More than 100 Bird scooters were picked up and moved to a Metro Public Works warehouse in East Nashville Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
The city removed the scooters because they say the small electric vehicles were found in the public right of way. Metro sent Bird a cease and desist letter two days after the company launched in early May.
Bird did not remove their scooters from the streets. Instead, they sent out a press release stating they were willing to work with the city to regulate their scooters. The cease and desist gave 15 days for Bird to remove the scooters, but 20 days later, when that hadn't happened, Metro Public Works began removing the scooters.
Metro Sues Bird, Asks Court To Order Removal Of Scooters From Sidewalks
Thursday morning, public works had collected 94 scooters with more crews scheduled to pick scooters up in the afternoon.
Bird released this statement, Thursday:
"Bird respects the city’s role in enforcing all traffic and parking rules, such as towing illegally parked cars and returning them. We will engage with city officials with the goal of developing a fair process to review the reasons for confiscating Birds and having them returned." - Kennether Baer, Bird spokesperson.
The scooter confiscations happened nearly a week after Metro Department of Law filed a lawsuit calling for a judge to issue an injunction on Bird to remove the scooters from the streets. The hearing for the suit will be held on June 13.
