What even happens to stolen bikes/scooters in NZ? (+stolen scooter story)

[cortosis_weave]

I had a brand-new scoot stolen from me about 1.5 years ago.
I had gotten over it, until recently when I came across some circumstances where having my scoot would have been really useful.. It brought back the feelings of frustration and extreme disappointment I went through. And it got me thinking..


What the hell happens to stolen motorbikes and scooters in NZ anyway?


When my scooter got stolen, I did some investigation (because the police did fuck all) and immediately found many other people who had had their scooters stolen in the previous few weeks/months (even from the same spot mine was stolen from - apparently it was a common occurrence). I am sure many, many others have been stolen since.

Where do these machines end up? What do the thieves do with them? Is there a black market in NZ for parts and vehicles, large enough such that stealing them here is actually lucrative?
I've known of this forum for years, and figure you'd be the guys to ask..


If you're curious as to the story with my scoot, read on in the attached pic..

My scooter was a 2016 PGO PMX Naked 50 Carbon. It was stolen on January 15 2017, from the bike-park in the Harvey Norman carpark on Tory Street, in Wellington.
The plate number was B1FWU; the engine number was P2H47013; the VIN was RFVPMMS21G1204770.

[HEsch]

There's no spoiler in the spoiler tags.

Disappointing.

[pete376403]

Nothing at all to do with scooters, but in my case, my wallet was stolen one evening. ANZ contacted me within about 10-15 minutes of the theft, because of suspicious transaction at a nearby Z gas station and immediately stopped the card. Next day, after getting a printout from the bank showing the time and amounts etc. I went to the Z gas station, the manager there was able to correlate the timing with the images captured by their security cams. They would not however show me the footage as "only the police are allowed to see, privacy issues, yadda, yadda"
The theft was reported to Lower Hutt police station, including the info that security cam footage of the perps was available at the Z station. I was told that , if an arrest was made, they would contact me.

And after that a big fat nothing happened. To repeat your statement "If I, a civilian, got so close to obtaining hard evidence so easily, what the fuck was the police doing all that time? The answer is probably: nothing; nothing at all."

[Swoop]

... what the fuck was the police doing all that time?

Donuts do not eat themselves.

[sidecar bob]

It's only a scooter, but I'm a student and I had saved up a long time to be able to buy it; it meant a lot to me. Even though it's not glamorous like a proper bike, I think the experience of losing it will be the same - especially when it represented a sizable amount of your own hard labour.[/spoiler]

Your post was a bit long & my attention wayned until i got to this bit.
A scooter is a proper bike, no apology required. On top of that, you worked hard for it, thats why it hurts. If your parents paid for it you would likely long forgotten the expierence by now
If it helps, remember that the thief is a worthless piece of shit, you know that, they know that. Would you ever swap lives with them if it meant having your scooter back?
Move on, study hard, work hard & leave the losers to their miserable lives & the need to constantly have to look over their shoulder every time they see a police car.

[FlangMasterJ]

Found mine nine year later on Trade Me. The OG thread --> https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/s...ost-STOLEN-KTM!

Funnily enough it's back on Trade Me right now. "Been in storage for ten years"

[cortosis_weave]

There's no spoiler in the spoiler tags.

Disappointing.

Not sure if you mean conceptually or technically, lol. The idea was to just compartmentalize the post, because it was a bit long, and the story wasn't too relevant to main point - which is: what actually happens to these bikes and scoots when they're stolen. I can understand places like Australia, the US and Europe where the places are so big that you'd have economies of scale to make a niche market such as specific parts for specific bikes viable. But in New Zealand? How many people are on the lookout for parts for a PGO PMX of all things, at any given time?

The theft was reported to Lower Hutt police station, including the info that security cam footage of the perps was available at the Z station. I was told that , if an arrest was made, they would contact me.

And after that a big fat nothing happened. To repeat your statement "If I, a civilian, got so close to obtaining hard evidence so easily, what the fuck was the police doing all that time? The answer is probably: nothing; nothing at all."

I always figured that the police don't care about bikes because everyone has insurance, and if the machines are stolen, most people get compensated sufficiently. But a wallet with finance and identity info? I would have thought something like that would be a priority...!

Your post was a bit long

Yeah I tried to separate out the long bit from the main post, but accidentally clicked 'submit' instead of 'preview'; so I didn't get to see if the spoiler tags worked or not.

