Vandals Throwing Lime-S Scooters Into Oakland's Lake Merritt
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) – The water level of Lake Merritt in Oakland might be getting raised by the rain from Fridays storm, but recently it has also been getting filled with high-tech new scooters.
In video sent to LimeBike, a start-up that rents dockless bicycles and scooters, Tai Decker showed the company where to come fish out one of their brand new "Lime-S" scooters.
"Just wanted to show you guys you've got a scooter stuck in Lake Merritt over here by the Terrace Room Lake Merritt Hotel," Decker said in the video.
On Friday, Decker spoke to KPIX 5 about his concerns over the scooter.
"I was wondering how I could retrieve it for them, but I ended up just walking by and then left a direct message on their Facebook," he explained.
It isn't the first time it has happened. A quick search on social media reveals a numbers of pictures of Lime-S scooters dumped into Lake Merritt recently.
When ford go bikes were first introduced in Oakland, they ended up in the lake too. Birds at the lake found the underwater bikes were better for perching than pedaling.
Local residents had ideas about why the vandalism of the bikes and scooters was happening.
"I think because they can. They're easy targets," said one local.
Brad Mitchell lives near the lake and said people should embrace the new bike and scooter shares.
"I don't feel it. I don't see why people would want to destroy property like that," explained Mitchell. "It seems like people are trying to add something to the city to make it better for commuters in lots of different ways."
"I would hope it's not our neighbors," said Oakland resident Pear Michaels. "We live in walking distance to the lake, and I would hope that neighbors wouldn't be so frustrated by traffic or gentrification that they would do something like that."
LimeBike has local teams that are responsible for collecting the scooters. They have already fished a few out of Lake Merritt, including one pulled out of the lake last week near Children's Fairyland.
"People shouldn't park them and block the way, I can certainly see wanting them out of the way, but I can't feel throwing them in the lake," said Mitchell.
