Offshoreonly.com - OT Best theft recovery story

Went trail riding with a friend. Drove to LBL and unloaded equipment. I fired up his machine and took off on it. I was riding his brand new '81 250R 3-wheeler on a flat-out wheelie in 5th gear on a gravel access road. I was trying to freak him out by dragging the rear grab barin the gravel at 50 plus. It worked... While the bar was dragging, it snagged a buried rock and sent me and the Honda for a nasty bunch of cartwheeling. Pulled the rock halfway out of the dirt (it was a big sucker). Since we had not yet put on our riding gear, I had on shorts, tennis shoes, no shirt (I was wearing a helmet).

I had gravel buried in every inch of my exposed flesh. We loaded back up and he drove my Blazer while I laid on the back seat groaning. He occasionally shot a stream of Bactine on me (probably more to hear me scream than to help out). My family was out of town, so I went to his house so his Mom could dig rocks out of my back. I ended up spending the night in the guest room. My YZ250 was on the trailer in the driveway.

During the night, somebody stole my bike off the trailer. It was simply gone. No idea who could have gotten it.

Reported it stolen. Had no insurance on it. Filled out police reports, etc.

Got high school kids to try to find out the lowdown.

Two weeks later, I got a letter in the mail with a postmark from the next county. It was typed.

It said:

"Your bike is under a tarp behind the woodpile at "xyz" "so and so road". There are leaves piled on the tarp. The back fender is torn off so there is a $20 and a $10 bill stuffed into the exhaust pipe in a plastic bag. Please do not try to prosecute. We did not kow the bike was yours."

I went to the address, the bike was there. Loaded it up and ordered a new fender (which was a little less than the $30 that was left for me).

It was not long before a kid told me who had taken the bike. It was a kid who used to come with his dad and watch us race mx. The kid had never seen my Yamaha cause I was racing a Honda at the time and the Yamaha was my woods bike. I never let him know that I knew it was him.

YEARS later his daughter and my daughter ended up playing on the same soccer team. At a team barbecue I handed him three dollars. He looked confused. I told him that the rear fender for the Yamaha only cost $27. He turned purple and started stuttering. I told him not to worry, but that he owed me one...

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Another time when I was a teenager, I had gotten to where I thought it was cool to hop out of my CJ5 and leave it running while I went into a market for a soda or something (401 V8 with side pipes).

One day while I was at the checkout line with a Zinger and a YooHoo, I heard my Jeep drive off. I freaked. Ran outside. Off it went...

I came back in to get somebody to call the cops. A minute later, my neighbor came walking in. He asked me what was wrong. I told him about the Jeep. He smirked. He led me to the door and said - you mean THAT one?

My Jeep was out there off to the side parked next to his car. He had coasted back into the parking lot with the motor off. He told me that he'd seen me leave it running several times and figured it was a good time to teach me a lesson.

Lesson learned.

(although I almost had an aneurism tonight - wife and kids picked me up at the office and we went into Nashville for a good steak. As we came back and started to turn on my office road for me to get my car, I reached into my pocket to get my keys. They weren't there. I went all electric as I realized that I had left my SL500 parked in the front of the building UNLOCKED with the keys IN THE IGNITION. I didn't say a word but went all stiff. Turned the corner - up the street - there she sits... Won't do that again.)