Hey, there! Log in / Register
Police seize more scooters, this time in Dorchester
By adamg on Fri, 05/29/2015 - 9:55pm
Photo by BPD.
Boston Police report seizing several scooters and dirt bikes at 52 Stonehurst St. in Dorchester this morning.
Police credited a resident with dropping a dime:
Officers have received numerous complaints about large groups of motorcycles, dirt bikes and scooters being operated recklessly in the area. With the assistance of the Boston Fire Department, Code Enforcement officers and members of the Boston Police Auto Theft Unit, officers were able to remove and secure several dirt bikes and scooters in addition to several motor components from the property.
Earlier:
Crackdown started at Mission Main.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Illegal dirt bike shop
I guess this is the new illegal auto body shop.
Good
Someone rode by me on a scooter, on the sidewalk, near SouthBay last week. Reckless indeed.
How?
Pardon my ignorance, but how do they justify seizing them? Don't get me wrong, I hate the reckless dirt-bikers as much as anyone, but this looks like they weren't taken as a direct result of their behavior. Are these just illegal to own?
According to a previous article.
Perhaps it meets a similar criteria to...
http://www.universalhub.com/2015/cops-call-jakes-help-seize-dirtbikes-mi...
"All were not street legal, and all were parked within ten feet of a dwelling, and both are seizable offenses, police say."
Some of these are street legal bikes
However, the large number and variety of them, and all the parts/taking things apart, indicate that an illegal vehicle business was located here.
And/or a chop shop.
The issue I take with that
is that, from a practical perspective, scooters and small motorcycles need to be chained to something at all times when parked. Otherwise, they will be stolen.
My motorcycle-license having husband drove a (registered, plated) Vespa in Boston for 8 years or so. He had one stolen because a neighborhood patrol cop started harassing him about where he'd had it chained up; without the chain, it was stolen a few days later. He dealt with cut ignitions, damaged kickstarters, smashed floorboards, destroyed fenders, several stolen covers, and a stolen license plate, all because other people could not keep their hands off his property. At one point he was chaining it with an alarmed chain that cost several hundred dollars itself.
You can't park a Vespa in a motorcycle parking spot in Boston, for example, because unchained, it will be vandalized or stolen. And the police actively go around making it harder for people to secure their property (scooters cost up to $7,000) by harassing people when they chain them up.
That said, I'd bet that most of the scooters seized in this raid were stolen to begin with, or were used in crimes.
Yes, its a real shame
The last motorcycle I bought was a 1993 Honda CBR 900rr. It was the first model year for a new, light weight, racing inspired street bike. Bodywork was attached with DZUS fasteners which are designed for quick removal and reattachment of panels for doing work on the bike (like at the race track). Well ... that might be fine in Japan where people are much more honest, but in the USA where young guys are always scraping up sport bikes and need a constant supply of replacement parts, these fasteners made theft all too easy. I was pretty lucky to have owned my bike when they were rare and mostly had it garaged at work or home. Boy racer types were more into 600s, 750s, and Suzuki's, so those parts had more demad. Honda quickly abandoned use of DZUS fasteners in subsequent model years.
Video from the tunnel this week
of a large group doing wheelies etc. and will be used to identify individual bikes.
Its legal to own them and ride them off-road, usually on private property where allowed by the owner and local bylaws. Not so much of that in Dorchester. If they have license plates or scooters have RMV stickers then they could be legal. Not so many of them, however. Probably not a trailer on site for taking them up to the woods of New Hampshire to ride either.
Yes they are illegal.
Yes they are illegal. Especially if stollen...
Yes, illegal
It is illegal to ride dirt bikes and ATVs on city streets. They are not registered as motor vehicles and can only be ridden off road or on private property. They must also be properly stored under the fire code. You could make an argument that the police did not see these being ridden on the street, but the neighbors who reported them saw that. So it's perfectly legal for the police to have seized these until their owners come and claim them. Something tells me they won't be claimed though.
Not just bikes
Looked like some high performance engine/gearbox units packed up to be hauled off by BPD. Lots of tow trucks lined up.
No bikes allowed
I saw one of these dirt bike dirtbags riding a scooter around Castle Island. The DCR needs to add scooters and dirt bikes to their "No Bicycles" signs. And maybe the Staties could go out there more than the current once or twice a day.
I worked with a teen who was
I worked with a teen who was getting into trouble, partly for scooter riding in Dot whose PO said that he'd be in no trouble at all if he lived in NH. Several non-profits take teens to hike in the mountains--can some org or adult group take some kids to NH? Some of them could win races up there!
Can be done legitimately, too
We looked into this for our kids (who still prefer their human-powered bikes). You can get a license for a motorcycle (or scooter/moped) at 16.5, with parental permission, and properly register the vehicle.
It isn't exactly true that the kid would be in no trouble at all in NH - it would still depend on what type of bike they were riding and where they were riding it. You can't ride a non-street legal bike on a road in NH. You can only ride them on off-road trails that are open to motorized vehicles (think snowmobile trail minus snow). My niece has a camp in Pittsburgh, NH, and that's what they do in the summer.
About time.
Every afternoon until recently I have seen gangs of underage drivers on unlicensed (operative word) motorbikes doing wheelies on Dot Ave between Columbia Rd and Andrew Sq.. They are using the street as a playground. They come from and exit to the McCormack housing projects. So how come these 'disadvantaged' kids have the time and money for this? Drug trafficking? Who knows...but they certainly aren't working after school at a supermarket or a Dunkin Donuts.