Dallas

Bike-Share Company Says Bikes Left Damaged in Dallas

It's meant to be a convenience: a sharable bike that is available anywhere you can find one.

But bike-share company VBikes reports that some of its sharable bikes have been vandalized, while other bikes have been abandoned in places like a lake, a tree or just thrown on the ground.

Rory Vigne and his co-worker, Havala Broderick, tried riding bike-share bikes for the first time while on a break for lunch in Deep Ellum.

"I love them," Broderick said.

Once a month, the two go out to lunch and take an alternate mode of transportation each time instead of driving. Broderick said riding bikes has been her favorite so far.

Vigne said he first saw his bike on the ground without the kickstand, which seemed to be broken.

"We've seen bikes thrown all over," said Lummy Rashiti, with VBikes, which has served Dallas for the last year.

"I love my job, because I get to interact with my community," Rashiti said, but some members of his community are damaging his bikes.

"We've seen them on the roads thrown away in front of properties," Rashiti said.

He showed pictures of silver and gold bikes left without their seat, one with a broken handlebar and another painted black.

"We've seen it in lakes. We've seen them thrown away in parks," Rashiti said.

Their bikes have been tossed in the bushes and strategically placed even higher—in a tree.

"We find it funny, at the same time interesting, but it's sad too," Rashiti said.

Broderick said she also witnessed someone taking advantage of the bike-share concept.

"I did, I have seen a VBike with somebody inside of a warehouse while he was working in there, so he did not have it on the curb ready to be shared. He was hording it to use later," Broderick said.

"Like they owned it or something," Vigne said with a laugh.

No matter how you treat these bikes, know that they do have GPS, so where ever you choose to leave them they will be found.

Other bike-share companies Spin and LimeBike say they have not seen much vandalism with their bikes.

Luke Pettyjohn, with Spin, tells NBC 5 that there has not been a significant amount of damage to Spin's bikes.

And Jack Song, with LimeBike, released a statement that said, in part: "Vandalism with our fleet has been less than 1 percent. Very minimal. Our Dallas operations team responds appropriately."

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