ozziesironmanoffroad

Hi everyone, I've been super busy with school and work, so my presence here isn't nearly as prevent as it used to be. I do have a concern though... my dual sport was stolen by a craigslist mechanic. I know, I know, but I was looking for a cheap service provider.

So it stopped wanting to start, my guess is the magneto went out. So I found a mechanic on craigslist kind of near by me, about 20 minutes down the freeway. Seemed to know what she was talking about and I didn't get any kind of weird vibes from her. So I dropped it off with her. 2 days later, I got the bike back, and it still wouldn't start. So I brought it back to her. Haven't seen it since, and every time I'd try talking to her, I'd get an excuse. So I then told her I wanted to pick it up and wanted my money back. She said she was out of town on Coast Guard duty, okay. That's been the excuse for the past 5 months.
It has now been a year since I dropped the bike off to her.

She hit me up a few days ago saying she was in the hospital because she was stabbed by her wife, whom she was involved in a divorce with, and had lost her phone but had her fire. I told her I hoped she would recover quickly, and then asked about my bike. No response.
I then sent a text (since she wouldnt pick up phone calls and her voice mail box was not set up), that basically said I was giving her two weeks to get the bike back to me, running perfectly, and if it wasn't running, I wanted every dollar I paid back, plus the current registration fee, since she kept it so long the registration expired, and that if this request wasn't fulfilled within 2 weeks from today, I would be talking to an attorney and filing a police report.
No response yet.

My question is, how would I go about initiating the legal process? File a police report, then report it stolen to my insurance (whom I DO have theft insurance with! So I think I'm not COMPLETELY out of luck) ? Would the theft insurance apply even though I dropped it off to her? Or would I have to say I left it outside one time, and I came out in the morning and it was gone?

I am beyond frustrated, as my F150 blew its rear end (typical Ford... I know) and my expedition, while better on gas than the F150, can't even begin to compare with the motorcycles fuel economy, and I fit the general 'broke college student' persona.

highonpottery

iTrader: (1)

that sucks man. i don't really know how to initiate the legal process on this one, but I'd likely call up either my insurance company or the police and get some advice on what the proper way is to go about this. hopefully you have some sort of info on the "mechanic" - perhaps paperwork on the deal, a business name/license number, etc etc.
might be too early, but the guys at Pirate might have a few suggestions.
good luck!

ozziesironmanoffroad

Only info I have is her phone number, where she used to live, and the text messages we've exchanged. Been real busy with work past couple days so haven't been on much. I'll post onto pirate tonight. Thanks !