the thrill is on

[Fred Hink]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fehu0WaPE6A Fred http://www.arrowheadmotorsports.com

[mynameisarne]

Arne here again.   I wish I could dig up the original email to get my facts straight, but here goes.

I worked as a policeman from '95 - '05, which book-ended the time that I rode my KLR and ran the List.  Some time in the 90's I learned of a couple who travelled around the world, and "lost" their bike some place between Vancouver, BC and home... which was Switzerland, after they dropped the bike to be shipped and flew home themselves.  

6 months after they had arrived home there was still no bike.  Getting the big brush-off for their troubles in trying to locate it, they considered their bike "lost".  Stolen would be the more accurate word, IMO.  They were screwed because they were home and had no way to personally follow-up or figure out what happened to the bike.

 

I can't recall how the information came to me (I searched the archives and I don't see that it was anything that was posted, so I'm guessing the the initial email was from Fred).  Anyways, I made contact with them and discovered that they had shipped their bike from Daytona Motorcycles in Surrey, BC.  Well, what do ya know... I could pretty much walk there from our office.  And while I couldn't follow this up in any "official capacity" - since something like this was out of my jurisdiction, and all I had were suspicions (considering that I'd heard shady stories about Daytona in the past) - I chose to drive there in a patrol car, in uniform.  I was probably sporting my 'inquisitive but serious face' and a large cop-stache.

 

"Armed" with all the shipping details (owner's names, dates, times & detailed information about the bike) I went in to speak to the manager.  Stating that the couple were friends of mine, my conversation either jogged his memory or "shook the tree", because what d'ya know... I received a call a few days later that "we found the bike" and that it would be shipped right away.

 

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall after I left the manager's office, but long story short, the bike and owners were reunited a few weeks later.  I never did ask if the mileage was the same as when they left it to be crated and shipped, or if it was obvious that someone had been riding it during the 6 months that it went missing.

 

Anyways... it was one of those feel-good stories that don't come along every day.

 

Thanks for reminding me of it, Fred!

 

Cheers!

Arne