TACOMA -- It’s a Harley-heist right out of the movies. Five antique motorcycles hailing from the 1920s and '30s were stolen without a trace from a Tacoma hotel parking lot.
The bikers had just finished a cross-country race but now they are out nearly $250,000 in the theft.
Biker Jon Newman has been working the phones since the early morning. He woke up to find his truck and trailer, filled with five antique Harleys had vanished from the Hotel Murano parking lot.
Newman and his buddies rumbled into Tacoma last weekend, ending a grueling 3,000-mile, 17-day journey from Daytona Beach in the Motorcycle Cannonball race.
But their celebration turned to disappointment early Tuesday.
“It’s rough seeing these riders that rode these machines, seeing the look in their eyes going, I don’t have my baby anymore,” said mechanic Jesse Law.
Newman says the hotel doesn’t have surveillance video showing the heist. And for him, these bikes aren’t just a hobby – they’re his livelihood.
“To do it that quick and to leave absolutely no evidence tells me that these guys are pros,” he said. “I don’t know that we’ll ever recover it.”
“They’re just a part of American history,” said Law. “All of ours were Harley Davidsons. They’re from the '20s and '30s, Great Depression-era machines that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers could have ridden. A returning WWII veteran could have picked him up one.”
Both the truck and trailer are plastered with Cannonball stickers, Newman hopes someone will see them and call police wherever they’re spotted. Otherwise a piece of American history could be lost forever.
“If they’re not recovered, they’re going to be disassembled and just parted out over the world,” said Law. “We’ll never see those machines together again.”
Newman is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the bikes or conviction.
Tacoma police are investigating the case.