Stolen bikes recovered

Customized motorcycles are an expensive hobby for some, enjoyable transportation for many and something to be envied by others. That sort of desire for the big custom bikes was enough to cause at least one man to commit a crime.

Hank Strickland, sales manager for Big Dog Motorcycles in San Antonio, thought a thief had foiled his plans to show his stylized bikes at this year's BikeFest.

"About daybreak Monday morning someone broke into his display lot, hooked up to the trailer loaded with bikes ready for tow to South Padre Island, and hauled them away," he said.

"I couldn't sleep Monday night at all." He said his stomach was churning and he felt sick all over.

He called BikeFest and told them he wouldn't be able to make the show. Then he changed his mind and called back and told them he would be there after all. He still had two bikes he could bring.

But the thief had made a few mistakes. For one thing he hadn't counted on security cameras all over the custom bike lot that recorded almost his every move, and one camera even got a perfect shot of his license plate.

"He got into the lot by using bolt cutters on the chain on the front gate," Strickland said. "Then he drove straight around to the side where the loaded trailer sat. He knew exactly what he wanted."

The truck turned out to be a vehicle stolen from Texas Department of Transportation. The license plate was also stolen.

A police detective, searching the area around the Big Dog dealership for storage units, spotted the truck and trailer parked on the lot of a boat storage company nearby. The bikes were still in the trailer.

Not only had the rear license plate on the truck been stolen-so had the front plate, and it was different from the one on the back. The registration sticker on the windshield was also stolen, Strickland said, and didn't match either license plate.

He couldn't claim his trailers until the police dusted for fingerprints. Then they showed him a photo and asked if he knew the man. They assured him the man in the photo was the thief.

"They know who he is and where he lives and works," Strickland said. "There's a warrant out for his arrest." He paused. "I didn't know the man in the photo they showed me. But he knew what he wanted and where it was. Somewhere there's a middle man, and I'm curious to know who that person was."

This is Strickland's fourth year to show his motorcycles at BikeFest. "I make about seven shows a year," he said, "and this one is by far the best. I sell more bikes at this show than at any other show I attend."

The stolen bikes were insured, he said, but not the business he would have lost by not showing them at BikeFest this year.

He said he will be talking at least until March to people back home in San Antonio who saw his bikes at South Padre Island. "I have a good memory for faces," he said. "If I remember talking to them here I'll give them my special show prices that I'm quoting here."

Strickland produced a "show special" price list with discounts ranging up to $10,000 from his regular retail prices.