Bike a thief thwarted today

[Privateer]

this wasn't me, but a guy on another forum I frequent:

Siting on my porch this morning having a cup of Java when I see this young guy ride by real slow on a Green ZX10.
Bike is sputtering and it dies on him.

I notice he has no helmet on, so I think he must be taking it for a test ride and he lives in the neighborhood, maybe working on it or something?

Starts and bike dies on him again about 100yds from my house.

He gets off and starts to walk back down the street (I figure he's going back to his house) but he walks across the street to the shopping center and dissapears??

I think man that's strange why didn't he just go back home......I start thinking about no helmet and I say Hmmm.....I'm gonna' check this out. I walk down to the bike and the ignition is punched and the power is still on I can hear it humming.

Call the cops and walk back down to the bike cuz I don't want him to come back and maybe take off before they can investigate.

He comes back with a gal in a car and they jump start the bike with cables (not good for the electronics of the bike I'm told)

Guy is a young kid maybe 20,21 or so and says the bike was stolen from HIM a couple weeks ago and he just got it back and was trying to ride it to the dealer to get a new ignition. I said "where's your helmet"? He pulls out a dirtbike helmet from the car?? Hmmmm.....doesn't make sense. he tells me he knows it looks bad with the puched out ignition and all and he's real calm and collected.

He starts to thank me for being concerned and he tries to take off......I told him "you're not going anywhere untill the cops come to check you out, if this is really your bike I'm sure you can appreciate that" He starts to tell me more stuff about the bike and then 2 cop cars pull up.

He tells the cops the same story about just getting his stolen bike back and the cop asks him for some paperwork....says it was on the bike when it was stolen but now gone. Hmmm......cop asks him for ID and runs the VIN......ID doesn't match the VIN and the bike comes back stolen!

Cuffed and in the backseat.......turns out he lives down the street from me and was on probation, that sweet young thang' is going back to give Bubba some entertainment!

Owner of the bike shows up and he turns out to be a young Marine living in some apartments in Murrieta, city next to mine.
He thanked me and was glad to get the bike back. He bought it used about 3 months ago from  Calloway Kawasaki in Riverside (now out of businesss) and the bike was stolen from his apartment last Saturday.

I'm just glad to catch a little dirtbag cycle thief , we all know there are enough of them out there.

Thought some of you might enjoy reading his tale.

[fastwin]

Sweetness! I make the beast with two backsing hate thieves of every kind!! Great on that guy on the other forum to be heads up and be aware of the goofiness. Turned out all right in the end. I'm sure the rightful owner was very thankful. I drive my neighborhood crime watch chief freaking nuts but I'm 10 out of 10 when I've emailed her about funky looking stuff in our 'hood. Probably has to do with the decades my wife and I worked at our local county criminal courthouse. We've damn near seen and heard it all and half our friends are either courthouse folk or local law enforcement. We get all the latest crime briefs... which I love! Did I mention I hate thieves?

[zarn02]

[Goat_Herder]

That's an awesome story.    Thanks for sharing.

[Duc Buz]

Good eye, and instinct.
Thieves f'ing suck.

[elgallo73]

Thanks for sharing this, I'm sure that young Marine is very grateful...

[Greg]

Awesome 

[live2ride]

I wish there were more of these stories and less of the "help my bike is stolen."

i've had a bike stolen from me.  moved to a new city (jersey city, nj) and decided to get insurance even though it was $1400 for the year.  I figured i'll have the insurance while i ponder about it and decide if its even worth having a bike in a city.  i had bought the bike for only $3000.  2 weeks later, bike is stolen.  found 1 week after that.  went to the impound to check it out and noticed there was a key in the ignition.  that was odd considering i had brought all 3 keys with me that day to the impound and were in my pocket.  pull out the key and it looks like crap.  match it to my keys and it looks similar but almost hand made.  its as if it was filed down by hand.  but put it in the ignition and it starts the bike.  these sly fools made a copy somehow and stole the bike during a rain storm.  i was pissed at the time.  they stole the plastics and headlights off the r6 so it was totaled.  in part, if they were bound to steal it, i'm sort of happy it was stolen within weeks of moving there, not months later after i had sunk a boatload of money into insurance.

luckily, i got my insurance money and bought a ducati.   so happy ending to a sad story.

[Scotzman]

Crazy, especially since I live in Murrieta, who would of thought, but desperate times...

[justinrhenry]

what kind of stupid person would steal a bike and then hang around until the cops arrive?   

[Hellraising-vtec]

damn just awesomeeeee 

[redxblack]

what kind of stupid person would steal a bike and then hang around until the cops arrive?   

Meth is a hell of a drug

[meanmonster]

Good story, glad they got the punk. Smooth and quick thinking on the guys part.

Never worry about mine getting stolen the very large 1/2 wolf dog (she's scary looking, likes to kill things but really loves people) I have seems to deter people from coming on my property.

[IZ]

That story sounds familiar to my experience up in Seattle a few years back. 

Working in the garage late night and watched neighbors bike roll on down the hill with the bike off.    A big truck followed him.  "Hmmm..that looked really suspicious".  Immediately called the cops.  Next day posted on local site and member said the bike was parked downtown.  Yup..the bike was stolen but was retrieved for neighbor.         

[duc996]

Glad there's still people like you who cares! good job