I lose one, gain one, and find a thief’s hideout.

So I come across a lady advertising a 1000 LTD parts bike on offerup. She tells me this was her Fathers race bike back from when they lived on the South side of Chicago. According to her he had bought it new and she assures me she has the title, but she won’t give me her number or an address to look at. So after 2 weeks and 23 emails I’m just about ready to give up, but at last today she directs me to a storage facility and her and her husband meet me there.

The bike is rough, has an Illinois plate from 1996 and I bet hasn’t been started in 20 years. The tires are junk and flat, it has no tank and is missing the left side cover, and you can tell the bike has been ridden hard. The wiring is completely hacked and hanging down both sides of the bike and you can tell by the Permatex all over the base gaskets and cam covers it’s been apart numerous times, and the jugs are covered with oil like it had a blown head gasket. Then she tells me her Dad won a bunch of bikes racing title for title back in the old days, and starts pulling out title after title to prove it.

The thing has an air shifter, rear air shocks, what looks like a big MSD ignition module under the seat and dome pistons that look really clean. Judging by how far the valves open it has a big cam. The old Kerker 4-1 header has no baffles, its painted flat black and it’s bent on the end of the cone. It also has some kind of aftermarket aluminum racing spoke wheels. I chop her asking price in half, she counters and we agree on a price. When she goes to her book of titles, as you may have suspected, the title for this bike is not there.

At this point I figure the deal is poisoned but here is where it gets weird. I do a lot of volunteer work for a veteran’s charity that collects furniture and gives it away to needy Vet’s. About 2 months ago I put a hidden camera in our collection truck because I suspect the Board President and Vice President are stealing the donations. And boy were they ever. I get video after video of these two selling donations and keeping the money. I turned all the information to the cops then and told those two dirt bags to hit the road, but so far nothing has happened to them. So… while the wife is looking for the title I’m BS’ing with the husband and tell him about our charity. He looks at me and say’s “The guy with the locker next to us does the same thing.” He gives me the guy’s name, and lo and behold it’s our former board President! He just gave me the location where those two have been keeping the cherry picked stolen items until they could find a buyer! What do you think the odds are of that happening? I can’t even begin to calculate that. I was just glad I had a witness with me or I would hardly believe it myself. Monday morning LE is getting that information.

And just as I thought, after waiting 2 hours for these people to return after they left to look for the title, she gives me some story on the phone about another storage locker were it might be but she can’t get to it for two weeks, and how she doesn’t really need the money right away, but she will sell it to me on a Bill of Sale. I told her No Thanks on the BOS but if she finds the title I’m still a player on it. When I get home I notice she’s dropped the price on her ad and is now advertising it as BOS only. But by this point I’m thinking maybe the whole thing wasn’t about the bike, but being “led” to the thief’s storage.

But this is where the icing goes on the cake. I’ve been looking for a 900 for a long long time that doesn’t have a sky high asking price. 3 days ago I found a LTD 900 at a fair price online with an email only contact on the ad. I emailed him on Thursday but didn’t hear back so I’m thinking “Another online flake” but I sent him another email this morning before I left to look at the 1000. Almost as soon as those people drove away to “look for the title”, the guy with the 900 calls me and we do a deal. I should have the 900 by Wednesday. Keeping my fingers crossed with a big smile on my face.

We detest thieves. Stealing from Veterans is scumbag low. Hope you can get the thieves prosecuted. Karma can be a heartless _itch.

Thanks for assisting our Veterans! Karma can also be a loving mistress.

Good luck on the 900.


Good Ridin'
slmjim &Z1BEBE

What a crazy story... it's like right out of Pulp Fiction, or even a Seinfeld episode. Hope the 900 works out!

and I hope those scumbag thieves get what's coming.

i heard the Canadian national bike run and veterans charity run has been don away with because of skimming. I wonder if they are all in bed with each other

What a crazy story... it's like right out of Pulp Fiction, or even a Seinfeld episode. Hope the 900 works out!

and I hope those scumbag thieves get what's coming.

Kind of the way I felt too. The guy with me was also a volunteer for the charity and now knows what those two thieves were doing. When the seller told us that, we just looked at each other like "Did that really just happen?"

I've been losing faith that LE is going to anything, despite having a disc with the recordings of the thieves in action and a lot of detailed information I put together for them, like a present wrapped with a bow. I now believe the whole incident with the KZ seller is beyond coincidence, and have some renewed hope that "someone" is watching.

As to your question dkoz, In the course of my own investigation I found another veteran's charity run by a housewife with a sob story and a crooked lawyer and that has a lot of supporters is in on it too, AND a big shot with an old, nationwide Fraternal organization with a special branch for veteran's assistance is also involved. It was a much deeper operation than I thought. Super disappointing and a big eye opener. Please, continue to support charity causes, but do your homework as best as you can first.

It is the lowest of the low to steal from charities. It's stealing from people who are already hurting, and need it the most. It shocks me that people can bring themselves to steal from Toys for Tots, but it has happened more than once. If LE goes nowhere, maybe a story in the local paper, with names, would be another route. Hopefully that embarrasses the police into doing something. You can also try to go to the local prosecutor, since really, you already did all the police work, short of the arrest. I wonder if they are going to try to say the video is not usable since they didn't know they were being recorded?

I wonder if they are going to try to say the video is not usable since they didn't know they were being recorded?

I got lucky on that loudhvx. I made arrangements with a private donor (who is also a good friend) who put up the funds for our truck acquisition. Because I was already suspicious of those two, we put the title of the truck in a Trust, rather than in the NFP Corporations name. Since the truck where the recordings were made was titled in the private trust, rather than the NFP Corporation, they were completely legal. Believe me, I retained a big shot law firm before I went to LE to answer that very question, because had the truck been in the NFP corp's name, I could have been facing a 5 year prison sentence and a big fine for making illegal recordings.

When the SHTF the crooked lawyer I mentioned above tried to threaten me with that, and it gave me so much satisfaction to laugh at him. When I explained to him who actually owned the truck, it was like letting the air out of a balloon. He knew he was scre^^^^^. Priceless.