Bicycles aren’t the only form of transportation that authorities recovered. Although they didn’t find nearly as many, they did find a couple of motor scooters beneath the murky water as well. It’s kind of shocking that there were only two found, while they found so many bikes.
Even if they were stolen – especially if they were stolen – you’d think the thieves would have sold them for more money, not just dumped them in the river.
Some of the most interesting things that were found throughout the endeavor were over 100 bicycles – from the Vélib’ rental system. One resident named Marc told The Guardian, “I just can’t believe the quantity that are in there. I guess they were stolen and thrown in afterwards.”
That does seem like a plausible explanation in Paris, where nearly 1,400 bikes go missing every single day, according to The Local. With almost 800,000 of the things disappearing yearly, it’s no wonder they found so many heaps of them hiding in the canal.
Although, considering that the bike company has only existed since 2007, the numbers are definitely high. Another resident told the publication that “bobos,” which is what the locals call all of the young, new people flooding into the city, are responsible for the trash.
“That’s Paris for you, it’s filthy,” said one man. “I don’t remember there being that much rubbish in there. Bobos are using it as a dustbin.” And speaking of the bobos, they all lined the bridges, along with the locals, to see what else was going to be removed from the canal.
Aside from the piles of interesting treasures that were pulled from the canal, there were some less than desirable items that were found, too. Take this janky old chair they pulled out of the water, for instance.
Again, one wonders how this chair could have possibly ended up down there! Someone would have had to go through the trouble of dragging it out of their home and tossing it. But why?
To reveal the garbage, workers dumped over 23,000,000 gallons in the river Seine. Then, people gathered in the streets and observed as the water was slowly drained from the canal. When it got down to just less than two feet, the fish were removed and relocated, and then the disposal process began.
Onlookers were left with mouths wide open when they saw the 45 tons of garbage looking up at them from beneath the murk.