A scooter is a proper bike, no apology required. On top of that, you worked hard for it, thats why it hurts. If your parents paid for it you would likely long forgotten the expierence by now
If it helps, remember that the thief is a worthless piece of shit, you know that, they know that. Would you ever swap lives with them if it meant having your scooter back?
Move on, study hard, work hard & leave the losers to their miserable lives & the need to constantly have to look over their shoulder every time they see a police car.

Cheers; you're right about that. I've started working towards a new one, perhaps an SR 50 R this time.

[sidecar bob]

Not sure if you mean conceptually or technically, lol. The idea was to just compartmentalize the post, because it was a bit long, and the story wasn't too relevant to main point - which is: what actually happens to these bikes and scoots when they're stolen. I can understand places like Australia, the US and Europe where the places are so big that you'd have economies of scale to make a niche market such as specific parts for specific bikes viable. But in New Zealand? How many people are on the lookout for parts for a PGO PMX of all things, at any given time?



I always figured that the police don't care about bikes because everyone has insurance, and if the machines are stolen, most people get compensated sufficiently. But a wallet with finance and identity info? I would have thought something like that would be a priority...!


Yeah I tried to separate out the long bit from the main post, but accidentally clicked 'submit' instead of 'preview'; so I didn't get to see if the spoiler tags worked or not.


Cheers; you're right about that. I've started working towards a new one, perhaps an SR 50 R this time.

What licence are you on?
You can have a huge amount of fun on a cheap used 250 maxiscooter. Dont ask how i know

[russd7]

scooters are under rated as fun toys, i now ride a lil yammy jog 50 to work, its only 500m but i need transport to get to the firestation when the noisy bit gets loud and i don't run very far these days, i have discovered that the underbelly scrapes quite easy, i have learnt that even at 50km/hr saving the front on a wet tar snake is quite exhilarating, so yeah they are real motorbikes in the sense that one can still have fun on two wheels.
as for scoots being stolen, there is quite a market for cheap parts and if someone has a legal plate for a similar model then its not hard to put it on a another scoot. remember under 50cc don't have to have a WOF so the only time anyone is going to pick it up is if they actually check the engine or chassis number, when ya think about it like that then it is very easy coin for someone.
i have questioned the odd person on TM about what appeared dodgy sales, the model didn't match with the plate on carjam kinda thing, i wouldn't mind betting that quite a few get sold through TM or FB that way.

easy money for scum in a city full of broke students wanting cheap transport.

[AllanB]

Stolen.

Thrashed for a laugh then ditched?

Sold to school kids?

Used as a hack on the farm or lifestyle block?

Engines pulled and used in some demented sex-toy?

I doubt there is a big black market for scooter parts.

[Fresh Oats]

My white ninja 250 was stolen several years back in Wellington.
Police called like a week later, they had found the tail end with number plate still attached. It was pretty beat up, number plate was bent and had scratches all over it.

Got pulled over after work yesterday by the Police. Apparently there had been a string of thefts and they were cheeking to see if mine was stolen. What idiot is riding around Hamilton at 6pm in peek traffic on a motorbike they stole last week?


My line of work revolves around shoplifters, so I deal with the Police a lot. We do literally all the work (shoplifting is far easier to catch because the products just go straight to facebook buy and sell pages), hand it off to the Police all they need to do is look at it, show up the address provided and arrest them. Even than it still takes them 2/3 months. And if we have nothing but a CTV photo, nothing. "we'll get back to you" is a polite way of saying "we wont catch whoever did this"


Don't get me wrong, I think the Police do great work just in general. But they certainly are understaffed when it comes to "petty crime" and just theft in general. And there's not really all that much they can do about it.
The statistic for unsolved theft must be close to 90%??

[granstar]

Don't get me wrong, I think the Police do great work just in general. But they certainly are understaffed when it comes to "petty crime" and just theft in general. And there's not really all that much they can do about it.
The statistic for unsolved theft must be close to 90%??

Yep, they just started their Winter driving campaign in Southland

[Laava]

Stolen.

Thrashed

Engines pulled and used in some demented sex-toy?.

This goes a long way towards explaining the current trend for brown leather seats and exhaust wrap then...

[Fresh Oats]

Yep, they just started their Winter driving campaign in Southland

I guess if they got an infringement ticket of $80 for every theft solved they'd dedicate more resources to theft than ticketing people for going 110kmph on an empty straight?
or is that too conspiracy theory to say?

[WALRUS]

Unfortunately this is what happens to stolen bikes 9/10 times where I am..

This is my mate's that was found yesterday. It was only pinched at the start of the week.