Ducati Stolen

[ChrisW]

My Multistrada was stolen from my garage sometime between late Monday
night and Thursday morning (20-23 Nov, 2006). If you see it around give me a call. Chris 650-####

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5588/2404/1600/90285/DSCN1784.jpg

All suited up for the 1 mile ride to work.

[ChrisW]

El Paso County Sheriff calls me at 5pm tonight. They have located my Ducati at the apartment residence of a drug dealer. They have me wait until they get a search warrant; they raid the place, arrest the thieves, then return my bike to me. Bike is in good shape, got the key back too. It's now back in the garage at home and the drug dealers are on their way to jail. Started with a crime stoppers tip to the extent of "there is a drug dealer in my apartment complex, and there is a black Ducati w/ yellow wheels he is keeping in the parking lot".

Sweet.

[pauliep]

score!

[Canuck]

Nice one!

[King Nothing]

SWEET!

[livinlife2themax]

Congrats!!!:bananna:

[Airreed]

consider that your lottery win!!!

[Mel]

That is awesome! Congrats!

[Nick_Ninja]

Better take the bar-ends off, along with the frame tube plugs, and be sure to check for 'new' welds and 'new' paint 'blends' ------- there still could be blow packed in the frame of that meatball express. Not that I would know anything about that type of operation :D

[64BonnieLass]

I just love happy endings. Congrats to you - it is terrific you got it back.

[~Barn~]

Hell yeah! You got your rig back w/out incident, and a bunch of drugs stuffed up in it. That's almost like..... Worth it.

:up:

[Sully]

El Paso County Sheriff calls me at 5pm tonight. They have located my Ducati at the apartment residence of a drug dealer. They have me wait until they get a search warrant; they raid the place, arrest the thieves, then return my bike to me. Bike is in good shape, got the key back too. It's now back in the garage at home and the drug dealers are on their way to jail. Started with a crime stoppers tip to the extent of "there is a drug dealer in my apartment complex, and there is a black Ducati w/ yellow wheels he is keeping in the parking lot".

Sweet.

Uhh.. where was the key ? In the bike when it was jacked ? :? Am I missing something ..... ????

[64BonnieLass]

Uhh.. where was the key ? In the bike when it was jacked ? :? Am I missing something ..... ????

Oooohhhh nice point Sully! (always thinking aren't ya?)

[ChrisW]

Yeah, they got the key because they got into my F#$ing house too.

[Sully]

Ohhhh SH*T... did they clean your house out too ?

[swademaster]

Good to hear you got it back.

[ChrisW]

Fortuantely, I just lost some tools and a couple of helmets on top of the bike.

Actually, I worked all day today and have not had a chance to charge the battery and run the thing. It still has oil in it which smells normal (not burnt or anything), but I'm going to change it out before I run it. Who knows what kind of redlining they did to the engine. Guess I'll know tomorrow.

Or maybe I'll go to the garage right now and get to work.....

[eklew]

How did they break into your house? Just want to know so we know how to better protect our homes. Glad you got your bike back too!

[(( LO LO ))]

Glad you had a happy ending to this one. I F*#king hate thieves...

[Graphics]

Yea really, that is freaking fantastic. 1 bike back where it belongs, and 1 drug dealer behind bars. SCORE :yay:

[Bassil Duwaik]

congrats on getting it back. I would hate to have anyone violate my baby.

[ChrisW]

The story continues...

I’ve been resisting getting a pet for my kids. Hate the sh!it, p!ss, pet hair,
furniture damage, expense, etc. But when a very nice stray cat starts hanging
around, I let the kids take care of it and keep it in the garage. While doing
so, they keep leaving the door next to the garage open so the beast can go in
and out.

So the door gets left open (again), and the drug user that stole my bike is
casing the neighborhood at 2am, he sees the door open, goes inside, sees the bike,
rolls it out and down the street, starts it, and is gone.

How do I know this? I know this because the thief stopped by my house Tuesday
afternoon to say he was "sorry" and that he wants to "turn his life around
and get off meth." Pretty bold move, but he was sincere; just an 18 year-old
kid, on his first offense. Says he was casing my neighborhood looking for stuff
to steal so he could buy more meth.

He tells his "Hearing on Advisement" (first appearance) is Wednesday, so
I go to the courthouse to listen in. He is charged with Aggravated Motor Vehicle
Theft in the 1st Degree, a class 4 felony with a prison term of 2 to 4 or 6 years,
I can’t remember exactly which.

So his story goes that after putting 50 or so miles on my bike, and running from
the cops on it once, he takes it to his buddy’s place (the apartment complex where
it was found) to settle a debt. His idiot buddy just leaves it in the parking lot
for weeks and weeks. The Crime Stoppers tip comes in, they run the plates, (get
this, MY plates are still on the thing), they get a warrant, raid the place,
find drugs, you know the rest of the story. Well most of it; his buddy immediately
rats him out and the cops go to his parent's house, his dad wakes him up and says
some Sheriff deputies want to talk to him, apparently he admits stealing the bike.

The bike does have some scratches and minor vandalism-type damage that I didn’t
see the night I got it back. After a full battery charge, and checking all the
fuses, the bike still shows absolutely no signs of life. Nothing in the dash
whatsoever, so it’s at the shop getting ‘analyzed’ (yeah, its Italian).

Big of the kid to stop by and say he is sorry. He also offered to pay for repairs,
but we will see about that. I’ll be at his sentencing putting in my 2 cents that
part of his punishment needs to be restitution / payment for whatever the repairs
come out to be.

What a week, next court date, Feb 26. 8:30am

[CanyonCarver]

wow that's very bold. I don't think I would do that! It would be nice if he did pay for everything

[Sully]

That's definitely ballsy... I'd probably kick the guys ass... :rant:

[denverbusa]

The kids dad who got woken up by the Police was probably hoping you would kick his ass like he should have years ago. Hopefully the kid will make good but don't hold your breath. That meth will fuck a person up. Can't tell you how many people I known that have fallen into it. Only one has made it back out and he still acts and thinks like we were back in High School. The mind just does not recover from it.

Glad the bike is home where it belongs... or hopefully will be before too long.

[ChrisW]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

More good news today as the dealer found and fixed corrosion in the wiring harness for a few hours labor. No thousand dollar Instrument Panel / Dash replacements.

Yahoo! my bike is running again...

[denverbusa]

It is awsome to hear that all is right in the world... At least your world. Three days after I posted here on your thread I had the unpleasure of writing my own thread here. Hopefully I will be as lucky.

Take care and say a prayer for my Duc.

Mark

[ChrisW]

Prayers offered for recovery of your bike. Very sorry to hear it. Drive around looking in apartment complexes, maybe they are as dumb as the guys who took my bike. :)

[denverbusa]

I've got about 50 miles in area back streets and residential parking lots. I am sure hoping it shows up.