“Finding the really hard ones is so awesome,” says Lucas, a young teenage Bird charger in L.A. who didn’t want his last name or his age listed since he technically hunts under his parents’ account. “It’s become a big trend at my high school. People are like, ‘Oh are you gonna charge tonight?’ I have friends send me Snapchats like, ‘I just got 18 in one night!’ or, ‘Look where I found this one.’ There’s definitely a sense of achievement in picking a lot of them up.”

“I think so many teens are doing it because it’s a really easy way to make a lot of money on the side,” says Brandon. “Everyone loves Bird so when you tell people you’re a Bird charger they’re like, ‘Whoa! That’s cool, how do I do that?’ No one thinks it’s lame. My friends and I are pretty much in the tech crew [at school], so we found out sooner. But now popular kids are asking how they can sign up and get Birds.”

Lucas says he goes out with friends nearly every night, and even when they don’t find tons of Birds, it’s still a fun, social activity. “It’s like a whole-city scavenger hunt,” he says. He even jokes that it would make a great date.

But while Bird hunting is fun and games for some, other chargers take the job much more seriously. Charging in some cities, like San Diego, has become a cutthroat competition between workers where every last dollar counts.

Hoarding in particular has become a problem in these crowded markets. Bird and other companies will pay a $20 reward for missing scooters, so some chargers simply keep the scooters in their garage until they’re reported missing by riders or the bounty goes up to $20, then claim the finder’s fees. Bird theoretically polices this behavior, and Brandon says he’s gotten a warning call from the company for hoarding, but the bad behavior has become commonplace and punishment is unevenly enforced.

At a WeWork and just saw someone bring their Bird scooter into the building and up the elevator.



Guess that’s one way to hoard and ensure that you’ll have a Bird scooter to rent / ride with by the end of the day. — Kevin Lee (@kevinleeme) March 29, 2018

Each scooter can also only be captured by one charger. In saturated markets, the race to quickly grab as many scooters as possible is fierce. “One time I pulled up to pick up a scooter, I got there maybe 10 seconds before the other guy did,” said one charger in San Diego. “He started yelling at me. He picked up a Bird scooter and started beating my car. I got the hell out of there.”

“As a scooter charger you’re a legitimate bounty hunter. Whoever finds the scooter first and scans it—it’s theirs and they’re in charge of it,” he added. “Anything that happens to it between the time that you capture it and turn it in is your responsibility, just as a bounty would be.”

Unfortunately, some never turn their bounty in. They steal the scooters and chop-shop them, piecing them out and selling the batteries for up to $50. “The Bird will chirp at you if you try to steal it, but they chirp so often that no one pays attention,” says Abouzeid. “No one would stop you or say anything. I can show you on the charger map which ones are stolen. The battery is always at 0 and they were last seen like 7 days ago.” Any time you try to move a Bird without unlocking it first, the chirping alarm will go off. A representative for Bird says widespread theft has not been a problem.