It’s a motorcycle so rare and unique that it’s worth as much as some homes, and now the search is on for whoever stole it.
The Chopper, estimated to be worth $150,000, was swiped Monday from a home near 16th street and Greenway Parkway.
“This bike is one-of-a-kind,” said Jason DeGraff, a friend of the victim. He also said that the custom-built bike was incredibly unique from the wheels, to the frame, to the engine.
DeGraff said his friend brought the motorcycle from St. Johns to the Valley over the weekend for a paint job. The victim was going to return to Eastern Arizona Monday morning, but he then discovered that the motorcycle was gone.
“There's two types of opportunity: one that knows the value of the chopper, and knows it's a one of a kind piece, and stopped and noticed and did something about it,” DeGraff said. The other type of opportunity, DeGraff said, is dumb criminals in over their heads.
The bike is useless without the specialized key to start it, and the parts are so unique that chopping the bike and flipping the parts would be very tough.
“I don't understand people who steal. It drives me nuts,” the Chopper’s owner, Luke Bradburn, said.
Bradburn said he was about to sell the bike to help pay for care for his mother and father, who are in failing health. He said he hopes someone has surveillance video from the neighborhood to help Phoenix police crack the case.
