Foiled Bike Stealing at Patriot Harley Bike Show or dumb a$$ criminals part one…
So, this Saturday (yesterday) I was down at Patriot Harley Davidson in Virginia where an open house and bike show was just ending up the day. It was approximately 5:00 pm in the afternoon, and even though the bike show was over, there were many people still gathered “chilling out” checking out all the great bikes on display, and just lingering around.
While walking into the front doors of the store I noticed (amongst the rest of the guys) a loud Road King that was getting ready to pull into traffic from the Patriot parking lot. This bike stalled, and as if in slow motion it went down on it’s right side (on the engine guards and saddle bag guards).
After looking at the rider (obviously in-experienced and pretty young looking to boot) someone mentioned amongst the muffled laughs that he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Kinda odd I thought (helmet laws in Virginia and Maryland) as I saw three guys slowly walking over to help the rider get his bike back up, while he was unsuccessfully (although frantically) trying to get the bike back up on his own. So, I just imaged another rich dude who purchased a Road King, who had it fully “chromed out” and brought it to the show even though he couldn’t ride the damn thing attempting to impress some folks with the power of his wallet and maybe collect a trophy.
After a few minutes in the store, I came back out to see the bike rider (who looked very young and not quite the “typical” Harley Owner) was standing looking very bummed out with a few guys surrounding him next to the bike that he just laid down. I slowly walked to the other side of the bike expecting to see some major damage, because the look on this young man showed he was very stressed (sad, bummed out, f^ck3d, etc.).
To my surprise, the bike had little damage at all, in-fact other than maybe a twisted foot peg on the engine guard, the bike looked fine!
It was at this moment that I saw a police cruiser pull into the parking lot while a man standing next to the young “would be” bike rider motioned him over.
Ah, so it makes sense now as I listened to the people around me speaking. The young bike rider was attempting to steal the motorcycle, and while at the stop light, stalled it out and tipped it over. While trying to right it back up, (to hop back on and pull away) someone noticed that it was the BIKE OF THE OWNER OF THE PATRIOT HARLEY DAVIDSON STORE with whom he was attempting to take off with.
Moral of the story? Even at a bike show, a simple locking of the ignition is all that is needed to keep someone from riding away on your mount. If this idiot could ride, that bike would be stripped down by now with the frame rusting in some corn field in Manassas.
So, this Saturday (yesterday) I was down at Patriot Harley Davidson in Virginia where an open house and bike show was just ending up the day. It was approximately 5:00 pm in the afternoon, and even though the bike show was over, there were many people still gathered “chilling out” checking out all the great bikes on display, and just lingering around.
While walking into the front doors of the store I noticed (amongst the rest of the guys) a loud Road King that was getting ready to pull into traffic from the Patriot parking lot. This bike stalled, and as if in slow motion it went down on it’s right side (on the engine guards and saddle bag guards).
After looking at the rider (obviously in-experienced and pretty young looking to boot) someone mentioned amongst the muffled laughs that he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Kinda odd I thought (helmet laws in Virginia and Maryland) as I saw three guys slowly walking over to help the rider get his bike back up, while he was unsuccessfully (although frantically) trying to get the bike back up on his own. So, I just imaged another rich dude who purchased a Road King, who had it fully “chromed out” and brought it to the show even though he couldn’t ride the damn thing attempting to impress some folks with the power of his wallet and maybe collect a trophy.
After a few minutes in the store, I came back out to see the bike rider (who looked very young and not quite the “typical” Harley Owner) was standing looking very bummed out with a few guys surrounding him next to the bike that he just laid down. I slowly walked to the other side of the bike expecting to see some major damage, because the look on this young man showed he was very stressed (sad, bummed out, f^ck3d, etc.).
To my surprise, the bike had little damage at all, in-fact other than maybe a twisted foot peg on the engine guard, the bike looked fine!
It was at this moment that I saw a police cruiser pull into the parking lot while a man standing next to the young “would be” bike rider motioned him over.
Ah, so it makes sense now as I listened to the people around me speaking. The young bike rider was attempting to steal the motorcycle, and while at the stop light, stalled it out and tipped it over. While trying to right it back up, (to hop back on and pull away) someone noticed that it was the BIKE OF THE OWNER OF THE PATRIOT HARLEY DAVIDSON STORE with whom he was attempting to take off with.
Moral of the story? Even at a bike show, a simple locking of the ignition is all that is needed to keep someone from riding away on your mount. If this idiot could ride, that bike would be stripped down by now with the frame rusting in some corn field in Manassas.
