It's the story of a man and his motorcycle, separated for 15 years.
"A vehicle that's been stolen over 15 years is a little unusual," said
Detective Mark Allen of the Tempe Police Department.
But on Friday, the two were reunited in the Tempe Police Department's
impound lot.
"It's got almost 50,000 miles on it," said Randy Largent, the
motorcycle's original owner.
"I was 21. I just moved to Arizona," he said. "I wasn't doing real well
at the time financially, and that was my only means of transportation,
so I was walking for a while. I really could've used the bike then, but
obviously somebody needed it more than I did."
Largent's Kawasaki Ninja first disappeared from outside his Phoenix
apartment in 1989.
"I had it in pretty good shape," Largent said. "It was red, white, and
blue... it had about 3,500 miles on it."
He was just in the process of getting it licensed and insured in Arizona
when it was stolen.
"We were young, we were just trying to figure it out, it was the only
thing that I owned in the whole world," he said.
Fast-forward 15 years -- a Mesa man takes his newly purchased used
motorcycle to the Motor Vehicle Division to get it licensed.
When MVD ran the bike's VIN number, it came back stolen.
"He just wanted to register it through MVD and it turns out the bike had
been sold and the title transferred several times within that 15-year
period," Allen said.
That's when Allen from Tempe's auto theft detail became involved.
He tracked down Largent through a credit report.
"This is the first time in my 20 years with the police department that
I've ever had to return something that's been that long," Allen said.
"Usually it's a couple years at the most, but never 15 years. I've never
seen anything like that."
A lot has changed for the Largent family in the last 15 years so they
don't plan on keeping the bike for long.
"We own a paintball field in Casa Grande, and we'd like to put the bike
on eBay and raise money for all the Boys & Girls Clubs to come out and
play paintball," Largent said.
Auctioning off the bike to benefit kids is a fitting end to a story that
started when Largent was just a kid himself.
"Yeah, there's a little guy back there going 'you know, you could make
it like new again and you could keep riding it,' but somebody will enjoy
it. It's a great bike," Largent said.
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