Zoe turns detective to recover stolen pink motorcycle
Care worker Zoe Hodgson leads a busy life visiting clients in and around Stamford on her pink and silver motorcycle.
But thieves stole the bike from outside her home in Essex Road, and took it to wasteland and wrecked it.
And when Zoe, 28, reported the theft to the police, it was the beginning of a bureaucratic nightmare.
"I first rang the police as soon as I realised the bike had been stolen," Zoe said, "and within half an hour, a woman police constable called at my house.
"I told her that, because it was such a distinctive machine, the thieves would not be riding it around but would probably have taken it to the old quarry land off Casterton Road to drive on it.
"The next day, I went to the quarry with my dogs and found the bike . . . it was burned out."
She said she rang the police straight away to say she had found the bike, and was told officers would ring back.
"When they called back, they told me they had consulted a colleague and it was not their problem," she said.
"They said I would have to speak to my insurance company to see if they wanted it removed.
"I recovered my own bike and took it to a garage."
She later found a note through her door asking her to contact a police officer.
He was off duty when she called, but later turned up at her house to take a full statement about the theft.
"But he didn't seem to know that the bike had been recovered," she said.
Now Zoe has bought a replacement bike and had it re-sprayed her distinctive pink, and is ready to return to the roads to serve her clients.
A police source said that the officer allocated to respond to Zoe's call about the quarry had been re-allocated to an inquiry about a missing person.
A police spokesman said: "There has clearly been a breakdown of communication which is far from ideal, but unfortunately, occasionally we have to re-purpose resources when we are dealing with a potentially serious incident like a missing person. This incident is still open. We are still investigating it and we hope the owner of the bike is still prepared to engage with us."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Stamford
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: North west
