More on the Bike Theft...

Well, I decided to drive by the kid's house (the one who had the bike in his custody...well, AND the other one, too) on my way home from errands today just to see if progress was being made toward putting the wheels on the bike so it could be returned this evening. Both the boy and his mother were in the drive, so I pulled on in and introduced myself. Imagine my surprise when I saw my son's three month old Haro bike in about 150 pieces on her driveway and garage floor. The only thing still intact about the bike was that the seat was still attached to the frame. Everything, and I mean EVERY THING, had been "chopped." Now I have heard of this as it pertains to cars, but apparently this happens with bikes as well. They had even tried to file off the serial number...it has clearly been damaged, but was still legible. So the kid offered to put the bike back together, but clearly the "taking apart" of the bike constitutes "working on" it as it relates to warranties and this kid is not an authorized Haro dealer or representative, so now the warranty is shot to hell. I asked them if they were willing to give a statement to the police, and the mother said "me or him?" Both. Okay, so they say they will. Good, out comes the cell phone (at which point "chop" boy says "hey, that's one of those new RAZR phones" -- and I note to myself to keep the phone on my physical person at ALL TIMES) and I called the police non-emergency number -- which the mother looked up for me. Two cars arrive, and we commence with the report, the statements of both, and then the person who tipped us off as to where the bike was showed up and I was able to procure her for a statement as well. The police found four other bikes -- or, rather, the "corpses" thereof -- in this boy's garage and discovered that at least two of them had been painted over. One was identified (by me and, later, my son) as the missing bike of another neighborhood kid several months back and I have since reported its whereabouts to his mother so she can "refresh" the recollection of the officer who took her earlier report and maybe get what's left of her son's bike back (the little boy, who is about nine, had to pay for half of his new bike after his was stoken from their garage). The police called the serial numbers in (when they could find them) and the bikes are being checked against others reported stolen in the neighborhood. I think since the boy who HAD the bikes cooperated, he might not be charged as an accessory (he gave up his friend and his own role MOST cooperatively), but I am pressing charges against the other boy. He even had the balls to brag about jumping the fence and taking the bike. This is the second report I have filed against this boy (the first was A&B), and it looks like his days as a bicycle thief (or a non-incarcerated person in general) may be limited. And the mother of the "chop shop" boy now knows that she has a garage full of "hot" items, and her son has been duly chastised and appraised of his role in KCSP and the trouble he could get in. They have offered to do something toward the repair/restoration of the bike, but the shops I have talked to are saying it will probably cost less to just buy a new one altogether. Since I had a camera the police are able to use my photographs, so the "remains" were released to my custody and are now sitting, in a sad and dejected heap, in a box in the back seat of my car. The police and the insurance company now await the purchase information which I have to somehow get from my son's father in Ohio (who has no phone) so they can do the final identification of the bike via serial number (police) and find out the replacement cost (insurance). And the other bikes have now been brought inside. I feel like buying or "renting" a Schutzhund-trained dog to rip this kid's leg off if he comes over our fence again.