Stolen vintage dirt bikes
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dcarver
Well-known member
Eyes open.. :assassin:
rushes
Well-known member
Update!!!
Never give up....
Quoted:
Hooray, I recovered my '79 KTM 250 which was stolen on April
2, 2009 from Wichita, KS. It was found in Fort Worth, TX
and appeared on Craigslist a few days ago. I spotted it
while I was in OKC last week for training. I tried
contacting the 27 yr. old seller asking him to verify the
engine's serial number and he never responded to me.
https://dallas. craigslist. org/ftw/mcy/ 1645660991. html (You
can still view his ad while it is still listed)
https://tinyurl. com/y92c6mn <---- Photobucket slide show of
my KTM before it was stolen
https://tinyurl. com/yc2pfe6 <---- Photobucket slide show of
the pictures the seller sent to Roger Paris
(be certain to notice the
horrible paint job indicates a likely stolen motorcycle)
I called my Dallas, TX buddy Roger Paris asking him to
attempt enticing the seller into responding. He was able to
converse with the seller via e-mail, text and phone. The
seller indicated that someone was offering him an '04 KTM
250F and even sent Roger a picture of the bike. Roger and I
were like, "What is he smoking?" No one is going to offer
that up as an even trade!
Roger had received detailed digital pictures from the
suspects iPhone and I could see all the upgrades I had made
to the bike but could not make out the engine's serial
number no matter how much I enlarged the photo. It still
had the Renthal bars, Magura levers and purches, the Lectron
carburetor, the Works Performance shocks, even the scrape on
the left rear seat cover's KTM logo was present!
Unfortunately, someone had OBVIOUSLY repainted my beautiful
KTM in a grotesque Halloween theme, orange and black where
it was all white before. You can tell a stolen bike (I have
had two of my bikes stolen in my lifetime!) by the method of
painting. They quickly paint it black in a futile attempt
to disguise it quickly. So quickly in fact they don't even
bother to remove any of the parts, they just paint them
attached to the frame. So, they repainted my ENTIRE white
gas tank orange, even the gas cap and the petcock were
repainted orange. The white fenders front/rear and both
sides were painted black, w/number plates painted orange.
The round aftermarket ignition cover and part of the engine
was repainted orange as well. It is though as if a 13 yr.
old Stevie Wonder went wild with a spray bomb!
I contacted the Police offices of Wichita and Ft. Worth
asking how to proceed and received conflicting advice.
Ultimately, I had three Wichita Police officers in my home
last night, one of which was a Supervisor who I asked for.
The lowly patrol officer on his beat had absolutely no
authority and was quite unhelpful I felt. Eventually, the
Supervisor agreed to "fax" the Ft. Worth PD with the
suspects information + my KTM's engine serial numbers.
There was no frame VIN as I had replaced the frame with a
Larry Perkins frame (thanks Larry) after breaking the
original frame. However, I failed to record the new frame
number in my records.
Roger called the Ft. Forth Police dept. the following
morning telling them that he was going to look at a
suspected stolen vehicle at 9:30am and requesting an officer
to meet him. The Ft. Worth Police replied they'd already
been to that address and the VIN numbers did not match. I
was INCREDULOUS! I could clearly see from the digital
pictures it was my motorcycle. I implored with Roger to
believe me and to contact the seller and see if he would
grant him entry into the gated mobile home park. Somehow,
Roger made it inside where he called to tell me, "Phil, I
looked above the ignition cover and there are NO serial
numbers there." I said, "They're there Roger, you're just
not seeing them for some reason. Have you scraped the paint
away? He said, "Yes." I said, "The numbers are there,
scrape deeply. They must have obscured them with JB-Weld or
Epoxy." He was able to scrape enough away to clearly make
out several of the numbers. So, he left the sellers
residence to call 9-1-1 and report he was looking at stolen
property and to meet him.
Three Police cruisers showed up outside the gates of the
mobile home community and went through the gates with my
hero Roger Paris in tow. Roger was towing his empty bike
trailer hoping to take possession of my beloved KTM upon
completion of their investigation. It turned out the Police
Officer who went to the suspects address earlier in the day
was comparing my stolen Hodaka VIN against the stolen KTM.
