This is where the day takes a turn...
We were having a good time laughing and joking as we approached the bike. Devin stopped for a second, noticing something was off, and then realized that someone had stolen our saddle bags.
Now you see them:
Let's make this short. We called the police but had to go down to their office to file a report. We called our parents. We called our insurance agent. We went to the concierge who got us with hotel security and a list of the nearest pawn shops. In a nutshell, we filed a report with the hotel with a very young but nice guy detailing every last little bit of the contents and the details (the bike was on its own from 8pm-11am). We then headed to the police station, filed another report, and after 3 or so hours had done all we could do. It's classified as burglary because the value is around $3,000 (the bags are $1500 to replace).
Here's where it stands: We can call the hotel in 7-10 business days to see if they know anything. The police will contact us if they find anything out. Pawn shops are required to hold all items 30 days and must check all pawned items with the database of stolen items (if they do is another story). Likewise all the detectives have access to the 'pawn database'. Reality: we will probably never see our stuff again but we are checking ebay & craigslist in hope.
What was in them: Our leather jackets, leather chaps, gloves, digital cameras, fuel injector tuner, rain suits...all our wet and cold weather gear and all our other most valuables. My computer was with us in the room. We genuinely thought the bags were the safest place on the bike. They bolt directly to the bike and have a key lock unique only to our bike. The stuff in the front part of the bike (that cannot be locked), which included a knife and mp3 player weren't even touched. Our trunk, which we have the wrong key for so doesn't lock, also untouched. The camp chairs which were unsecured, still there. We parked in a well-lit area in between two cameras. We cable locked the trailer to the bike in addition to locking the hitch. We had done that the night before so we could just on out (good thing too, I'll tell you why later). These guys were pros for sure. We have no idea how they got them off. No petty thief would A) understand the value of such an item and B) not take the other available items.
After all the reports we felt a little defeated. This trip had gone so well...we hadn't lost so much as a bungee cord or hair tie. We knew the risks of Vegas and thought we had taken the necessary precautions. The PD is right next to the famous Vegas sign and, well, when in Rome...
We skipped lunch at the buffet. We couldn't trust parking our stuff anywhere at this point and we just wanted to get outta there. We went down the road a bit and stopped at a gas station (where the pump leaked gas ALL over the tank). There was an Iron Skillet inside and the hostess was super nice, giving us the cheaper option for our salads. We just sat for a while. Both in anger, disbelief, a little sad.
We kept going in the HEAT before Devin realized that a piece by the odometer was out of place. The plastic housing was 'amiss' and we think that they had intentions of stealing the entire bike and moved that piece to get to the lock to unlock the handle bars and steal the bike. The handle bars will lock at an angle, and because they were angled you wouldn't be able to move it without moving the handlebars. Later looking found a rubber mounting on the pipes had also been moved (there is no way that it could have slipped...he had to hold the pipe a certain way to put it back in its spot). This all fit with other evidence...when we were packing up the padlock on the trailer cable-lock was unlocked. I was certain he had locked it solid but we shrugged it off thinking maybe it hadn't been locked all the way or it came undone (a cheap lock). We now think that they were working to remove the trailer and unlock the bike to steal the entire thing when maybe they were spooked.
Let's be clear. We are LUCKY. We are SUPER LUCKY. They took something replaceable. We could have lost much, much more. The whole bike could have been gone. Something else could have happened like an accident or a mugging. If this is our one sour grape this trip then we will gladly take it. We're still bummed, but we can joke about it now and move on. We'll deal with it when we get home and we'll move on. There are certainly worse things.
We got to our campsite around 9pm. I had called to ensure we had a level site and we did, right near the bathrooms too. We set up a quick camp, took showers, and went to bed.
Today we traveled 290.2 miles for a total of 8300.2 miles across America.
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