12/26/2018 7:41 PM
Edited Date/Time: 12/26/2018 7:48 PM
I did on Christmas of 2009. I got up to my mothers house late night Christmas Eve and didn't have a ramp to unload the thing from the back of my truck. I had it locked in and to my truck like Fort Knox and my mother lives at the end of a dead end road nextdoor to a police officer, but if a thief wants something, they're going to get it. The unnerving part of it all is that I am pretty sure they must have followed me to the area that my mom lives after seeing me drive into town. I later found out that they were driving around town, stealing other bikes as well. After about a week, I found the bike on Craigslist and almost caught the guys. They went silent after about a day or two of contact, so I spent days doing online detective work while trying to talk the police into helping me get it back. I later found out that a friend had contacted them and was trying to get it back for me, so I think they caught on and disappeared to cover themselves. Unfortunately, the two thieves swapped the frame before the detectives got to their residence and the owner of the frame was at the home when arrived. My motor was freshly rebuilt after the rod destroyed the cases, so there was no VIN stamped on the new ones.
You're probably thinking "the frame being swapped is unlikely." How did I know that it was mine? I lived in a small military town and the bike was a little odd. "2007 KX450F. I took off my graphics so there were no graphics on the fork guards, shrouds, or rear fender, just 205 on the number plates. Rear black Excel, front stock wheel, pretty worn rear tire. Black Renthal Twinwall Windham bends, Pro Circuit 22mm clamps, FMF Ti system- Megabomb and 4.1 anodized blue. Red engine plugs and front wheel spacers. Those things stick out the most. " The pictures that they posted on the Craigslist ad clearly showed my bike with all of the same parts, but the plastics with 205 backgrounds were removed. Additionally, I found one the guys Photobucket account and he had my pictures of my individual parts on there, probably to sell them individually online somewhere. Additionally, right after I found it, I had actually gotten messages from other people who saw the post on Racer X (thanks to Steve Matthes) about it being stolen saying that they found it on Craigslist as well.
The worst part of the whole ordeal? The police basically treated me like I was the criminal from start to finish. One of the best things that happened, however, was that a fellow boardmember and moto rider PMed me after seeing a post about it and asked for the case number. He never told me exactly what he did, but he was involved with law enforcement and had access to cases. He pulled the info up and told me exactly what happened and tried to keep me informed. Dumb mistake on my part for assuming that it would be safe for a matter of hours and I paid HEAVILY for it. I just paid if off a few years ago.