New Member Miraculously Reunited With His Stolen Scoot!

[Impaired]

Hey dawgz!
New member here, and I got a story for you all.

So about three years ago I was a proud owner of a 2009 benelli Andretti 150xt scooter.
Bought her for $700 as she didn't run when purchased, big gamble I know, but this bike was beautiful minus a few scratches and with only 2500 miles I thought it would be a good investment.

So got it home, changed oil, changed the cvt belt, tore it to shreds and got the right size.
All she needed was some adjustment on the idle screw, LOL, got her running beautifully.

Then one day, I come home from work, and she was gone, I called my neighborhood thinking they towed it or something, but no, it was stolen.
Made a police report and basically the cops told me when these things get stolen 9/10 they never come back.

I had my bike registered, so I gave him all the info, a description the whole 9.

Fast forward almost three years later to last Saturday.
Cops pound on my door at 7am.
They found my bike! In Georgia! ( I'm in south Carolina).

Great news, I call the tow company, they're closed on Saturday.
Fast forward Monday, I call them, get some bad news.
It sat for 3 months in their indoor storage and they couldn't find the VIN number on the bike in ALL THAT TIME!
What's worse is I was stuck with all of the cost, $400!
But the bike looked great still minus a missing turn signal and a few new scratches.
It even had NEW tires on it!( they where bald when it was stolen, the reason I wasn't driving it)

So I paid up, $400 to get my bike back, drove it in a truck all the way back to sc, and started working in it.

Right off the rip, I had to buy a new ignition, $14 online, wired that up, nothing.
Battery was dead, trickle charger the battery, it wont hold a charge, cells are bad.
I got get a new battery, $90 more dollars.

Wire up new battery, she starts to try to turn, weight off my shoulders.
Put new gas in it, changed the oil, IT WAS THE COLOR OF MUD! Cleaned out the air filters and she's running like a champ.

I still have TONS of work I need to do to her, hence me signing up.
I hope you guys wont mind helping a newb get his new/old scooter back to tip top shape!
Oh and when it was stolen it had 5200 miles, got it back at 7500, so not too bad i reckon.

Sorry for the long post!

Here's a pic when I first got her back home, click to enlarge cant figure out how to resize on here.

[bandito2]

Well that is good news. Especially since it was in what could be determined as pretty good condition considering what it could have been... And now with newer tires. Returned after 1000 days in exile... Do you know the circumstances of its recovery? Was it recovered as abandoned, recovered as result of an arrest, recovered with other stolen property? That story if you could find out would be interesting.

3 years is not as long as the 33 years of a guy in Ohio recently reunited with his stolen 1968 Camaro, but still pretty amazing. Especially with a scooter... Where if it is not returned within a few months, it would be gone forever and if returned after that few months it would have been savaged, scarred, stripped and gutted if not bent and nearly completely beaten beyond recognition. A rare thing indeed. Very happy for you.

[Impaired]

Originally Posted by bandito2

Well that is good news. Especially since it was in what could be determined as pretty good condition considering what it could have been... And now with newer tires. Returned after 1000 days in exile... Do you know the circumstances of its recovery? Was it recovered as abandoned, recovered as result of an arrest, recovered with other stolen property? That story if you could find out would be interesting.

3 years is not as long as the 33 years of a guy in Ohio recently reunited with his stolen 1968 Camaro, but still pretty amazing. Especially with a scooter... Where if it is not returned within a few months, it would be gone forever and if returned after that few months it would have been savaged, scarred, stripped and gutted if not bent and nearly completely beaten beyond recognition. A rare thing indeed. Very happy for you.

Yeah for being gone that long I'm utterly surprised, when I got the call I thought I would be picking up a frame at best, and going to scrap it right after.

But she's up and running beautifully . Big smiles on my face, I just need to get a new title since I lost mine in its 3 years absence, I have all my DMV recipes for title transfer and registration so hopefully I can get the new title, the recipes where enough for the cops and tow yard to give it back to me.

so apparently

A lady was driving it, had an accident, and the bike couldn't be started on the scene so it was towed. I guess either the lady knew it was stolen, or didn't have the money to get it out of the tow.

Her name address and "accident" are on the police report, she was not arrested as I dont think they knew it was stolen AT THE TIME.
Now that the vin came up stolen im hoping I can take her to small claims court to recoup my $400 + damages?
What do you think buddy?

33 years for a missing car is amazing, wonder how it looked when it came back lol. I'd like to read that story.

Hey brother,
Could you possibly pop over to the maintence sub forum for 150cc's and check my post there, I need to find out what headlight bulbs I need for this thing, they're 35w high and low's I think so any 35w bulbs should work right?
Also should I change the gear oil? I doubt its ever been done...

