter saw and it took me going over and asking for it back after a couple weeks, that was three years ago. Ever since then, I make him leave me his drivers license until he returns my things. My wife thinks its funny that a grown man 40+ has to leave his drivers license with me just to borrow a screwdriver, hahaha.

 

LOL!

 

Well, I looked into his story. I called the high rise residences he was at, they confirmed that a bike was stolen on the property and they reviewed the tape with my him, who borrowed the bike. They could not make out who was on the tape though! I called the police and they said I need to meet them down there so they can get the tape. So I think I'll go down there tomorrow, hopefully get him to come with me to have on record that the bike was indeed in his possession, I'll give him some time to replace it. If he can't, then I will take him to court. I think that's what I should do. This is just crazy, A grown man with a kid living in a new 1.5 million duplex he's been trying to sell for over a year (which he built). I know he's hurting for money, but he's just thinks its ok to make me wait......

 

But you are supposed to share his pain of being a stupidfuck who built overpriced developments with very bad real-estate timing.

 

Well you pretty much couldn't describe my situation better.

 

It's okay, Obama will bail him out.

And shizzy, two words if he doesn't come through...Judge Judy

 

I don't borrow people's **** and I don't loan people ****.

It's amusing when people want to "borrow" printer paper or postage stamps on a weekly basis. WTF? Buy it yourself. I could understand if it was a one-time deal, but it never is.

 

I rent rooms in my house and all sorts of random **** goes missing.

Knives, pots & pans, pizza stone...

If they think I won't notice then then I guess it doesn't count as stealing. When's the last time you took one of your steak knives and left it in your car or at work? It doesn't happen. Bugs the **** out of me, but the alternative is being a complete **** and worrying about people being around my stuff. That's just not worth it to me.

 

Neighbor came from across the street to borrow my portable air pump, had his son with him. To the boy's shock and consternation, the neighbor agreed to my demand and told his son to sit quietly on my garage stool and wait until he finished with the pump.

I was sweating the return of the pump, it had more function than a neighbors nose picker.

 

OMG, that's funny!

 

You're lucky he didn't keep the pump and move to another state.