The owners of a motorcycle shop in Cobble Hill managed to get a stolen Honda CR250 bike back utilizing social media.
Nanaimo RCMP report the owners, decided, instead of calling the police, to put news of the theft on Facebook and it took less than 24 hours to find out where the bike was.
Constable Gary O’Brien said the owners, broadcasting their adventure live on Facebook, drove to the home, found the bike, pretended they wanted to purchase it, loaded it in the truck and then called the RCMP.
O’Brien said it was a risky move.
He said, “It put them in harm’s way and police can never advocate for that. They went on to a private property, they could have been met with violence. We know for a fact, and they didn’t know, that the people there are involved in criminal activity and some are prone to violence. What they should have done is waited on a public street, called a police officer and let them know exactly what’s going on and they could have entered with the police officer or the police officer could have gone in by himself.”
O’Brien said officers spoke with residents of the home which is well known to police, but were unable to determine who took the bike and how long it had been on the property.
Without definitive proof, no arrests were made and charges are unlikely.
