They Drug The Dog, Steal The Bike And Your Harley Days Are Over
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday April 30, 1998
Trevor Sim dreamed of owning his own Harley-Davidson.
At age 44, the Leichhardt advertising company boss finally got his wish - a black, Heritage Soft-Tail Screaming Eagle, worth $27,000.
It cost him another $1,700 for accident and third-party insurance, and a hefty $3,000 against theft as a consequence of the growing incidence of Harley-Davidson theft in NSW.
Barely nine months on, he is one of the ex-owners of the 200 Harley-Davidsons which vanish annually in NSW, in what police now believe are robberies committed by highly organised gangs targeting the US make.
Police were staggered at the lengths the thieves went to steal Mr Sim's Harley from the locked garage of his home at Turramurra in the early morning hours of Good Friday.
His pet rottweiler, Burger, was first sedated with a bait thrown into the back yard, before fence palings were removed.
Mr Sim, whose bedroom is near the garage, said he had secured the wheels of the bike with four large chains and three heavy padlocks.
"It weighs about 370 kilograms," he said. "It would have taken four blokes to pick it up.
"They picked it up and walked it past my bedroom window while I was asleep and took it two houses down the road, and cut the chains with an oxy-acetylene torch.
"They drugged the dog - it could hardly stand up.
"I'm 44 and this was my pride and joy. The cops said, `You probably won't see it again'."
With only 3 per cent of the stolen motorbikes recovered - compared with a 90 per cent recovery rate for stolen cars - some major insurers such as the NRMA have ceased insuring the bikes against theft. Concern among insurance groups at the alarming incidence of these specialised motorbike robberies has led the NSW Police Service to establish Strike Force Columbretes, a team of detectives whose operation since last October has primarily been gathering information.
The strike force, based at Enfield, in Sydney's inner-west, evolved out of a now defunct successful operation, code-named Sautratz, which targeted known car thieves last year.
Seven months later, detectives have yet to solve the mystery of where the stolen bikes are going, but have recovered at least 20 with bogus registration numbers.
They believe several groups are operating in Sydney.
Some owners may have been followed home and their movements studied before their bikes were stolen, usually at night.
Specific models of Harley have been targeted, such as the Fat Boy and Heritage Soft-Tail. They fetch a minimum of $25,000.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
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