Stolen bikes, 2 home

[dragnusa]

Had a great fathers day doing stuff with my kids and working on my build off bike, until I went to show a friend a bike he might be interested in. And it wasnt where it had been so I got to looking around and some one came onto my property a stole 3 bikes, a murray mountain bike, the green dyno air I got a couple weeks ago, and an occ chopper my daughter liked to ride around. Yes I flip bikes but I have never turned someone away that couldn't afford even 30 bucks for a bike so if someone needed a bike I would work with them to get them on a bike. It pisses me off that someone would steal from someone else instead of just asking.

 

[Bicycle808]

Stealing, in general, is obviously wrong and pretty disgusting all around. However, I think that stealing bikes is one of the lowest forms of theft, I guess b/c for many ppl, a bike was the fist thing of actual value that we have stolen from us in childhood. I despise thievery in all its forms, but there's a special xxxtra low place for bike thieves.

 

[Nagant]

Really saddens me to read your post. Especially since one of the bikes your daughter rode. Sure it's not the one worth the most but stealing a kids bike is extra low IMO. I hope you get them back and that the police catch the person that did it.

 

[B607]

My brother and I had our StingRays stolen more than once back in the late 60's. My dad had good homeowners insurance so we'd just go down and buy another one. I had 3 new StingRays and my brother had 4. All the same, stripped down J38's. My brother ended up buying one of his stolen StingRays back from the police auction for $7! Gary

 

[mikeeebikey]

At one time most states allowed horse thieves to be shot in the back. Civilized laws may have got the laws concerning iron horses wrong!

 

[dragnusa]

You would think in a small town they wouldnt have went for bikes that stand out. Im figuring it was kids or druggies and not someone that knows alot about bikes because there was our Trek 820 and our rockhopper just feet away from the one bike. Needless to say right now my garage has bikes stacked to the roof. Well more than normal. One upside My oldest boy and I got in about 10 miles last night riding around seeing if we could spot any of them.

 

[heartlandcruisers]

i too despise thieves especially those who steal from kids.
i think we should do like china and chop their hands off if they are caught stealing.
i always run the serial number on any bicycle i may buy with the local pd
if they say it was reported stolen then i tell them where the bicycle can be found and who is n possession of it .
thieves are truly the lowest form of carbon base their is
Sean

 

[dragnusa]

I agree sean. Most I get are bikes people don't want any more or are damaged or i get them from thrift stores and scrap yards. but have had a couple over the years that seemed sketchy and I passed on them and let the police know. Looking into a place to store all my bikes we don't ride through my work.

 

[dragnusa]

A little worse for wear but 2 bikes are back. Still missing the dyno

 

[dragnusa]

Heres some pics of the chopper we got back. With its new custom paint lol.
Brush painted front fender.

white paint on the bottom tube

They even started sanding the frame for me, wasn't they so nice

Well since the kid decided to add his custom touches to the bike me and my daughter are going to turn it into a full blow project, were going to strip it down and redo it in hot pink and black. I gave the kid a chance to tell me the truth on how he got it and here's how it went.

Me: how did you get this bike? (knowing the truth already)
Him: I traded my dr pepper bike and $25 for it with a guy in the next town over.
The guy had started painting it a couple weeks ago before I got it from him.
Me: Ok why is the paint still soft then.
Him: It should be dry, You can have it any ways my dad had to replace the chain on it already and it keeps coming off.
Me: (looking at the chain) So how many chains did he have to use?
Him: just one
Me: (loading bike in work van) So tell me again how you got the bike 2 weeks when it was in my yard last week?
Him: turned and walked away

 

[Bicycle808]

Not trying to defend the thief, but more just trying to hold out some hope for the world: At least the thief was a kid. Doesn't make it right, but at least we can hope he's still learning, and he's hopefully learned some shame from this. Dragnusa, I think you handled it right by making it obvious that you know he stole the bikes without really laying into him.

Now, imagine how it'd be if it was just some junkie. Yeah, I know junkies are still learning, too, and junkies have chances at redemption, kinda like how thief kids do... but I've known a lot of kids and I've known a lot of junkies. It's easier to hold out hope for the kids.

I'm stoked that you got 2 out of the 3 bikes back; I'm willing to bet that if the same kid doesn't have the Dyno, he knows who does. It's hard for kids to pull off multi-bike heists without assistance from other thieves.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

me and my daughter are going to turn it into a full blow project, were going to strip it down and redo it in hot pink and black.

Awesome! The perfect way to turn a bad experience into a good one!

Luke.

 

[Flying Zombie]

Kid needs a hobby.

 

[dragnusa]

Kid needs a hobby.

This kids hobby will be leaning on jail cell bars before long, since this he has been busted stealing from WM and tampering with a bike then after I fixed it and got it back to the owner it magically came up missing and all clues are pointing to the same kid. It's pretty sad

 

[Flying Zombie]

One of those Career Criminals.. about as successful as Infamy gets, it sounds like.. Idiots.. It hurts to know we share air with people who waste it feeding brain-cells to motivate this sort of thing.

 

[Wildcat]

There's probably still hope for getting the Dyno back.