Possession is nine-tenths
A highlight of my television viewing this weekend was watching one of Wairarapa’s finest sons uplift my helmet and gloves off the tank of my motorbike, place it in the boot of his mate’s blue Falcon AU XR8 and drive away.
This footage was revealed, courtesy of the Greytown 4 Square’s carpark CCTV coverage, and answered a particularly troubling question I had had a few minutes’ earlier: “Where did I put my helmet?”
A short while later, this footage was shared with a Constable from the NZ Police, who remembered seeing the car in question earlier in the day. Investigations are underway. One helmet and a pair of gloves stuffed inside it are still missing, presumed trashed.
The reason for my belief that my helmet has been biffed, rather than sold in a pub or usefully recycled, is that it is quite large. It needed to be, as I have a rather large cranium. If my head was any larger it would have orbiting moons – it lives at the far end of the head-size bell curve. Whoever nicked off with it probably tried it on shortly afterwards and would have discovered that there was enough room inside for his mate’s head as well, pinheads that they are.
New Zealand law says that one cannot ride one’s motorcycle without wearing a securely fitting helmet. As of 12:33pm on Friday afternoon, I no longer had one of those and was effectively marooned in the middle of a small New Zealand town with lots of cafes, women’s fashion stores, antique dealers and a well-stocked garden machinery business but nothing else of any use to my immediate predicament.
In a wardrobe, 74.1km away in Wellington, I had a spare helmet and pair of riding gloves. My Loyal and Devoted Riding Companion mounted her steed, strapped on her unstolen helmet and rode off to retrieve these for me. Bless her! I spent the next couple of hours entertaining the local constabulary and sitting in the sun, cogitating, and waiting for a blue Falcon XR8 with clear rear indicators to drive by so that I could record its registration details.
Once I was re-helmeted we resumed our travels, arriving at our evening’s destination a few hours later than originally intended.
My next task is to have a conversation with my insurance company. I suspect that they may take a dim view of a motorcyclist who leaves their helmet and gloves unattended atop a motorcycle parked in view of a CCTV camera in a trendy country village. Me? I take a dim view of opportunistic criminals who impose significant cost and inconvenience on others, particularly when what they have stolen will have little real value for them.
At best, the Boys In The Falcon will only get for this helmet and gloves what they can hock them off for at the local pub, probably about $50 plus or minus. On the other hand, we’ve now got to fork out many hundreds of dollars for replacement items, not to mention the cost of fuel involved for Mrs Wonderful’s return trip to Wellington.
Lessons have been learned. We won’t be leaving our helmets unattended on motorbikes in Greytown again, or anywhere else for that matter.
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Originally Posted by Paul in NZ
A quick ride south saw us arrive in Greymouth at two minutes to closing time at the bike shop where the only ones I could buy were winter weight but at least we got some. Don't ya just love these light fingered pricks!!!!
Quite possibly locals though. If it is just a small town, hopefully there won't be to many of those Ford Falcons around.
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