Who do you contact when you are not satisfied with local LE?

[Stoner]

I was not sure where to post this at but thought I would try here and see if anyone had any insight.

I recently had two motorcycles stolen from a utility building in my back yard. Called and made a report with the local sherrifs office. They came out and made a report. I also placed adds on Craigslist and other motorcycle websites with pictures of the bikes and info about them. Actually had two different people call me and tell me who done it. One if the guys that called, took me and showed me where the guy lived, gave me his name, and phone number, and also called the guy on the phone and put him on speaker phone so I could hear the guy, and I actually heard this guy trying to sell one of my motorcycles. I relayed all the info I had on this guy to the investigator working on my case. They did go out and question this guy a little but did not find the bikes on his property and left. It just amazes me that, I know who stole from me and it seems as though the local LE isnt going to do anything about it. I also contacted the Sheriff and a man who works for SLED with little to no results.

At this point, who can I contact about getting some help in this matter. A person is not supposed to have to do all the investigating into something like this themselves. This guy is a known thief, I have had two many people that know him tell me he is to think anything different. He even admitted on the phone to me that he is tired of people spreading the rumor around that he steals motorcycles. You know a person doesnt get the rep as being a thief for no reason.

[2beararms]

You are unfortunately in that proverbial area between the rock and the hard place. Unfortunately Law Enforcement has to work within the law. That means that what YOU know and what YOU heard are really not of a whole lot of use to them except to have them aware. They cannot make an arrest based on “he heard”, or “he knows” or if they do, they are fully aware that it is not going to make it through the courts and one must remember that once acquitted of a charge, they cannot be re-tried on that charge.

They went out, talked, looked and unfortunately found no hard evidence. But LEO do not easily forget things like this and they will be keeping a quite eye on your potential perpetrator in hopes of find real evidence in your case or another … at least now they have someone to keep an eye on.

As far as helping you to recover YOUR stolen property … unfortunately that is where the hard place comes in. It is unlikely that you are going to see you bikes again so hopefully you had insurance. Yeah, we all wish the real world was like where the cops would grab the guy and say we know you took them, and we are going to beat it out of you what you did with them … but that is not the real world because the bad guy has rights too, and often free lawyers.

Complaining about how LE did not do their job is not going to get you anywhere and will only make it harder to deal with them later. Keep your eyes open and if any real evidence of this bad guy doing a crime … yours or another … then try to get the LEO involved as fast as possible. In general LE does a very good job in what is a tough environment working with hands tied .

[FN1910]

You say he tried to sell you one of your bikes. WHY DIDN'T YOU BUY IT? Not really buy it but make arrangements and have the sheriff with you when you wnet to pick it up. Since all they have to go on is rumors and hear say they can't do a thing without some hard evidence. The bikes are probably long gone now out of state and there really isn't much anyone can do unless someone screws up and talks with absolute first hadn knowledge (someone in on it). I know a fellow that bout a boat at a good price only to find out that it was his brother's boat that was stolen. Wasn't hard to trace down the culprit in that case. If anyone tries to sell you your stuff back always buy it back and then worry about the law catching them. You then have hard evidence but there are too many times that everyone including the LEO know who did something but can't prove it. A telephone conversation doesn't do much in court without backup.

[Jim_Macklin]

You can call your insurance company, you can call the District Attorney, you might even be able to swear out a warrant for the arrest and search of the persons property and any storage areas.

Now that the guy knows that the police are on to him, he is lilely to part out the bikes adn destroy the serial numbered frames.

[Stoner]

My original intentions were to try to set the guy up to buy my bike back, but needless to say it never did pan out. The guy that told me about this guy knows him and the other guys that are helping him steal the bikes from people. Although he was willing to tell me who did it and all, he did not want to get his name involved. One of these guys was texting pictures of my bikes around to his buddies trying to sell them, these investigators could have subpeonaed this guys phone records and got proof of this, did they? No I was also told what kind of vehicle they were using to steal the bikes out of, a white lumina van. He even told the investigators that he use to have a white van like this and that he had sold it and had heard that someone was using it to steal bikes out of. If they would have stopped and asked his landlord/neighbor, which I did, they would have found out that the van in question was at his house on a regular basis.
It just seems as though, they have made little to no effort to do anything about this and honeslty probably wouldnt have even went and questioned this guy at all if I had not stayed on them as much as I did.

[Stoner]

These investigators had not even pieced together the fact that one of the guys names I had given them that were stealing the bikes was the same guy that this guy had told them he sold the white van to.

[gdcleanfun]

Cops won't help? Call a hippie!
Sorry, I just couldn't resist!

[melloyello]

You can call your insurance company, you can call the District Attorney, you might even be able to swear out a warrant for the arrest and search of the persons property and any storage areas.

Now that the guy knows that the police are on to him, he is lilely to part out the bikes adn destroy the serial numbered frames.

Possesion of bike frame with tampered serial number is like having a gun with a tampered serial number - jail time...

Stoner - Jim_Macklin has the right direction - insurance, DA, Mayor (if in jursidiction). You need to physically see the bike and verify it is yours then call the Law Enforcement waiting at/around the property. Don't know about your area or LEOs attitudes but gotten by on the skin of my teeth when in a similar situation but a lot more aggressive about it.

[Stoner]

These guys dont seem to keep the bikes for any amount of time at all, most of them probably get sold within the first day or two. They start texting pictures around trying to sell them as soon as they get them. Some of these local guys will ride stolen bikes on the street and never hesitate to do so. A friend of mine was telling me that he stopped at a gas station not too long ago on his bike and got to talking with one of the local deputies, this guy was telling my friend how he bought a stolen bike awhile bike and kept it for awhile before someone stole it from him.

[JJFlash]

A good private ass-whipping might go a long way to make you feel better and give this thief something to think about for the future. That's just me, I'm known to operate on "the edge" sometimes. I HATE thieves! Wouldn't necessarily shoot 'em, but some "correction" might be in order. In some circles (hint: not yuppie riders), stealing a bike could get you killed, so you might even be doing this guy a favor.