So back in late August I had my dirt bike stolen out of my garage in Canyon, Tx. I had no video footage of the guys and nor did any of my neighbors. I bought the bike without a title (It is a 2004 Honda 250x) so I figured it was good as gone. I filed a police report anyways and they didn't have any luck finding it but left the investigation open.

Fast forward to today and I found it on FB Marketplace for sale in Amarillo. I called the Canyon Police Department and all they said was "We will look into it" but, didn't seem too interested. I gave them the guy's address I got from messaging him about another bike he has for sale. After looking up his name he has a warrant out for a traffic violation but that's all I can find. I can prove ownership due to pictures I have of the bike from when I bought it and there are very specific aftermarket parts on it. I also called the Amarillo stolen vehicles department and they seemed way more interested than the Canyon Police did. At the time I didn't have his address but they said if I could get it to let them know but they are closed right now.

Is there anything else I should do? I'm not going to drive up and take the bike back because my life isn't worth a $2500 dirt bike but I would like it back.

Paging CanyonAg.
And get a rope. Thieves Suck.

If he's in Amarillo, call Amarillo police and let them know.

I did, they directed me to the stolen vehicles department.

Tell the guy you want to buy it. Have an Uber drop you off at his house and insist on taking it for a test ride around the block. Ride it off into the sunset.

Picard said:

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Tell the guy you want to buy it. Have an Uber drop you off at his house and insist on taking it for a test ride around the block. Ride it off into the sunset.

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Exactly. What's the guy going to do?

Call the police on a dirt bike that he stole.

I can here now. 911 what's your emergency?

Caller: Yeah someone stole my dirt bike that I stole a few weeks ago.

If probably walk into the police department with proof that he has it and not leave until they sent someone out there.

Before we do that, how do we know this is the guy that stole it?

Picard said:

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Tell the guy you want to buy it. Have an Uber drop you off at his house and insist on taking it for a test ride around the block. Ride it off into the sunset.

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This would be the way to go.. the guy selling it has something to do with the theft .. he wouldn't just be reselling it .. test drive it, take it to your hauling trailer and go back home!

BrazosDog02 said:

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Before we do that, how do we know this is the guy that stole it?

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Decent chance he didn't steal it. It's not often thieves steal and then wait a year to dump it.

Doesn't mean you can't get it back. You'll have to do a property hearing and prove it, but if you have proof and a police report that it was stolen then you have a great shot. Then they can ask who he got it from.

Mas89 said:

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Paging CanyonAg.
And get a rope. Thieves Suck.

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Out of town for a while

rather be fishing said:

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If probably walk into the police department with proof that he has it and not leave until they sent someone out there.

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This is why I would do

I've been working with the Amarillo Stolen Vehicle Department to try and get it back. I have a meeting with the guy at 3:30 to look at two bikes. Mine and another one. I'm still waiting to hear back from the department on what they want to do but they sound like they want to get it.

Regarding the test drive and drive off strategy, That's too risky to do in the North side of Amarillo. Not saying that it couldn't be done but the risks out weigh the reward for me.

Plus if you've been calling him from your phone and not a burner - he is able to calibrate you.

Plus already knows where you live

If you really want it back - just buy it from him

I haven't been calling him but just using FB Messenger so he can't track me that way but like you said, I'm sure he knows where I live.

It looks like the guy runs some sort of ATV chop shop judging by the background of the pictures. But the address he sent me doesn't look like it's the chop shop. Now I'm just waiting to hear what the Police want me to do.

Police work and prosecution takes work, and for any number of reasons police departments all over aren't seriously pursuing a lot of property crimes. I watched a presentation by a PD of one of the municipalities near San Antonio recently. They had a rash of burglaries on storage units. They gathered enough information from the victims to start finding the items for sale on social media. The perp lived in San Antonio outside their jurisdiction. SAPD was too busy to help or whatever, so they got authorization to surveil the guy and get a search warrant on their own outside their jurisdiction. The perp was stealing to pay for his drug habit, and his house looked like an episode of Hoarders. They caught the guy because they had resources and worked at it.

Update

The Chief of Police for Canyon is going to meet me at my office at 3pm and we are going to go to the meeting with the guy at 3:30.

That's how I got a stolen Polaris Ranger back many years ago. It had been 1-2 years, buddy saw it on Craigslist, cops met up with us and we went and got it back. Guy swore he was not the one that stole it.

Burdizzo said:

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Police work and prosecution takes work, and for any number of reasons police departments all over aren't seriously pursuing a lot of property crimes. I watched a presentation by a PD of one of the municipalities near San Antonio recently. They had a rash of burglaries on storage units. They gathered enough information from the victims to start finding the items for sale on social media. The perp lived in San Antonio outside their jurisdiction. SAPD was too busy to help or whatever, so they got authorization to surveil the guy and get a search warrant on their own outside their jurisdiction. The perp was stealing to pay for his drug habit, and his house looked like an episode of Hoarders. They caught the guy because they had resources and worked at it.

