B.C. Vigilantes get involved in reclaiming stolen motorcycles

The consistent stream of motorcycle thefts has left many Kamloops citizens feeling helpless and a few looking to take justice into their own palms.  Marlene Armstrong is a stolen motorcycle web page on Facebook and recently took returned a stolen motorbike. “It’s no longer the first time. This is the second time I’ve gone and got one,” says Armstrong. She says a few years in the past, and she reclaimed her first stolen motorbike.
“A bike turned into stolen from a disabled boy that I took care of.

They have been trying to sell it on Facebook, and I met up with them to buy it, and I took it,” she says. “They attempted to promote its days once they stole it.” This time, she noticed a motorbike posted on the Facebook institution that her concept changed into quite recognizable. Another consumer had introduced they’d visible the motorbike, so Armstrong took off in her car to look.

She observed the bike at the north shore close to Fortune Drive and Vernon Avenue. She went into a nearby commercial enterprise to collect herself earlier than confronting the 3 individuals with the motorcycle. “The woman in the shop just checked me out, and I stated, ‘I need a minute. That motorcycle is stolen, and I want a minute.’ I checked out it, made certain it was the motorcycle, walked out of doors, told the female to get off the motorcycle, and I put it on the pinnacle of my Jeep and referred to as the police officers,” Armstrong says.
She gave the bike to one of the admins of the Facebook institution, who turned it into the RCMP. According to the admin, the bike’s owner has been diagnosed. However, it is unsure if the bike has been back.

Although Armstrong has had success twice with reclaiming motorcycles, she doesn’t suggest it to anyone. “I kind of like that adrenaline rush. I don’t recommend different people doing it, of the path. Honestly even though, they recognize they stole the motorcycle. What are they going to do, name the police officers?” Armstrong adds, “Most of them aren’t violent, they don’t suggest, terrible humans. They have a problem, and that they realize they’re busted.” Lin Moroz is an admin of one of the neighborhood stolen bikes pages and says she has seen humans take justice into their own palms before.

“We’re running with folks who are compromised in loads of methods,” Moroz says. “Walking as much as any person and taking the motorbike is not a pleasant answer.” After they’ve been stolen, many bikes have their serial numbers ground off, frequently rendering them unidentifiable if back to the police. Moroz urges human beings to check in their bike on 529 Garage, an app to permit users to sign up the serial wide variety in their motorbike in addition to any scratches, dents, stickers, adjustments, or other identifiers.

“Police can’t go back a motorbike because you assert it’s yours,” says Moroz. “They can’t go back a motorcycle as it’s blue and yours became blue. They can go back a motorcycle by using its serial numbers or identifiers at the motorcycle that you pre-registered.” Moroz notes that she has contacted the police before locating a stolen bike and needed to wait over forty minutes for an officer to expose it. She remembers that the urgency of a stolen motorcycle isn’t as excessive as a number of the other calls going into an RCMP detachment.

“I discovered a bike, and we sat at a crossroad for pretty some time. We checked the serial quantity, the owner become there with me, and it took the police a while to undergo the calls earlier than they might assist,” Moroz says. “That’s a natural fact,” Moroz notes that the RCMP has labored with participants of the Facebook institution before to help discover stolen bikes. Moroz and Armstrong are well known for the rumors of alleged motorbike chop stores around town, wherein thieves will take apart bikes and rebuild them into something unrecognizable. Both agree that those locations are too dangerous to the method.

Jodie Shelkie of the RCMP says humans who’ve noticed a stolen bike must touch police in place of seeking to reclaim it themselves. She urges humans to keep away from war with thieves in any state of affairs. “When someone steals a motorcycle, they will take it home and adjust it themselves, or they’ll take it to a house regarded for accepting stolen motorcycles,” says Shelkie. “Either of these can be cited as a ‘chop store’ by way of the public. When the RCMP attends houses for proceedings and word that there are loads of bicycle components, the officer will run all serial numbers which are determined.”

Although Shelkie notes that there have been no recent incidents of violence for the duration of a stolen motorbike disagreement, she recommends the general public call police to allow them to take care of the situation. However, if a motorcycle is recovered, it can not be diagnosed; it’s far held by using the RCMP. If no proprietor is diagnosed after 90 days, it’ll visit a public sale.