Modern Vespa

Someone stole my Sprint last night. If anyone in the Boyle Heights/ LA area happens to spot it I'd be extremely grateful. 🙏

hopefully your red fender helps someone spot it more easily. that just sucks, though.

Feel free to make an example of the fucker, if you find him/her.

Gah.

So sorry.

I'll put the word on the wire and keep an eye peeled.

That's majorly shitty! I'm in Houston but I have family who live in Silver Lake/Echo Park and Eagle Rock. I'll forward the pic and have them keep their eyes peeled (as they say). Hope it turns up and with minimal damage.

I'm so sorry. What a sad day for you. Really hope you find your cool Sprint soon. As stated previously, the red fender gives it easy ID, which might help a bit.

I also hope the criminal jerk is swiftly met with justice.

Weasels - stealing other people stuff. Nothing lower than that. Hope you get it back in one piece.

Sorry, that's a despicable act. Hope it's found soon. It looks like it has several useful identifying traits in addition to the front fender so that people can be on the lookout.

I'm just going to catalogue the unique aspects of the parts so they can be spotted if someone trys to sell them at, say a swapmeet this weekend or ebay.

Handlebars- turn signal areas- one painted, one bare. (or Gray)
Horncast chip on left about an inch longs and on the front
Red fender with dark red paint on front right
Red rim with new(ish) tire
Stand has one pushed thru boot, and on with a lighter silver on top (left)
Legsheild has slight bend above rail rivets
OG taillight rusted studs
Offside cowl has wear marks on edges
Seat fairly worn but looks og

Oh...my condolences. I even can't imagine how terrible is that feeling.

More shots

So sorry to hear about this. Why can't people just leave our nice stuff alone and get their own honestly.

Naive question. What kind of person steals that kind of bike? They aren't looking to part it out I assume. Flip it on FB Marketplace? Or is it a Vespa fanboy who can't afford to buy his own?

crack heads, joy riders, roustabout teens, flat out scumbags.

but you're probably right: just to pass it along for a few bucks, not part it or anything.

I would think the only possible reason to steal a vintage scooter (other than joyriding) would be to strip it, chuck the frame in a lake, and reassemble to different frame, but who knows.

I'm going to preface this with I've worked in a federal prison for 15 years. You get an education you didn't expect.

Why chuck the frame?

Option A
1) Buy a wrecked or basket case POS cheap, you just need the paperwork.
2) Create a plate like most motorcycles using a laser engraver or stamp set.
3) Attach to what would, be down tube on our scooters. Most officers wouldn't look any further.

Option B
1) Cut out what looks like a VIN plate, out of POS, roll egdes bend over neatly etc and pop rivet it in place, again no one knows unless you have an educated inspector and a reason to do inspection.

Option C
Buy a POS that's same color with good paperwork and put plates on stolen scooter. Again most people are not familiar with these scooters.

Assume that you have already reported the theft to both your local police and insurance company?

Also, recommend that you do a google image search every once in a while, incase the scumbag posts it somewhere.

https://lens.google.com/search?ep=gisbubb&hl=en&re=df&p=AbrfA8okh7AASDXwTIczUNB8vA4rMTqiLPPD_a06E7G7mxeSKcNQksBmQL_c4-ESXk0MzPioesq8V7d-6Cc8fVdNEyX3s0-lgizBRNqdMvepKzgqpUaDS34A8Nn5nrDm0iH9s_LXiEJa1RfJ_0RpDUC1507bzVWhDHJVKh2-DPOvcHo5hw-POE9kGijb4O9VlYyEjwfp3rafMvMFy-EPAi4BJPDj4H7UnHbL_D6u-TPjao5y7RRxo4D2BxdMm_llRHvw7OjeCQrFj2uDgQ49CIbQzJTU-IZKiI32IE50#lns=W251bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsIkVrY0tKRFJrTXpRd016aGtMVEppWTJVdE5EYzNaQzA0T0RRekxUQmtOREkxT0dKa056VTBNaElmVlRaTlZUaHRNMnhXYmpCVVZVTm1hVWxtYTFwaVJFTmtURmN0YjNkb1p3PT0iXQ==

Sorry and good luck.

Who to hell knows......?
Years ago, I had a Honda XL 500 stolen out of my garage. I had just parked it after riding and went into the house quickly to retrieve something. I did not even remove my helmet as i was going right back out again. I came out, and someone was on it going up the street, called the cops. I did not have full coverage on the machine, but I had excellent home insurance and got most of the money back. A few years later, I got a call from a Sheriff in North Florida. Seems his son bought the same bike just to use it off road, but his father insisted that the bike be registered for the street as well. Well of course it came up stolen and the insurance company told me I could go get it I wanted, providing I return some of the funds. The bike had been rammed, crammed and beat all to hell, so I left it alone. Finally my point: I will not buy anything without a title or a whole hella lot of paper proving it is not stolen, salvaged, etc... With these older machine, most don't come with titles and even the VIN check sites are not always infallible. So I hope you have at the very least reported this so it is a blip on the radar. Meanwhile, I hope the rat is found and punished.

