A vintage Harley Davidson motorcycle that was stolen in Minnesota 28 years ago was recovered earlier this month in Joshua Tree. Managing editor Tami Roleff says the owner couldn’t believe it when the California Highway Patrol called to tell him it had been recovered…
Noble Handley thought his 1934 Harley-Davidson motorcycle was gone forever after it was stolen out of his garage in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1985. “I reported it to the police and his words to me were I’d probably never see it again. So I just held out hope for a long time.” So he was a little surprised when he received a call Monday from CHP Officer Jake Griffith called him to tell him it had been recovered in Joshua Tree earlier this month. “I wasn’t sure if it was a prank, at first. I asked for a picture and the picture they sent me was in front of a CHP car.” When an unidentified 66-year-old Joshua Tree resident brought it to the CHP station October 1 for an inspection to get it registered, it came up in the nationwide database as stolen. The CHP stressed that the Joshua Tree man was not a suspect in the burglary; he is a former Minnesota resident who had gotten the bike in trade in 1985 for helping another man move, and had kept it all these years. Handley is having the bike shipped to his current home in Clark, Wyoming, but he’s not sure what he’ll do with it when it arrives. “I’ll have to see it, see what kind of condition it’s in, the practicality of it, make some judgments. It’s always money.” And Handley’s hope was finally rewarded.
