Dirt bikes stolen, sold dirt cheap

CARLSBAD, N.M. (KRQE) - Consumers thought they were getting a great deal on a vintage motorcycle but now they’re out of a lot of cash.

Police say someone got their hands on some rare bikes and are now selling them to unsuspecting victims.

Carlsbad resident Greg Brown calls himself a dirt bike enthusiast and when a co-worker showed him a picture of a bike he had just bought, Brown was shocked, “He proceeds to show me a picture of it, and it’s a bike that was done very unique and very special, and I'm like that's my bike,” recalled Brown.

The bike is a 1975 Kawasaki, and it’s one of many Brown has restored and collected through the years.

He stored the bikes at Motorplex, a business he owned with his dad that has since closed. When Brown went to check the storage facility, he immediately noticed someone had broken in through the back door and stolen seven of his vintage bikes.

“Four of these bikes I had bought through vintage racing. I ride all the time, I still ride,” Brown explained. “Me and my dad have been into vintage bikes gosh--for 25 years, you know, we bought and sold quite a few and had a nice collection.”

Brown’s co-worker said he bought the bike for $500 from a man selling them in a Walmart parking lot over a week ago, “That bike they sold for $500 is about a $3,000 bike,” Brown said.

His co-worker said the seller spun a believable story.

Brown said the seller in the parking lot had told his co-worker that he and his father used to ride them years ago, they had them in their garage. The seller also said you can't get parts for them anymore so he was trying to get rid of them before he moved.

The man who sold the bike is described as a clean-cut white male in his twenties. He was driving a white Ford F-150 single cab with a burnt orange trailer that had two more bikes on it.

On Saturday, a second bike was recovered and the buyer said he bought it from a man for $800.

“Anytime you're going to make a vehicle purchase, just make sure there's a good title before you make that purchase,” said Lt. Jennifer Moyers, of the Carlsbad Police Department.

The seven stolen bikes are worth about $18,000 combined and five other bikes are still missing. Brown is offering a reward for the safe return of the remaining five dirt bikes.