Thanks for the reply man, thought this forum was dead!

[bandito2]

Here's the news story.
http://www.ksla.com/story/30329238/r...after-33-years

and an item about the story.
http://jalopnik.com/man-reunited-wit...ars-1738379908

If the lady had an accident, I wonder how the police did not know that the bike was not properly licensed/registered/insured... unless the laws in GA. would let one ride a bike with that displacement (150cc) without plates or if the police did not check anything like that at the time and just let that slide by. Or maybe they did but just didn't tell you the whole story.

Getting the lady to pay tow & impound fees I'm guessing would be more trouble than what it was worth. If she could convince a judge with a claim that she had bought the bike in good faith then she might skirt the possession of stolen property bit. And after all, it is your property and the tow & impound only care about getting paid for the tow and storage.

Getting a replacement title really shouldn't be a problem. You certainly should be able to prove you are who you say you are and can provide documentation for that. There was no transfer of title so it was and still is legally your bike even though you were not in physical possession of it for about 3 years.

Did you have it insured when it was stolen? I'm guessing not, but that might have been an avenue to seek reimbursement. Nice to think you might be able get the impound fees repaid, but the effort to get it may cost more in time and $$$. IMO, be glad you got the bike back like you did.

Anyway, found this for you:
http://www.dmv.org/sc-south-carolina...lost-title.php

Other owners of your kind of bike might be better able to help you out with your headlight issue, but I'll go take a look anyway.

BTW I didn't think your earlier post was too long.... you should see some of mine.

[Impaired]

Originally Posted by bandito2

Here's the news story.
http://www.ksla.com/story/30329238/r...after-33-years

and an item about the story.
http://jalopnik.com/man-reunited-wit...ars-1738379908

If the lady had an accident, I wonder how the police did not know that the bike was not properly licensed/registered/insured... unless the laws in GA. would let one ride a bike with that displacement (150cc) without plates or if the police did not check anything like that at the time and just let that slide by. Or maybe they did but just didn't tell you the whole story.

Getting the lady to pay tow & impound fees I'm guessing would be more trouble than what it was worth. If she could convince a judge with a claim that she had bought the bike in good faith then she might skirt the possession of stolen property bit. And after all, it is your property and the tow & impound only care about getting paid for the tow and storage.

Getting a replacement title really shouldn't be a problem. You certainly should be able to prove you are who you say you are and can provide documentation for that. There was no transfer of title so it was and still is legally your bike even though you were not in physical possession of it for about 3 years.

Did you have it insured when it was stolen? I'm guessing not, but that might have been an avenue to seek reimbursement. Nice to think you might be able get the impound fees repaid, but the effort to get it may cost more in time and $$$. IMO, be glad you got the bike back like you did.

Anyway, found this for you:
http://www.dmv.org/sc-south-carolina...lost-title.php

Other owners of your kind of bike might be better able to help you out with your headlight issue, but I'll go take a look anyway.

BTW I didn't think your earlier post was too long.... you should see some of mine.

Thanks for the links, been working on the bike all day after work had no time to google it, ill read later!

GA and SC have slack laws on 50ccs and most cops cant tell the difference, they had that moped tag in the pic on it and the displacement info on my plates has been tampered with, they scratched it all up randomly and carefully scratched the 1's in front of "150cc" and the 1 from the model "150xt" making it a "50cc" "50xt" which is a model by the same company...clever bastards.

So they probably let it slide, also the one vin was removed, but not underneath, so at the time they probably couldn't find a vin to run it or they just impounded it to further investigate. On the police report it does state "held for investigation" so that makes sense.

All in all I'm glad I got it back, and the lady who was riding it (I facebooked her) doesn't look like a theif, so I probably wont persue charges, even though I really didn't have $400 to shell out on my own stolen property :'c.
Its simply not worth the hassle, and I'm glad i got it back and running.

You're right about the title $15 and I just have to wait for it in the mail, then I guess ill re-register it and get my liscence back (let it expire because I didn't have a need for it) and get tags and be riding legit!

In the mean time I'm fixing her up!
Since you're checking out my thread over in maintence ill spare the details here but I found out what hi beams I need and I need to know what the smaller ones are in the front, they look just like 12v 10w turn signal bulbs but they are used in the front as low beams on this bike?

Since you don't know much about the 150ccs maybe you.could at least recommend me some.bad ass turn signals? I'm liking a pair of led ones on a website for $19.99 plus shipping I might just get those I think they'd look slick.

Thanks for replying to my threads, it feels good to have someone to talk scoots with!

[Brockne55monster]

The stick on leds, on amazon are pretty sweet. Just wax em they will last longer in the sun.