[450zuki]

Holy Cow!

First time I've ever heard of this, but sure it's not the first time it's ever happened...

In a nutshell:

1. Local guy (no, not me) lists his very expensive Harley for sale.

2. Buyer shows up, in a nice car, with a girlfriend, looks the bike over and eventually asks if the two of them can take it for a ride.

3. Seller hands him the keys.

4. The bike doesn't come back!

5. Oh, that nice car that was left behind....it was stolen!

Not sure if the bike was ever recovered, or the thief caught, but that's a pretty sneaky way to steal expensive bikes...I can see a lot of people falling for it; especially if the "girlfriend" is a heck of a "distraction"

Hope for the best, assume the worst....always ask for ID and proof of insurance before letting anyone "test ride" something you're selling!..I always ask to hold their insurance card until they come back with the bike in 1 piece...

 

[TriPlay]

It can happen but the bike did get sold - to the insurance company so the owner did OK if it was insured that is. I alway let people test ride and never give it a thought as all my rides are appraised and well covered.
But then again I deal with people that are very unlikely to do anything as mentioned above. My real concern is an accident not theft.

 

[450zuki]

I'm sure it was insured, but still out the deductible (~$1000)...and a fat bump in his next insurance premium for everything else he owns.

Thinking about it, given the price of Harley's, I wouldn't doubt that a third person was close by somewhere out of sight waiting with an enclosed trailer to haul it to a chop shop.

 

[Azrocket]

So the thief gave up a nice stolen car for a new Harley? Hmmmm, seems like an even trade at best. At least monetarily speaking. Especially when considering the price you get for a now used Harley.

 

[450zuki]

So the thief gave up a nice stolen car for a new Harley? Hmmmm, seems like an even trade at best. At least monetarily speaking. Especially when considering the price you get for a now used Harley.

By "nice", I meant it wasn't a red flags and sirens car....i.e....buyer looking to buy a $40,000 cycle pulls up in a $1000 car. The seller just said everything looked legit..."nice car", girlfriend, dressed well, knew his bikes, etc...perfect con job. Amazes me how many people leave their car running while they pop in a convenience store; especially in hot weather to keep that AC going.

 

[TriPlay]

It depends on where you live. Some places have high crime rates other not so much. Where I live people don't normally lock houses, cars or even remove the keys from motorcycles when parked downtown. Small country towns can be quite different in this regard.
Whenever I travel everything changes and everything gets locked

 

[Herrick]

Seller should've told the "buyer" to leave the girl as collateral.

 

[S83]

Years ago a buddy was selling an old car, the thing ran and was somewhat collectible I suppose. A guy shows up, by himself, driving a newer truck. The guy lets him take the old car for a ride and a half hour later he hasn't yet returned.
He hops in his other car and goes looking but the guy is gone. When he gets back so is the other guys truck.
When he called the police they said he was the fourth guy that week to report the same thing. He lost the car, no insurance or anything, and the car turned up 12 years later after someone who had bought it as a barn find tried to get a title for it. They actually had towed it to the State Police to get the VIN checked out and found out they had bought a stolen car.

My dad had a car stolen in 1956, it turned up for sale in a local paper in 1972. The police recovered it after who ever bought it tried to get it tagged. It was just as it was when it was stolen years before. The car was brought back into running condition and put in the garage. It got stolen again at a car wash two years later. The car turned up again 22 years later 900 miles away in another state with a different color paint job and a newer engine. It had been registered in a state that didn't have car titles for most of that time. It was being sold at an estate auction. Its past stolen vehicle record turned up when the buyer tried to get a title in a neighboring state. He returned it to the auction house who sold it. By then the car was junk, rusted, dented, modified to the point we didn't want it back. The insurance had paid for it anyhow years before. The paying insurance company was defunct, but the car wasn't worth towing home in the condition it was in. My dad just let it go. Not sure what happened to it then. It had actually turned out that someone had taken the numbers from my dad's old car, which was stolen and used them on a car they didn't have papers for in order to tag it. So the car recovered wasn't actually the original car that was stolen. The local PD down there said that the guy claimed to have cut that car up and scrapped it. That info didn't come to light till a few years later after a friend decided to try and locate the car and haul it back but he found out the car that was recovered was a convertible not a sedan.

 

[Jo6pak]

I've been hearing this tale for many years. (in the OP) Hard to say if it ever actually happened.
But it is a good parable to teach folks to be cautious.

The ole' "Trust but verify" lesson:smile:

 

[Azrocket]

By "nice", I meant it wasn't a red flags and sirens car....i.e....buyer looking to buy a $40,000 cycle pulls up in a $1000 car. The seller just said everything looked legit..."nice car", girlfriend, dressed well, knew his bikes, etc...perfect con job. Amazes me how many people leave their car running while they pop in a convenience store; especially in hot weather to keep that AC going.

Yea, I know that lots of folks want cash in hand before allowing test rides and that is understandable. On the other hand I would not buy a used motorcycle without a test ride and I am not going to bring ten or fifteen grand along to be allowed to do a test ride. It is a real Catch-22.

 

[oldenslow]

Seller should've told the "buyer" to leave the girl as collateral.

Or like me -- "Hand me the cash you were supposed to bring with you, and if you decide not to buy I'll give it back when you return."

 

[Herrick]

Or like me -- "Hand me the cash you were supposed to bring with you, and if you decide not to buy I'll give it back when you return."

Good idea! I don't have a good Spidey Sense so I always use some service that can protect me. I've never sold anything without some kind of protection like eBay or whatever.