Of course, it didn't match! The idiot Wichita, KS Police
officer faxed down the wrong VIN to the Ft. Worth PD. Those
idiots! I can't begin to emphasize enough how many times my
local PD screwed up the investigation.
Long story short, my buddy (now my BEST FRIEND) Roger Paris
was able to convince the Ft. Worth PD this was actually my
reported stolen '79 KTM 250 GS, and he was able to take
custody without it being impounded locally, i.e.. costing me
$$$ and inconvenience.
I can't begin to tell you how WONDERFUL Roger Paris has been
helping me recover my stolen bike which he'll return to me
at the ISDTRR Warm-Up in New Blaine, AR next weekend. (I'll
be competing on my '80 KTM 250 there.) Only a true friend
and vintage enthusiast would have gone out of his way like
Roger did. He put his whole life on HOLD to help me and
ruined his ENTIRE weekend to help a friend/vintage buddy. I
will be forever in his debt!
A bright spot in the initial investigation is the suspect
traded a street bike for my KTM and provided the Ft. Worth
Police with about a dozen e-mails from his seller. I have a
friend who's a local Wichita Police officer Supervisor (over
30 officers) on the West side of town. He's going to
follow-up with the detectives tomorrow to see if they can
follow the e-mail trail and track down who sold it to the
Ft. Worth guy. Who knows? Maybe they will find my still
missing '74 Hodaka Super Rat + my 2001 PJ 5x10 open trailer,
model 510G.
Next time you see Roger Paris tell him THANKS and try to
match his bright smile and cheerful attitude. He's truly a
wonderful friend. May God spread many blessings upon you my
friend!
Lessons learned:
1. Never give up looking for your stolen stuff. I used
https://www.jaxed. com to discover my stolen bike. Also,
https://www.craigslo ok.com is a very good "Mashup" (i.e.
aggregator) site for Craigslist.
2. Your local Police are too busy to bother with larceny,
you're on your own.
3. You cannot call the Police station and ask an officer to
show up at your doorstep, you MUST call 9-1-1. No kidding!
4. When you call the "case desk" in Wichita you're talking
to civilians. Ask to speak to a Police Officer or
Supervisor.
5. Thieves are horrible painters, i.e. they're LAZY. If a
bike is painted horribly, get the VIN and call the PD!
6. Write down all your VIN numbers + engine serial numbers
+ take good pictures of your bikes/toys, or you'll wish you
had.
7. Don't be a Phil! Lock everything up, or cover it up.
"Out of sight is out of mind." --- quote from "The Hodak-ta"
Never give up....
Quoted:
Hooray, I recovered my '79 KTM 250 which was stolen on April
2, 2009 from Wichita, KS. It was found in Fort Worth, TX
and appeared on Craigslist a few days ago. I spotted it
while I was in OKC last week for training. I tried
contacting the 27 yr. old seller asking him to verify the
engine's serial number and he never responded to me.
https://dallas. craigslist. org/ftw/mcy/ 1645660991. html (You
can still view his ad while it is still listed)
https://tinyurl. com/y92c6mn <---- Photobucket slide show of
my KTM before it was stolen
https://tinyurl. com/yc2pfe6 <---- Photobucket slide show of
the pictures the seller sent to Roger Paris
(be certain to notice the
horrible paint job indicates a likely stolen motorcycle)
I called my Dallas, TX buddy Roger Paris asking him to
attempt enticing the seller into responding. He was able to
converse with the seller via e-mail, text and phone. The
seller indicated that someone was offering him an '04 KTM
250F and even sent Roger a picture of the bike. Roger and I
were like, "What is he smoking?" No one is going to offer
that up as an even trade!
Roger had received detailed digital pictures from the
suspects iPhone and I could see all the upgrades I had made
to the bike but could not make out the engine's serial
number no matter how much I enlarged the photo. It still
had the Renthal bars, Magura levers and purches, the Lectron
carburetor, the Works Performance shocks, even the scrape on
the left rear seat cover's KTM logo was present!
