Scott, my '03 was stolen from my garage very early Saturday morning in '05. I called the cops, they came over, weren't really interested (LEO suggest I should go talk to my neighbors, making it clear she wasn't going to), so wife and I quickly made 150 8 1/2" x 11" posters and spread them everywhere in town (30,000 folks here) and even put them up in smaller neighboring towns. The posters offered a $1,000 reward for return of bike, info leading to arrest, etc. We figured it was these ******* meth heads that infest the town and that their meth head friends would turn 'em in quick for the dough. We also reasoned by plastering the town with the posters, the thieves wouldn't be able to off it to anyone locally: too hot.
By Sunday night we had a garbled message on our answering machine - someone so wasted they couldn't make themselves intelligible. Not success, but it was progress. Monday, I got a call from a young lady who said she knew where my bike was. I made arrangements to meet her, then proceed to where the bike was, where she would get the money. I called a PI friend who is licensed to carry and he went with me. I was NOT going to get into a situation with crazy ******* tweakers and $1,000 cash in my pocket without some protection. At any rate, she led us to the bike - all phucked up from terrible abuse but surprisingly still in decent mechanical shape; rear tire was burned to the cords, gobs of molten rubber under the fender... how long does it take at the rev limiter to completely toast a tire?). Well, she actually gave me her name when I asked (see, she was playing the part of Good Samaritan, just helping out). However, we spotted her junkie cohorts keeping an eye on the deal back behind some bushes. I did give her the money (turns out she was 17). Then gave the cops her name and they went and threatened her with being an accessory to felony theft and a bunch of other stuff. Of course, she ratted them out. She got $400, the thieves got $600. In the meantime, another caller told me he knew who stole the bike, gave me a name and address. Said the puke had tried to sell it to him for $500 and he would so testify to the cops and courts (I truly admire citizens like this one). We got the juvi, and two junkie thieves off the street, at least for a couple of years. My FJR was totalled, but all cosmetic damage. Bought it back from the insurance company and had it restored over the next winter - now "Corvette red."
Okay, my first lesson: do go to the law, yet be fully prepared to solve this yourself. But be damned careful if dealing with meth junkies; they have no sense of right or wrong and place no value on human life. Put some sizable bait out there and they will turn on and devour each other like the maggots they are. Spread the word in their neighborhoods. Talk to everyone: we actually came across a guy who had lost a couple of dirt bikes and gave us pretty clear indications where to look. Do your own detective work. When it's time - when you have names and addresses - then go to the police with it.
My insurance company told me if the bike had been recovered and it hadn't been totaled, they might have covered my loss of the reward (Foremost, who was great to deal with).
I feel your pain, man. I wish you the very best.
