Motorcyclist turns private detective after seeing his bike on Facebook.
Kelston Chorley (47) was forced to conduct his own investigation because police had closed his case. They showed no interest in recovering the vehicle.
He was angry when his AJP PR7 bicycle was taken from his garage.
The thieves flew it out of country and left the body on the streets in Bucharest, 1,700 miles away from Oxford.
Kelston saw it on social media and immediately booked a flight to get it back.
With the assistance of the Romanian police, he was reunited with his bike and now is working to get it back home.
Kelston later stated that the Romanian police were likened to the British in 1970.
He stated that he spoke with the police and they were not interested. I also spoke to my insurer and they aren’t interested.
Kelston Chorley (47) had his motorbike taken from him in Oxford’s garage by thieves
It was for sale in Romania, 1,700 miles from where he found it and enlisted the local police force
The bike was found by him and is now on its way to his house and the owner.
“So basically, people can just take bikes and send them to Eastern Europe. And no one will bother to make any effort to stop it.
‘When I arrived at the principal Romanian police station, they advised me that they would not be able to deal with it unless they had local police stations.
“It’s almost like that the UK was back in the 70’s. There was a DJ and someone who knew the music.
“So I went to the local police station, looked on the web for where it was and they told me they could fix it. They did it in 24 hours.”
Although the bike is still in Romania, it’s now stored in storage. Kelston used to use it previously for crossing the Atacama Desert.
Although it was taken in July 2013, Kelston documented the journey to Romania to recover it last month on YouTube. The video has more than 250,000 views.
He continued, “I miss the times when Britain was that way. That is why I asked who cares?” The bike is stolen and the insurance paid for, then the bike’s owner buys another bike. This keeps the bike running.
“Nobody cares. The system was designed to handle it.” Some people consider their motorbike to be an extremely precious possession.
Kelston Chorley, motorbiker, at Oxford on a bike similar to that stolen from him
Kelston was on a mission: to identify the person responsible. Within 24 hours, he boarded a plane to Bucharest.
He finally managed to reach Matca, a tiny town where the station is located. This was the place he thought the bike might be.
Kelston was shocked to discover that in less than one day, the Romanian police located the motorbike and returned it.
Kelston stated that he could not have asked for better police officers. Because they knew I was a long way from home, they went above and beyond to assist me.
After coming back to the station, you need to think about what your Romanian friends would do if they saw me at Oxford Police Station.
“What if you turned the entire world on its head? How would they respond?” They wouldn’t have been so helpful, I think.
Kelston is a former osteopath who was a keen cyclist and said that it surprised him to find the bike, let alone get it back.
He stated that he expected the journey to be exciting, but it wouldn’t always end in a happy way. This is what I did not expect.
“I imagined I’d find it. I didn’t realize how small the area would be. They’d either try to locate the person but would fail, or pull an advert from the web site.
“Once they figured out the identity of the person who owned the bike, they simply went there to find it’.”
Kelston stated that he had even met the guy who owned the bike. He said it was “really strange”.
He continued, “We shook hands. He stated that he wanted to sell the bike to me. I told him, “Well that’s unlikely to be the case.”
“He was open-minded, chatty, and honest. He was not charged by police, I don’t know. The arrangement seemed to be, bring your bike and let’s call it quits.
“He was surprised to be caught out. I must say, he wasn’t expecting it.
Kelston will now need to arrange for the bicycle to be returned to the UK.
Kelston claims that the most important lesson he’s learned from his extraordinary experiences is that it is very hard to recover a stolen vehicle.
“It is a complicated process. That is the problem. The bottom line I don’t know.
It is difficult to recover a vehicle stolen from you.
“When I asked the insurers about it, the answer was that they did not know how to handle it since it isn’t something they usually come across.
“People do not usually chase their cars after they are stolen and then find them.”
Thames Valley Police has been reached out for comment.