Unfortunately, someone had OBVIOUSLY repainted my beautiful
KTM in a grotesque Halloween theme, orange and black where
it was all white before. You can tell a stolen bike (I have
had two of my bikes stolen in my lifetime!) by the method of
painting. They quickly paint it black in a futile attempt
to disguise it quickly. So quickly in fact they don't even
bother to remove any of the parts, they just paint them
attached to the frame. So, they repainted my ENTIRE white
gas tank orange, even the gas cap and the petcock were
repainted orange. The white fenders front/rear and both
sides were painted black, w/number plates painted orange.
The round aftermarket ignition cover and part of the engine
was repainted orange as well. It is though as if a 13 yr.
old Stevie Wonder went wild with a spray bomb!
I contacted the Police offices of Wichita and Ft. Worth
asking how to proceed and received conflicting advice.
Ultimately, I had three Wichita Police officers in my home
last night, one of which was a Supervisor who I asked for.
The lowly patrol officer on his beat had absolutely no
authority and was quite unhelpful I felt. Eventually, the
Supervisor agreed to "fax" the Ft. Worth PD with the
suspects information + my KTM's engine serial numbers.
There was no frame VIN as I had replaced the frame with a
Larry Perkins frame (thanks Larry) after breaking the
original frame. However, I failed to record the new frame
number in my records.
Roger called the Ft. Forth Police dept. the following
morning telling them that he was going to look at a
suspected stolen vehicle at 9:30am and requesting an officer
to meet him. The Ft. Worth Police replied they'd already
been to that address and the VIN numbers did not match. I
was INCREDULOUS! I could clearly see from the digital
pictures it was my motorcycle. I implored with Roger to
believe me and to contact the seller and see if he would
grant him entry into the gated mobile home park. Somehow,
Roger made it inside where he called to tell me, "Phil, I
looked above the ignition cover and there are NO serial
numbers there." I said, "They're there Roger, you're just
not seeing them for some reason. Have you scraped the paint
away? He said, "Yes." I said, "The numbers are there,
scrape deeply. They must have obscured them with JB-Weld or
Epoxy." He was able to scrape enough away to clearly make
out several of the numbers. So, he left the sellers
residence to call 9-1-1 and report he was looking at stolen
property and to meet him.
Three Police cruisers showed up outside the gates of the
mobile home community and went through the gates with my
hero Roger Paris in tow. Roger was towing his empty bike
trailer hoping to take possession of my beloved KTM upon
completion of their investigation. It turned out the Police
Officer who went to the suspects address earlier in the day
was comparing my stolen Hodaka VIN against the stolen KTM.
Of course, it didn't match! The idiot Wichita, KS Police
officer faxed down the wrong VIN to the Ft. Worth PD. Those
idiots! I can't begin to emphasize enough how many times my
local PD screwed up the investigation.
Long story short, my buddy (now my BEST FRIEND) Roger Paris
was able to convince the Ft. Worth PD this was actually my
reported stolen '79 KTM 250 GS, and he was able to take
custody without it being impounded locally, i.e.. costing me
$$$ and inconvenience.
I can't begin to tell you how WONDERFUL Roger Paris has been
helping me recover my stolen bike which he'll return to me
at the ISDTRR Warm-Up in New Blaine, AR next weekend. (I'll
be competing on my '80 KTM 250 there.) Only a true friend
and vintage enthusiast would have gone out of his way like
Roger did. He put his whole life on HOLD to help me and
ruined his ENTIRE weekend to help a friend/vintage buddy. I
will be forever in his debt!
A bright spot in the initial investigation is the suspect
traded a street bike for my KTM and provided the Ft. Worth
Police with about a dozen e-mails from his seller. I have a
friend who's a local Wichita Police officer Supervisor (over
30 officers) on the West side of town. He's going to
follow-up with the detectives tomorrow to see if they can
follow the e-mail trail and track down who sold it to the
Ft. Worth guy. Who knows? Maybe they will find my still
missing '74 Hodaka Super Rat + my 2001 PJ 5x10 open trailer,
model 510G.
Next time you see Roger Paris tell him THANKS and try to
match his bright smile and cheerful attitude. He's truly a
wonderful friend. May God spread many blessings upon you my
friend!
Lessons learned:
1. Never give up looking for your stolen stuff. I used
https://www.jaxed. com to discover my stolen bike. Also,
https://www.craigslo ok.com is a very good "Mashup" (i.e.
aggregator) site for Craigslist.
2. Your local Police are too busy to bother with larceny,
you're on your own.
