Stolen Motorcycles Back At New England Motorcycle Museum

ROCKVILLE, CT – Two dirt bikes stolen from the New England Motorcycle Museum around 2 a.m. Wednesday have been recovered and the thieves have been arrested, according to a Thursday night post on Facebook by museum owner Ken Kaplan, who had offered a $1,000 reward.

“They’re back,” Kaplan proclaimed in a lengthy post about 9:40 p.m. He offered profuse thanks, “Starting with the three young men that delivered the CR250 back to us on a silver platter this morning, and the group of individuals that stepped up to have the Willimantic motorcycle thief ring leaders arrested today…”

The names of those individuals were not revealed “for their own protection,” but Kaplan said the arrests “would have never been possible without their support. We cannot thank them enough.”

He also gave “special thanks to the Vernon Police Department that hand-delivered the YZ250 back to us this evening unscathed, starting at the top with sergeant Todd Thiel and all of the detectives that went out and arrested the thieves today.”

Kaplan also thanked the Willimantic Police Department, the Manchester Police Department, the state police and the DEA. The stolen bikes were a red 1996 Honda CR250 and a blue 2014 Yamaha YZ250.

The robbery was captured on surveillance video, which showed two young men entering the under-construction museum’s showroom display/office and rolling out the two bikes.

The culprits appeared to be two white men in their 20s. They wore hooded sweatshirts. An alarm system immediately notified police. Upon arrival, police found shattered glass in the entrance door to the showroom/office.

The names of those arrested were not immediately available. Kaplan added in the post, “Clearly with modern technology video surveillance and the internet in social media it’s becoming a much smaller world and harder for criminals to hide!” Posts about the break-in were shared more than 700 times, he wrote.

Here’s the video of the bike heist: