Phast Phil's '79 KTM 250 RECOVERED!

[pketchum]

Hooray, I recovered my '79 KTM 250 which was stolen on April
2, 2009 from Wichita, KS. It was found in Fort Worth, TX
and appeared on Craigslist a few days ago. I spotted it
while I was in OKC last week for training. I tried
contacting the 27 yr. old seller asking him to verify the
engine's serial number and he never responded to me.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/mcy/1645660991.html
(You can still view his ad while it is still listed)

http://tinyurl.com/y92c6mn
Photobucket slide show of my KTM before it was stolen

http://tinyurl.com/yc2pfe6
Photobucket slide show of the pictures the seller sent to Roger Paris
(be certain to notice the horrible paint job indicates a likely stolen motorcycle)

I called my Dallas, TX buddy Roger Paris asking him to
attempt enticing the seller into responding. He was able to
converse with the seller via e-mail, text and phone. The
seller indicated that someone was offering him an '04 KTM
250F and even sent Roger a picture of the bike. Roger and I
were like, "What is he smoking?" No one is going to offer
that up as an even trade!

Roger had received detailed digital pictures from the
suspects iPhone and I could see all the upgrades I had made
to the bike but could not make out the engine's serial
number no matter how much I enlarged the photo. It still
had the Renthal bars, Magura levers and purches, the Lectron
carburetor, the Works Performance shocks, even the scrape on
the left rear seat cover's KTM logo was present!

Unfortunately, someone had OBVIOUSLY repainted my beautiful
KTM in a grotesque Halloween theme, orange and black where
it was all white before. You can tell a stolen bike (I have
had two of my bikes stolen in my lifetime!) by the method of
painting. They quickly paint it black in a futile attempt
to disguise it quickly. So quickly in fact they don't even
bother to remove any of the parts, they just paint them
attached to the frame. So, they repainted my ENTIRE white
gas tank orange, even the gas cap and the petcock were
repainted orange. The white fenders front/rear and both
sides were painted black, w/number plates painted orange.
The round aftermarket ignition cover and part of the engine
was repainted orange as well. It is though as if a 13 yr.
old Stevie Wonder went wild with a spray bomb!

I contacted the Police offices of Wichita and Ft. Worth
asking how to proceed and received conflicting advice.
Ultimately, I had three Wichita Police officers in my home
last night, one of which was a Supervisor who I asked for.
The lowly patrol officer on his beat had absolutely no
authority and was quite unhelpful I felt. Eventually, the
Supervisor agreed to "fax" the Ft. Worth PD with the
suspects information + my KTM's engine serial numbers.
There was no frame VIN as I had replaced the frame with a
Larry Perkins frame (thanks Larry) after breaking the
original frame. However, I failed to record the new frame
number in my records.

Roger called the Ft. Forth Police dept. the following
morning telling them that he was going to look at a
suspected stolen vehicle at 9:30am and requesting an officer
to meet him. The Ft. Worth Police replied they'd already
been to that address and the VIN numbers did not match. I
was INCREDULOUS! I could clearly see from the digital
pictures it was my motorcycle. I implored with Roger to
believe me and to contact the seller and see if he would
grant him entry into the gated mobile home park. Somehow,
Roger made it inside where he called to tell me, "Phil, I
looked above the ignition cover and there are NO serial
numbers there." I said, "They're there Roger, you're just
not seeing them for some reason. Have you scraped the paint
away? He said, "Yes." I said, "The numbers are there,
scrape deeply. They must have obscured them with JB-Weld or
Epoxy." He was able to scrape enough away to clearly make
out several of the numbers. So, he left the sellers
residence to call 9-1-1 and report he was looking at stolen
property and to meet him.

Three Police cruisers showed up outside the gates of the
mobile home community and went through the gates with my
hero Roger Paris in tow. Roger was towing his empty bike
trailer hoping to take possession of my beloved KTM upon
completion of their investigation. It turned out the Police
Officer who went to the suspects address earlier in the day
was comparing my stolen Hodaka VIN against the stolen KTM.
Of course, it didn't match! The idiot Wichita, KS Police
officer faxed down the wrong VIN to the Ft. Worth PD. Those
idiots! I can't begin to emphasize enough how many times my
local PD screwed up the investigation.

Long story short, my buddy (now my BEST FRIEND) Roger Paris
was able to convince the Ft. Worth PD this was actually my
reported stolen '79 KTM 250 GS, and he was able to take
custody without it being impounded locally, i.e.. costing me
$$$ and inconvenience.

I can't begin to tell you how WONDERFUL Roger Paris has been
helping me recover my stolen bike which he'll return to me
at the ISDTRR Warm-Up in New Blaine, AR next weekend. (I'll
be competing on my '80 KTM 250 there.) Only a true friend
and vintage enthusiast would have gone out of his way like
Roger did. He put his whole life on HOLD to help me and
ruined his ENTIRE weekend to help a friend/vintage buddy. I
will be forever in his debt!