3. You cannot call the Police station and ask an officer to
show up at your doorstep, you MUST call 9-1-1. No kidding!
4. When you call the "case desk" in Wichita you're talking
to civilians. Ask to speak to a Police Officer or
Supervisor.
5. Thieves are horrible painters, i.e. they're LAZY. If a
bike is painted horribly, get the VIN and call the PD!
6. Write down all your VIN numbers + engine serial numbers
+ take good pictures of your bikes/toys, or you'll wish you
had.
7. Don't be a Phil! Lock everything up, or cover it up.
"Out of sight is out of mind." --- quote from "The Hodak-ta"
03HiYoSilver
Well-known member
Rushes,
Wow! Congratulations on your recovery and Thanks for sharing this harrowing story.
All the Success to you on the other one.
Wow! Congratulations on your recovery and Thanks for sharing this harrowing story.
All the Success to you on the other one.
rushes
Well-known member
Nice story, crooks suck. :angry:
You're right: many good lessons here.
When my FJR was stolen, the investigating officer seemed surprised when I offered her a picture of the stolen machine (and I was surprised that she was surprised). Then SHE suggested I might want to go talk to my neighbors to see if they had seen anything. I was stunned, but I got her point: "I'm not going to actively investigate this. If we find a crushed wad of motorcycle at the bottom of a ravine or lake, we may try to match VIN numbers." Thank you, officer Ma'am.
So... I realized, time to do my own police work, which I did. Via a reward, 150 posters spread around, a private dick who went to the "pick up" with me, we got the bike back and got all the (meth head) perps, two in the slam, one juvenile on probation. When they were arraigning the guy, the assistant Co. Atty. told me they'd probably work out a plea bargain. I said, "What? This guy has done time for prior vehicle theft conviction, and you're going to spring him?" The Co. Atty. denied the guy had priors. I said, "Check South Dakota!" He called me a couple of days later and said, "Yup, did two years in SD for vehicle theft." I wanted to ask, "So did you do any investigation at all?" He wanted to know how I knew about the priors. I just told him I had my sources (and I do not reveal these, ever). Guess what? Every now and then I get a restitution check for $27.12 or some such, which makes me feel real good. At that rate, working for 25¢ an hour or whatever prison pay is, he'll have me paid off in, oh, 10 years or so.
Yes, the point: step up and do your own police work! It ain't rocket science. But be careful when you get close to the creeps cause they can be insane mofos who will kill without giving it a second thought, which is why the detective I had with me was packing a .38.
When my FJR was stolen, the investigating officer seemed surprised when I offered her a picture of the stolen machine (and I was surprised that she was surprised). Then SHE suggested I might want to go talk to my neighbors to see if they had seen anything. I was stunned, but I got her point: "I'm not going to actively investigate this. If we find a crushed wad of motorcycle at the bottom of a ravine or lake, we may try to match VIN numbers." Thank you, officer Ma'am.
So... I realized, time to do my own police work, which I did. Via a reward, 150 posters spread around, a private dick who went to the "pick up" with me, we got the bike back and got all the (meth head) perps, two in the slam, one juvenile on probation. When they were arraigning the guy, the assistant Co. Atty. told me they'd probably work out a plea bargain. I said, "What? This guy has done time for prior vehicle theft conviction, and you're going to spring him?" The Co. Atty. denied the guy had priors. I said, "Check South Dakota!" He called me a couple of days later and said, "Yup, did two years in SD for vehicle theft." I wanted to ask, "So did you do any investigation at all?" He wanted to know how I knew about the priors. I just told him I had my sources (and I do not reveal these, ever). Guess what? Every now and then I get a restitution check for $27.12 or some such, which makes me feel real good. At that rate, working for 25¢ an hour or whatever prison pay is, he'll have me paid off in, oh, 10 years or so.
Yes, the point: step up and do your own police work! It ain't rocket science. But be careful when you get close to the creeps cause they can be insane mofos who will kill without giving it a second thought, which is why the detective I had with me was packing a .38.
FJR919
Well-known member
As a prosecutor, I would hold this guy's balls to the fire unless he gives the info on the trailer and his accomplices. Try contacting your local district attorney and find out who's prosecuting the case and have a talk with him or her. Good luck.
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