Just last month a former Bird charger in Phoenix was arrested for stealing 11 Bird scooters. Sounds like his scheme was to report the scooters as missing and then repurpose them for personal use.
Don’t Steal, Kids
They are fun to ride and available to everyone, but it’s mind boggling that thieves think they can get away with stealing devices that have GPS on them. According to the article, the total value of the scooters was just over $12,000. The scooters Bird uses retail for around $450 + the company usually adds on some additional hardware to bring the per scooter value up.
This was a pretty obvious case; the guy had nearly a dozen scooters, so Bird took action. Bird, law enforcement and others are starting to take theft and vandalism of these vehicles seriously and are acting accordingly.
Out of Task Scooters
Oops, I have a few out of task scooters. Am I going to be arrested? These may be scooters that you found that are out of task for whatever reason, and you never turned them in. I know I had a few sitting in my garage for a while that weren’t on the map when I found them, so I just left them in my garage for a couple months.
There is now a simple way to return these scooters free of charge or penalty. Unfortunately, you won’t get paid for them, but Bird will pick them up as opposed to you needing to return them to a nest. And in case you have a bunch sitting in your garage, you can avoid law enforcement and discreetly return them to Bird. 😉
How to Return Out of Task Birds?
According to Bird’s customer service, they will actually come to your house and pick up out of task Birds. The first thing to do is place the Birds outside.
Next, write into Bird Charger support with the following information:
- Location of your Birds (preferably the coordinates or full address)
- Any additional property access or gate code instructions
- Number of Birds that need to be picked up
- 5 digits listed under the QR code on each Bird to be returned
The Bird team will then come pick up these Birds. For any further questions, you can reach out via Help in your Bird app.
For those of you who do have out of task scooters, we suggest returning them sooner than later. Most of you aren’t stealing, but you want to avoid any confusion by just returning them.
Readers, have you encountered out of task e-scooters before? Did you know you could contact Bird to get them?
-Joe @ RSG
