Cyber-hunters go after stolen cycles

[totalmotorcycle]

Cyber-hunters go after stolen cycles
By SHIGEKI WADA - Kyodo News - The Japan Times - search.japantimes.co.jp



Owners of expensive motorcycles who had their prized machines stolen -- and in many cases shipped overseas -- now have an Internet site to exchange information in an effort to find their bikes.


"Your stolen bike is on sale at a shop here," was the message entertainer Supataro Kondo, 39, received in a telephone call at the end of 2001 from a friend who was in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. The friend was there to arrange a motorbike tour.

Kondo had three 250cc off-road bikes -- each valued at about 500,000 yen -- stolen from his home in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, over a two-month period. The bikes, each weighing more than 120 kg, were taken even though they had steering locks in place and heavy iron U-locks, making Kondo suspect underworld involvement.

When he visited Thailand, he found various Japanese-made motorcycles on sale. "New bikes recently sold in Japan were everywhere to be seen, and they cost less than those on the secondhand bike market in Japan," he said.

Strewn about in one bike shop, Kondo found Japanese license plates and security gadgets, including wire locks that had been cut off.

Through the shop owner, he tracked down the buyer of one of his stolen bikes and successfully reclaimed it.

"Japanese police and customs should cooperate better to prevent stolen bikes from being exported," Kondo said.

According to the National Police Agency, motorcycle thefts peaked at about 250,000 in 2000 but had decreased to some 104,000 in 2005. The arrest rate in such cases is only about 10 percent.

A Tokyo resident whose 400cc motorcycle was stolen several years ago set up the Web site Internet Dragnet -- www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~cbx/ -- to list stolen bikes and exchange information. Some 4,000 stolen bikes are now listed there.

In May 2004, a police officer in Taiwan alerted the Web site manager that he found a motorcycle whose serial number matched that of one of those listed as stolen.

Tapping Kondo's experience in Thailand, the site manager has, with the help of Taiwanese police, recovered 11 stolen bikes from the island. Since then, 14 stolen bikes have been found in Thailand and Greece with the help of the Web page.

All the stolen bikes have been identified through the serial numbers stamped on their frames. To avoid detection and to keep customs duties down, the bikes had been disassembled in Japan and reassembled overseas.

"If you love bikes," the Web site manager said, "you should pursue the culprits and your beloved bikes to the end."