A bright spot in the initial investigation is the suspect
traded a street bike for my KTM and provided the Ft. Worth
Police with about a dozen e-mails from his seller. I have a
friend who's a local Wichita Police officer Supervisor (over
30 officers) on the West side of town. He's going to
follow-up with the detectives tomorrow to see if they can
follow the e-mail trail and track down who sold it to the
Ft. Worth guy. Who knows? Maybe they will find my still
missing '74 Hodaka Super Rat + my 2001 PJ 5x10 open trailer,
model 510G.

Next time you see Roger Paris tell him THANKS and try to
match his bright smile and cheerful attitude. He's truly a
wonderful friend. May God spread many blessings upon you my
friend!

Lessons learned:
1. Never give up looking for your stolen stuff. I used
http://www.jaxed.com to discover my stolen bike. Also,
http://www.craigslook.com is a very good "Mashup" (i.e.
aggregator) site for Craigslist.
2. Your local Police are too busy to bother with larceny,
you're on your own.
3. You cannot call the Police station and ask an officer to
show up at your doorstep, you MUST call 9-1-1. No kidding!
4. When you call the "case desk" in Wichita you're talking
to civilians. Ask to speak to a Police Officer or
Supervisor.
5. Thieves are horrible painters, i.e. they're LAZY. If a
bike is painted horribly, get the VIN and call the PD!
6. Write down all your VIN numbers + engine serial numbers
+ take good pictures of your bikes/toys, or you'll wish you
had.
7. Don't be a Phil! Lock everything up, or cover it up.
"Out of sight is out of mind." --- quote from "The Hodak-ta"

Phil Ketchum

[Rocket]

Now that is some good news, congratulations Phil.
Rod G

[checkcrew]

Phil, hi,
GREAT NEWS !!!!
keep your fingers crossed on the Hodaka !!

i still have 5 of my 6 stolen bikes out there,
i look on Jaxed every day,
maybe someday ??

regards,
Mike Gallagher

Mike Gallagher, NJ.

[rd400pi]

Phil,
  Awesome news.  Roger did a great job!  Looking forward to New Blaine.  Cheers.

  Mike H.
  Tulsa

[garrettccovington]

RIGHT ON!!!!!  Glad to here this.

G

72 six-day
79 KTM MC80 250

[sachsmx]

Man, I'm glad you got your bike back, but its gonna take a lot of work to get it back to its original condition.
I have been robbed twice, the first time when I was 19 and some thieves broke into a rented garage and stole about $10,000 in tools, which were locked up in large Craftsman toolboxes. It had rained the night of the robbery and you could see the thieves footprints both inside the garage and in the driveway (which was not paved) were the dragged the toolbox because the casters wouldn't roll.
Never have I been so dismayed at the actions of a police department. I had to wait 3 hours just to speak with a detective (they wouldn't send anyone to the crime scene as they said there was nothing in progress [V]). After speaking with the detective I practically begged him to come down and take a look at were they had kicked in the door and to talk with some people in the neighborhood who had heard something, but they never came to the crime scene, which was about 4 blocks from the police station.
What ticked me off the most was that two weeks later I was in the garage getting ready to move my bikes and '57 Chevy out of there and a gas station in the area had a drive-off for about $10 (this was in 1985) worth of gas. You betcha, 2 city police cars were on the scene within minutes
The bottom line is I don't know of anyone who has ever had anything recovered by the police.

[slvrbrdfxr]

Phil,
Excellent detective work and fantastic news on recovering the KTM !! I certainly hope the new leads provided to the Wichita PD can now help them track down the Hodaka and trailer. Roger is a great guy. I know he had to have a huge smile on his face when this all played out. Once again great teamwork pays off and so my congrats to both of you guys !!
Dave McCullough

[David Laite]

Best news I've heard today, way to go guys! BTW 911 between two police officers means meet me at Dunkin Donuts.

1973 Penton Six Day
1973 Penton Jackpiner
1982 Yamaha XT200
1982 Yamaha XJ650J Maxim
1984 Husqvarna 400WR
1987 Yamaha YZ490
2005 Honda CRF450R

[454MRW]

Phast Phil,
Glad to hear you've found your bike! Your persistance has definitely paid off! I hope you locate your Hodaka and trailer as well, and the crook gets his world rocked...Hard! Mike

Michael R. Winter
I enjoy rebuilding and appreciating Pentons!
1974 250 HS Pentons-1980 KTM 175-400'S

[firstturn]

Thanks Phil for the post and I am happy you at least got one bike back.  You inspired me to go out and take pictures and document anything about the bike such as frame and engine numbers for future reference.  Thanks.

Ron Carbaugh