The war on sportbike Thieves

[Genesis]

I don't use a disc lock, but I've found a locking hitchpin through the rotor is effective and cheap (my two favorite words). I keep the pin in a pouch under the seat, and the pouch goes over the gauges when the front wheel is locked up. This makes it harder to forget about the lock!

that is a great idea

[old_school]

Hey guys!

So let me tell you a sad story with a twist...

Last year (may 2012) my son took my 2005 R1 to school with him in Philly. It was the end of the year and he would be coming home in a few weeks.. He had a gaint chain and each link was 1/4 inch thick, he also took front and rear rotor locks. The owner of the brownstone he was living in had an eye bolt in the concrete that she used to chain her Vespa to. Which would be used to secure the the bike.. I was OK with all of the above and let him take the bike.

Well you guessed it, the bike was stolen in a day. The only thing left was a cut eye bolt coming out of the concrete.. Reported this to the Philly police, they took the report but gave no hope he bike would be recovered. they told him there were a large number of bike being stolen in Philly.. To top it off, as many of you know I upgraded from an 3k R6 to a 6k R1 but never upgraded the insurance to include theft. So a completed loss. Nothing to do but search C-list for parts to find the bike


Fast forward a year.- My son is running down Kelly drive in Philly, 6 blocks from where the bike was stolen.. He sees a black R1 Raven that looks like his bike, The two brothers exhaust catches his eye. As he gets closer he sees some familiar stickers on the bike.. The maintenance sticker from Edison bike shop, the slightly bent front brake lever, the ball tip broken off the foot peg.. He is pretty sure this is it! He approaches the guy excited and sez "Wow that 's a nice bike! Interested in selling it?". He starts a conversations they talk for a while the guy is kinda interested but reluctant. The bike has PA plates and he is riding it (how is that possible?). After a 15 minute conversation they exchange contact info and the guy said I will txt you. He rides away and my son calls the Philly police. The guy only goes a few blocks and stops to talk to a group of teens.. the police won't come and referrer him to the theft devision.. (WTF???).

A day goes by no call from the Philly police.. The guy texts him and wants to sell the bike. They agree on a price but after a test ride.. (ps , he is no fool and sez no rides without money in my hand).. My son calls the theft division again and gets through to a detective that tells him to come in and give him the details. Within a day, they setup a time to test drive the bike and to make the sale. The cops are there with him including a detective that rolls up with him in his truck.. As soon as the guy handed over the bike keys the officers identified themselves.. They checked the VIN it didn't match our bike?? (my son is thinking, oh shit I was wrong??) the guy produce a title for a 2003 R1 that matches the frame plate.. The number is ground off the frame which makes the detective dig more the start pulling engine parts and find my VIN number stamped on a few components. They use a solution on the ground frame number that shows My Vin.. He is arrested for possession of stolen property...


After some investigation he bought a frame and title and was also charged with tampering with a frame and forgery of a title ( holy shit) .. There is a court date set in August .. Anyway the Philly police really were on their game when he got to the right people.. After a week in impound, we have the bike back! I have to take in to the PA state police to get the Vin cleared and restamped (that'll impact resale value I'm sure)

so other than putting the plastics back on poorly after doing the frame work and loosing some bolts.. The bike is in the same shape it was in, which is pretty good! He even replaced a cracked tail plastics..

So, some hope for those who have also had bikes stolen! I was never expecting to see that bike again and now she is back in my garage.. (ps, my son bought me a Tag watch to make up for the stolen bike. I'm not giving it back!)