People steal stuff just because they can. The most ridiculous things. Then there are pros. Your Honda Civic is in a container on its way to Eastern Europe before you notice it's gone.

Probably not a pro, so it may very well turn up. I really hope so.

Sorry for your loss. Hopefully you both will be reunited soon! I'm guessing that the scooter isn't very far away. It was probably joy ridden by a non scooterist and is now leaning against a fence in some back alley or half covered by a tarp in someone's back yard. At least that's exactly how all thefts work up here in the PDX area.

I have a great story how my buddy recovered his lambretta from some meth heads about 10 years ago. It's definitely a feel good story, especially since i was there to witness some of the hijinks...but it's getting a little late for me tonight to type it all out.

Man people will steal absolutely anything. A friend of mine had a friggin tree stolen out of their back yard. Someone seriously hopped the fence and dug the tree out of the ground and drove off with it. I shit you not.

Was it a marijuana "tree" or something?

Nope. Not even a magnolia or anything cool. Just a boring old tree that the city gives out for free no less.

When I lived in LA, in the Silver Lake neighborhood, of course the idiots stole my kid's Christmas presents from the stoop.

More incredibly, they also stole two large, heavy terra cotta pots and the palm trees that were planted in them.

Non-obvioius, but palm trees are stupid-expensive (like hundreds of dollars for even a small-ish one) and you can probably fence it for basically market value since how do you prove it's stolen?

My wife wanted a palm tree for Mother's Day a couple years ago. A two-and-a-half- or three-foot tall tree in a terra cotta pot wound up costing me like $300.

If it's found call 911 immediately and tell them you are recovering your stolen vehicle. Otherwise the thieves will try to claim YOU are the thief. That's how they operate.

Never attempt to self- recover a bike from the thief's home turf. Call 911 and have the paperwork in hand.

Also, get prepared for disappointment when the police tell you that just because you can see your stolen bike from the street, they're not allowed to enter private property to recover it and that you could be charged with theft if you recover it on your own.

Yes, it's seriously fucked up, but welcome to Modern America.

There is a big festival here in Florence called Rhody days. During the parade one year I was riding my bicycle with a friend, who happens to own the local bike shop - and Tim spots a bicycle that a crack-head was riding, and says "hey, that's so and so's bike that got stolen last week - lets follow him"

So we did, and told two cops on the parade route that the dude stole the bicycle. Sorry guys, I can't do anything. Just report it stolen (he did).

We said f-it, and waited until he got off the bike and went into a store. I took my friends bike and he casually walked over and rode off on the stolen bike, essentially stealing it back.

Happy ending, the owner got his bicycle back and nobody was harmed, and my friend was pumped on adrenaline for a good 24 hours!

Yes. this is so important even if its parked on a public street

UNBELIEVABLE !!
Very similar story was with me. But there is SIX years between my bicycle was stolen from me and day when I stole it back.

Bump just in case someone hasn't read this.

I had my p200 stolen years back. In the space of five hours the scum bag who nicked it had driven 200 miles from south of England to north wales to get a ferry to Ireland . He stopped to ask a police officer for directions , can't make it up . Luckily it came up stolen that night. Thought I'd never see it again then a month later got a call from cardigan bay police saying it was in their yard and could I collect. Only damage was the seat where he needed to fill up fuel and glove box looking for oil. The f***** got three years in prison as wanted for all manner of criminality .

Not surprising since Florence is such a notorious high crime area

Seriously, that's a great story. Well done!

I hate hearing about this, but there's hope.

I live on a quiet cul de sac in a hilly neighborhood. A few years ago my twisty scoot was stolen out of my driveway, on a Saturday, in broad daylight. I was cleaning the garage, rolled it out, went inside for a couple of minutes, and when I came out, it was gone. The thief just hopped on it and took off.

Cops found it a few days later parked on a side street a couple of miles away. He basically just took it for a joy ride.

Now days there are license plate recognition systems all over Southern California. If your thief was stupid enough to ride the scoot on any public street, chances are the plate will be picked up. Make sure to report it stolen.

We got ANPR cameras everywhere in UK ; friggin cameras everywhere . That's why there's a lot of theft in number plates to clone on to stolen vehicles to avoid camera detection etc . You can't buy a number plate unless you have the logbook and identification.

Please tell me you've learned your lesson about leaving vehicles unattended at this point.

FTFY