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Catching property thieves generates zero revenue and is less important than public safety for reelection campaigns. Therefore, property crime will never be a priority for PDs.

StockHorseAg said:

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Is there anything else I should do? I'm not going to drive up and take the bike back because my life isn't worth a $2500 dirt bike but I would like it back.

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This is not a criticism, because I would do the exact same thing. I just can't help but wonder what's the greater detriment to the current state of affairs, police inaction or civilian apathy, and how much those two things are connected.

At the end of the day, *******s will act like *******s until someone steps up and makes them act differently. I hope you get your stuff back. Sounds like law enforcement is coming through for you.

StockHorseAg said:

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I haven't been calling him but just using FB Messenger so he can't track me that way but like you said, I'm sure he knows where I live.

It looks like the guy runs some sort of ATV chop shop judging by the background of the pictures. But the address he sent me doesn't look like it's the chop shop. Now I'm just waiting to hear what the Police want me to do.

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Check the appraisal district website to see if he owns any property that could be the location of the chop shop. If the cops are looking for something to do, you could suggest that they could execute a search warrant at the same time you are looking at the bike. Could be a way to recover a bunch of other stolen vehicles before his buddies move all the stolen stuff somewhere else.

Make sure you get video of you and the Chief going to collect the bike and post it here.

aggieforester05 said:

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Burdizzo said:

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Police work and prosecution takes work, and for any number of reasons police departments all over aren't seriously pursuing a lot of property crimes. I watched a presentation by a PD of one of the municipalities near San Antonio recently. They had a rash of burglaries on storage units. They gathered enough information from the victims to start finding the items for sale on social media. The perp lived in San Antonio outside their jurisdiction. SAPD was too busy to help or whatever, so they got authorization to surveil the guy and get a search warrant on their own outside their jurisdiction. The perp was stealing to pay for his drug habit, and his house looked like an episode of Hoarders. They caught the guy because they had resources and worked at it.

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Catching property thieves generates zero revenue and is less important than public safety for reelection campaigns. Therefore, property crime will never be a priority for PDs.

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And here is what I keep trying to tell my neighbors..

My property taxes pay for the cops to stop property crime. At one point they had almost doubled in ten years. Yet the individual cops didn't get a double salary, and I didn't see double the officers in my neighborhood. Property crime continued to increase, nonetheless. What is the city doing with the extra money we are paying?

My neighbors then look at me like I am a conspiracy theorist, turn around, and drive their kids to soccer practice.

It's buying cool toys and big fancy police buildings.

Picard said:

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Tell the guy you want to buy it. Have an Uber drop you off at his house and insist on taking it for a test ride around the block. Ride it off into the sunset.

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I had a friend from college do this. Her car was stolen, and she was driving a rental. One day she is driving through a neighborhood and see's her car in a driveway. She parks the rental a few blocks away, walks back, gets in her car, and drives home with it. Went back and got the rental later in the day.

StockHorseAg said:

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Update

The Chief of Police for Canyon is going to meet me at my office at 3pm and we are going to go to the meeting with the guy at 3:30.

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This is the type of stuff I come to the OB for!!

IN!!!

StockHorseAg said:

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Update

The Chief of Police for Canyon is going to meet me at my office at 3pm and we are going to go to the meeting with the guy at 3:30.

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The OB knows stuff! And I guess the chief of police does too.

OB delivers, again.

StockHorseAg said:

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Update

The Chief of Police for Canyon is going to meet me at my office at 3pm and we are going to go to the meeting with the guy at 3:30.

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Canyon PD are good people. As is Randall County SO. WTAMU is rated one of the safest campuses in the nation. I think it's been 3-5 years since we had a murder in town

Late to the party, but IN

Texmid said:

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Make sure you get video of you and the Chief going to collect the bike and post it here.

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If you can, please make sure the video is not vertical.

Seriously, good luck. I'm interested to see how this goes.

CE Lounge Lizzard said:

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Texmid said:

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Make sure you get video of you and the Chief going to collect the bike and post it here.

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If you can, please make sure the video is not vertical.

Seriously, good luck. I'm interested to see how this goes.

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Badge cam view would work as well.

Josepi said:

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Picard said:

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Tell the guy you want to buy it. Have an Uber drop you off at his house and insist on taking it for a test ride around the block. Ride it off into the sunset.

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I had a friend from college do this. Her car was stolen, and she was driving a rental. One day she is driving through a neighborhood and see's her car in a driveway. She parks the rental a few blocks away, walks back, gets in her car, and drives home with it. Went back and got the rental later in the day.

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Friend of mine had his daughter ghost him and start running around with some sketchy dude. Sad situation. She just stopped going to her parents for anything, holidays, birthdays, etc. She was still driving a car that was in their names and under their insurance. They called the police whose response was there was nothing they could do since she was an adult. However, since they owned the car they had every right to go retrieve it from sketchy dude's driveway, which they did. Ghost daughter was very unhappy when that happened.

Interesting.


Always wondered what I would do in this situation

Awwww

She had to get a lesson in being an adult.