[GreyImport]

Thats a great story ! ... and a great outcome

Thankfully the police got off their asses and followed it up

[cntryboy85]

My cousin has a 05 R6. He lives in kind of a country part of town and had his bike in the car port behind the house under a dust cover because he had wrecked his other bike and broke his ankle about 3 weeks prior to this. I was home on leave he had called me to ask me to come help him with some stuff that he couldn't do with a broke ankle. I get to the house pull up behind the house and look in the car port. The dust cover is there but his helmet and bike are both missing but his truck is there. Now he is extremely protective of this bike (he won't even let me ride it and I have been ridding linger than he has) I walk in the house and he is sitting in the living room . I ask where his bike is of he sold it or let some one ride it cause I was getting jealous I wanted to take it out see as I am thinking about going to the R6. He tells me no its in the garage. Come to find out it had been stolen while he was not even 100 feet from it. He had an idea of who did it land called the cops to report it their exact words "we can take the report and understand your suspicion but unless we have hard evidence we e can't go on their property and search for it." So he calls few friends together and we take a ride to see of we see it. Sure enough he sees what looks like his bike being taken apart outside the guys house they already have it on stands both tires are off half the plastics are sitting in boxes. Me and friends get out of the truck I walk up to bike key in hand put it in and it starts right up. This caused a big fight meanwhile during the fight my cousin is on the phone with the cops telling them we found the bike and that it was being taken apart and that there was a fight going on. By the time the cops got there a few of us were bleeding and on of the guys that was stripping the bike had a broke jaw and cracked ribs. The cops show up and Vin check and sure enough its his bike. As they are searching the guys and their house they find 5 other missing bike frames or parts of the bikes along with guns and one of the guys in the fight had a loaded 9MM in his belt. Glad we got the bike back but the cops told us that we could be charged for doing nwhat we did. But luckally my family has been in the area for generations and my step dad is good friends with the county judge so after a phone call and stern talking to from him they let us go. All in all the bike was missing a total of about 4 hours and was about 1\4 of the way taken apart when we got there. That weekend we got it out of impound and put it back together they had stripped off 2 bolts but that was all of the damage so he got lucky and i finally got my ride. Looking back now I realize how stupid it was to go into that situation not knowing what they had on them. And probably would never do it again but I was young and dumb and had more courage than brains at the time. The cops told my cousin after they talked to the thieves that they were working with shops in Houston and Dallas Texas that they would steal the bikes strip them there and put the parts in cars and trucks drive a few hours up the road where the shops would resale anything that didn't have a Vin stamp...ie engine internals, body work, seats lights and such then they would cut the frames up and sale them as scrap metals. Turns out 4 guys walked up to the house with a device they made and had one that fit different models of bikes attached it to his bike and just walked down the driveway with it. Once they got to the end of the driveway they pushed it a down the road a little stuck it in a van and pulled away. Since then he has made some changes to the house and the arrangement of the living room. He now has a full garage where it just used to be a car port, there is a chime that any time you pass under the lense it chimes in the house, he has rearanged the way the living room is situated before when he sat in his chair his back was to the driveway now he sits next to the window that looks out. And parks his truck in front the garage door so that if he wants to take the bike out he has to either come through the house. Kinda impossible seeing as you have to go up the steps and through the very small laundry room and brown the back steps or move the truck. And to this this happened I. A place where when I was growing up we never locked our doors half the time my dad didn't even take the keys out of the truck. Just shows where we live now.

[CadburysBoost600]

Don't ever waste your money on a D lock, they get busted open by a scissor jack in less than a minute.

In the UK, the common method of theft is 2 blokes, 2 scaffold poles, and straight in the back of a van , usually a freezer van to deaden the sound of any alarm.

The best think to do, is insure it against theft, put a decent chain on it, and remember it's just a lump of metal and plastic. Don't stress about it all the time and get on with your life. No point turning your house /garage into Fort Knox

[old_school]

My bike was in Philly on a very busy street. It's was parked on the sidewalk next to my sons apartment with a chain that was 3/4 of and inch thick they cut through that with a portable grinder in less than a few minutes I'm assuming they had a dolly to roll the front and rear wheel . When we got the bike back, the front and rear rotor locks where not in place and I don't think they replaced the rotors. So either they cut them off or my son may not be telling me the truth about them being on the bike.