Stolen Wheels And Shock Returned To Yoshimura Suzuki

Stolen Wheels And Shock Returned To Yoshimura Suzuki

© 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Five forged magnesium wheels carrying Dunlop developmental tires and a works Showa shock stolen from the Yoshimura Suzuki tent Thursday night in the paddock at Laguna Seca have been recovered.

“One of our customers called and said he knew the group that had the wheels and shock,” said Yoshimura Suzuki Team Manager Don Sakakura by phone this morning. “We made arrangements to recover the goods and they were in perfect condition. It was some guys out in the campground, which is on the other side of the track, which just goes to show how bad the security level was; I don’t know if they were asleep or what. I’m surprised nothing else was missing. These guys were just free to go anywhere they wanted in the paddock.”

In fact, there were no security personnel at the gate between the food vendor area and the paddock after hours at Laguna Seca, and Roadracing World staffers staying in a motorhome in the paddock saw spectators roaming around on foot and on minibikes at all hours of the night, every night.

At night, many road racing teams leave equipment and in some cases racebikes underneath zipped-up canopies attached to their semi-trucks.

Roadracingworld.com was tipped off to the recovery of the stolen Yoshimura parts by two e-mails sent by a WSMC racer from Bakersfield. We knew it was genuine because the theft of the works Showa shock had not been reported in a previous post on the theft. The combined text of the two e-mails follows:

“I have been informed that wheels and shock have been returned to Yosh. When the good people found out what the bad people did, they made them give the parts up, contacted Yosh, and got their stuff back to them. Thankfully there are still honest people around.

“Some drunken campers (3) from Bakersfield, California took the stuff. They had no clue what to do with it, or why they took it in the first place. When they sobered up the next morning and realized what they had done, they wanted to return it. But, things had tightened up, and they didn’t want to go to jail, and get kicked out of the races, so they just sat on the stuff.

“And when all the other riders/campers from Bakersfield found out what they had done, well, we wanted to kill then, or at least hurt them real bad. So we got the parts, called Yosh, and made arrangements for it all to be returned.

“Yosh picked up the wheels and shock from one of us honest riders, we don’t want to have the world look down on us (people from Bakersfield) just because of a couple of stupid partiers.”

See related post,
7/12/2003 Equipment Stolen From Yoshimura Suzuki Pit At Laguna Seca


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