I don't buy your logic. If I, as a researcher, leave a car in a bad neighborhood overnight to see what happens, the guy who smashes the window to steal the radio is still a bad guy whether or not that's relevant to my results.
Science doesn't concern itself with morality, but that doesn't mean it exists in a moral vacuum.
>as a researcher, leave a car in a bad neighborhood overnight //
I think you have to label the car "free car" leaving all the doors unlocked and with the keys in the ignition.
Then when someone sells the car and gives the money to charity everyone organises a lynch mob it seems because apparently selling the car wasn't part of the experiment you expected it to be driven.
Of course experiments are best when they have unexpected outcomes and it would be unexpected in a "bad neighbourhood" for someone to act altruistically in this way with a free car.
I'd change your analogy to make the label 'free rides', as the intent of this was to get a cheap disposable cup of coffee. And rather than selling the car the guy drains most of the gas out of the tank and takes it.
So yes, it's an experiment but the guy was violating the stated rules.
Science doesn't concern itself with morality, but that doesn't mean it exists in a moral vacuum.